Haha I like that comment about how everybody is bashing the use of median income while offering a more arbitrary and harder to measure metric instead. Somebody correct me... but wouldn't that be a pretty good metric if it's pre-tax, since that would be without healthcare costs on both sides anyways? I would think that using anything but pre-tax "revenue" (median income for individuals) you would have to argue why one cost (healthcare) should be considered but other costs (shelter, food, autos, education) shouldn't. So I guess you would want to carry it through to one of the logical ends, but to use disposable income you would have to then be able to compare quality of life on a quantitative basis, which rules that one out too (in my opinion).