I Was Wrong about the Average American

In which John falls way down the rabbit hole trying to learn what the average American's life is like--from income to taxation to political ideology to opinion on Taylor Swift.
p.s. MASSIVE THANKS to Sheridan Gibson for teaching me how to color correct!
SOURCES:

Pew and Gallup provided all the political, religious, and other identity stuff:

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[hankschannel]

I am very surprised by how little Jessica drinks and also by the fact that she drives a pickup truck!!

[Jessica]

Did not have John making a video about me on my 2024 bingo card. But here we are…

[amystubby]

You just described my 39 year old cousin Jessica, a nurse, almost exactly. Creepy.

[aurolynluykx]

My first thought was "how the hell is a woman with just an AA working 34 hours and week and making $74K a year?" Is she a plumber? But then I realized it was HOUSEHOLD income, so that probably represents the incomes of two working adults. :-/

[zyrain]

I know Jessica. She commutes into Madison, WI, has two kids and drives a Ford pick up. She’s an administrative assistant.

[emilycarr]

I would love to see a similar video about the median nerdfighter based on census results

[megjournals]

out: writing is John’s passion
in: graphic design is John’s passion

[Chris_winthers]

Can't believe the median American isn't normal, unlike me, who never sneezes

[jessicathompson]

It's me JESSICA! This was about 80% accurate for me.

[meliastamps]

"Few, if any, people are actually that much like Jessica" okay but I am nearly identical to Jessica in enough ways that I'm having a crises.

[HeyManDinosaursRule-lcqt]

I'm glad that Jessica adopted those two three -legged dogs from the shelter, they didn't want to be separated.

[pieceful_puzzling]

I am a Jessica born in 1989 and outside of the year born and the amount of books read this is so accurate to me, it was eery 🤣 Especially that whole "Drinks coffee more than tap water" thing. Oof.

I'm "pretty happy" being average 😅

[Kirby.Burgess]

“Jessica does, in fact, sneeze.” Laid me out.

[kelliatlarge]

I am more educated than Jessica. I work more hours per week than Jessica. I make less money than Jessica.

[levipierpont]

Saw this video pop up in my feed and I just have to tell you that Aaron Bushnell was my closest friend from basic training, and we loved talking about you guys, he (and I) especially appreciated The Anthropocene Reviewed. I just wanted you both to know that you were a part of his experience on this earth.

[sonnetlockheardt]

Jessica has given me a crisis about my instagram vs outside time i hope me and Jessica can both rectify this issue

[jeanneschriel]

I don't have references, but after a census, Australia tried to find someone who was their "average" person. There wasn't a single person in the whole country who was average in every area they were looking at.

[birdwatching_u_back]

This being a John Green video, I half expected the thesis to be something akin to “but really there is no average American, because the average American is all of us and none of us, and we are all equally a part of this great big variegated story called Life” or something

[johnchessant]

about 2 in 5 Americans would not be able to meet a $400 emergency expense with cash or cash-equivalent (i.e. they would need to borrow, sell possessions, etc.). as someone who grew up like that but is now thankfully in the other 60%, this stat really grounds my perspective as to just how precarious a lot of people's financial situations are

[thomasdalton]

If you are interested in the Median American, you may also be interested in the Modal American (for those forgetting high school statistics, the mode is the most common value in a dataset). Planet Money, an NPR podcast, did an episode in 2019 all about the Modal American. It was titled, imaginatively, "The Modal American" and I highly recommend it.