Re: Food Checkout Week

In article <fodl51$kk1$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
><rkshullat@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> They're just taking total food expenditures for the year, at-home
>> and away, and dividing by total disposable personal income.  It's
>> a meaningless number.
>
>Why is that meaningless?

Suppose Bill Gates's income rose to the point where it doubled the
total income, while everyone else's remained the same.  That ratio
would change by a factor of 2, while the effect on everybody else
would be nil.

Averaging the ratios makes more sense; if Bill Gates's time goes from
2 seconds to 1 second, that has no observable effect on the average.

Seth