Math fail

[lederhosen]

Can't see the original to figure out whether this is the fault of News or BBC, but...

In the latest issue of BBC Focus magazine, British researchers number-crunched the global differences in the seven deadly sins... Greed was determined by the percentage of the population with annual earnings less than 50 per cent of the median value

*le sigh*

Comments

[quatranoctal.livejournal.com]

Not so much a math fail than a definition fail. Why would people who earn less than half the median annual earnings necessarily be greedy? I'd use something like average personal debt.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

It seems really arbitrary, but I'm not sure why it's head-to-desk awful. Is there some obvious measure they should have used instead?

Edit: Oh, the gini coefficient. Duh.