sc94597 said:
If anything, that shows income inequality, not destitute (poverty.) For the first graph they present, the national median (and ones distance from it) depends on the country's relative income brackets. This means that the median income in, say Estonia, could be well below the median incom of say the United Kingdom, and fewer individuals fall less than the median income in Estonia because it is more equal, yet more poor people could exist (as a proportion) in Estonia than the United Kingdom. As for the graph you posted, the same holds true. The relative poverty line in the U.S is much higher than many of those other countries, again a measurement of income inequality and not absolute poverty (destitute.) For example, from your article, the U.S' poverty line is the average disposable income of Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, and Czech Republic. Higher than Estonia, Portugal and Slovakia's average income. Internally, the United States defines the poverty line as a family living on less than about $22,000 per year, which includes about 15 percent of Americans From the article you linked, The poor U.S. showing in this data may reflect growing income inequality. According to one metric of inequality, a statistical measurement called the gini coefficient, the U.S. economy is one of the most unequal in the developed world. This would explain why the United States, on child poverty, is ranked between Bulgaria and Romania, though Americans are on average six times richer than Bulgarians and Romanians.
Also note, that your article doesn't include welfare spending and benefits, which in the U.S while are less common in middle classe percentiles, can add up quite a lot to the bottom percentiles that get them. |
That was kind of my point. You can present the data to show almost anything you want. Most countries are too different to make direct comparisons. Different neccesities and services have vastly different prices with huge differences in social welfare.
Living off $22k a year in the US with kids can be quite a challenge, In Bulgaria you're might be well off with that.
Anyway income equality is still rising. As long as the bottom is benefitting too that's not too big of a problem, yet it seems the middle class is getting a harder time instead. Top and bottem 10% is one measurement, how is the rest of the distribution.
