“Goochland County is infused with green: Green leaves, green grass… and lots and lots of green cash.”

With that line we reported last April that Goochland taxpayers had the highest average income of any county in the United States, according to a survey by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

At $137,045, average adjusted gross income here was higher than in Teton County, Wyo., Falls Church City Va., and Marin County in California.

But averaging adjusted gross incomes can present a skewed picture of how wealth in a county is distributed, since a small number of extremely wealthy individuals can push the average up.

This year Forbes Magazine has created its own list of the country’s richest counties, based on median incomes instead of average incomes.

And, at number 16, Goochland County still ranks high.

So what is the difference between an average income and a median income?

Let’s say you have incomes totaling $7,210,000: $25,000, $35,000, $150,000, $2,000,000 and $5,000,000.

The average income, reached by adding sample incomes and dividing by five, would be $1,442,000.

The median income, reached by listing income that is the exact middle of all samples: $150,000.

Goochland’s median household income, according to Forbes, is $88,552.

So while not everyone in Goochland is a millionaire, most of us, according to two disparate methods of gauging fiscal worth, are doing ok.

However those at the bottom of the median income list—the person in the above example who is making $25,000—are struggling more than those at the top.

At last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, during a presentation by the Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services, those in the audience were shown photographs of projects in our community designed to help families who were in need of amenities as basic as running water.

It would be disingenuous to say that Goochland isn’t doing better than most other counties; there is clear evidence to the contrary.

And it would be wrong to say that there are not still people here living in severe poverty.

So what can we do to help?

Several citizens in our county have been saying that they are adamantly against raising taxes for services such as education and public safety. These same people frequently also say that private interests are more effective at solving problems than are government agencies.

So I welcome and invite all of us in Goochland to volunteer with the Free Clinic and Family Services, to offer our combined resources for the greater good of our community.