The Poor in the US Are Richer than the Middle Class in Much of Europe – IOTW Report

The Poor in the US Are Richer than the Middle Class in Much of Europe

obamaphone lady

Mises Institute:

…Bernie Sanders claimed that the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty. CBS reports that Sanders said: “We should not be the country that has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country and more wealth and income inequality than any other country,”

As even CBS notes, according to UNICEF, which is probably the source of Sanders’s factoid, the US has lower childhood poverty rates than Greece, Spain, Mexico, Latvia, and Israel, all of which are OECD countries or regarded as peer countries. The US rate (32.2 percent) is also more or less equal to the rate in Turkey, Romania, Lithuania, and Iceland. See page 8 of this report.
So, while Sanders probably doesn’t even know what he means by “major country” it’s clear that the US is not an outlier among OECD-type countries, even by UNICEF’s own analysis.

We get much more insight, though, once we have a look at what UNICEF means by “poverty rate.” In this case, UNICEF (and many other organizations) measure the poverty rate as a percentage of the national median household income. UNICEF uses 60% of median as the cut off. So, if you’re in Portugal, and your household earns under 60% of the median income in Portugal, you are poor. If you are in the US and you earn under 60% of theUS median income, then you are also poor.

more

12 Comments on The Poor in the US Are Richer than the Middle Class in Much of Europe

  1. According to a list of welfare payments posted on a site (someone here posted it, but I don’t remember who), I make $10,000 LESS per year than the average government leach in Minnesota.

    Depressing.

  2. Always keep in mind that the “poverty” line is an arbitrary number dreamed up by collectivist bureaucrats. Also keep in mind that here in the U.S. “poor” people generally have places to live, cars, phones, flat screen TVs, game consoles, and about 100 extra pounds of fat courtesy of overburdened taxpayers.

  3. Here’s the thing. Communism, like feudalism, benefits only those at the top. So yapping about equality is insincere at best, more likely a calculated fraud.
    This Country was built upon a strong foundation, by men with considerably more vision than this recent crop commie scam artists.
    Will they be satisfied if we are reduced to the standard of living in say, Cuba? Or will it require a further reduction to that of Somalia?

    Eggheads like Bernie make me sick.

    P.S. Take a look at the places under muzzie domination. There’s some equality for you.

  4. Was it Boris Yeltsin who came to America and remarked at the slums “In my country, these would be upscale homes.”?

    Or something to that effect.

    The Clinton team drove him through the slums to try to embarrass America.

  5. Keep bringing in 2-4 million third worlders every year and then claim we are not making progress on poverty. It’s like trying to pump out your flooded basement as your neighbor puts his garden hose through your window and turns it on full blast. Yep, that’ll work… makes sense to me.

    It’s called the permanent underclass. They need to keep flooding them in so they can claim we need to do more. Continue to rape the tax payers. It’s a scam they created and will.never stop. Unless Trump wins.

  6. and just how many more billions will be confiscated from the private sector to train new teachers in arabic and farsi, etc., cuz “every child” has a “right” to get a sufficient education.

Comments are closed.