It's not deceiving, it's quite clear what it represents. Who isn't aware these days that the US is an unbalanced society in terms of wealth? I think even the typical person commenting on eg Reddit knows that story by now (which is why you'll find that - the gap between median and mean - pointed out in every single relevant thread on sites like that).

Who isn't aware? Wrong question. It's understabding how *greatly* that imbalance skews average. Most people don't know cause from correlation. They certainly don't know one billion is one thousand million. It's not safe to assume that everyome on Reddit or HN are well aware of the subtleties.

Note: The discussion was on savings. Abstracting that from individual wealth adds cognitive load.