The general public.

How general is a public, generally, so to speak? No matter how you do statistics there's always someone who doesn't fit in. And even if you concider yourself kind of average there's always some kind of number telling you that you aren't.

In general, to get a more complete picture of something you need to look at more factors and take them into concideration, but when it comes to being general and common it just marginalizes more people. A tad ironic.

A general example; these things are concidered a pretty average thing a job, a partner, a car, a house, a tv, a child, a pet. Nothing extraordinary there. If you look at them individually, at a certain age a majority tend to have them, but if you add them up together the differential increases. If you start with the first, job, let's say 90% have one (keep in mind, I really don't know the numbers, I'm just making them up as I go along to prove some kind of point). That exludes 10% of the population. Then the second factor, a partner let's say 70% of the people with a job have a partner, then it excludes 30% of the remaining 80% leaving 56% of the general public (of course in this example I'm using adults, at a working age, right there I'm exluding big parts, the retired, the young and the sick). Third factor, a car. Depending on where you live, hm, maybe 75% have a car, so yet again 25% are excluded, leaving 40.5% of the initial group. Already below average. Then for the forth, a house, it's not the luxury of everyone to have a house, so let's say 50%, that leaves 22.5% of the group we started with. Then, the fifth, children, hm, let's take a high number, I think my point is still coming across, so 90%! Then it's 20.6% still clinging to the common. And for the sixth, tv, it's safe to say at least 99% have that, even if they have it on their computer, leaving pretty evenly 20%. And my favorite, a pet, number seven, I know that at least in Sweden about 80% of households have a pet, so I'll go with that, leaving us with a total score of 16%. Pardon my math and numbers at times pulled out of the air, it's just an example, not actual science...

In general, what I'm trying to say here is that that no matter how common factors are and how common a population seems, it's not as homogen as that. Not at all, only a rather small percentage fits into the mould. So being common is nothing other than being an outsider. The rebels aren't rebels, and the white picket fence is nothing but a symbol, like a fairy tale.

So generally, when people like to call upon the general public to support an argument, maybe what they really mean is that they don't have any facts other than their own feelings and thoughts to back it up.