Poor Reporting

We hear all the time — it’s a favorite trope of our current crop of Democratic candidates — that the United States has a shamefully high percentage of people living in poverty.

Not so fast, say the authors of a new study. Where these accusations go wrong is that they measure only paychecks, and not all of the other benefits that low-income Americans receive. A far better way to assess poverty is not income, but consumption of goods — and when you do that, America comes out looking very well indeed:

On average, a person among the poorest 20 percent of Americans consumes more goods and services than the average person in Canada, Greece, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Slovenia, Slovakia, Israel, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Chile, Hungary, Turkey, and Mexico.

(Cultural, psychological, and spiritual poverty is quite another matter, of course.)

Learn more here.

2 Comments

  1. JK says

    There is poverty and then there is poverty …

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/08/msnbcs-chris-hayes-on-electoral-college-if-it-wasnt-specifically-in-the-constitution-it-would-be-unconstitutional/

    Posted September 1, 2019 at 1:18 am | Permalink
  2. Jason says

    OT: It looks like the “Straight” parade you referenced in an earlier thread really happened, Malcolm. Milo Yiannopoulos led a procession of 200 or so who shouted out trolling slogans like “I am here to say, ‘I am straight, hear me roar! Whether you are straight and part of the oppressed majority, or here as an ally supporting us, we welcome you to the greatest parade in the history of the world!” Many more Bostonians and others counter-protested, with placards featuring lines like “love is love and straight pride is hate pride.” Some scuffling occurred against the police, with the latter in turn arresting counter-protesters and using pepper spray. The Boston mayor condemned the event, tweeting: “Let’s continue to turn our backs on hatred, using our voices to continue spreading the message of love” and (oxymoronically) “If you want to see what Boston is all about, take a look at the events happening in our City this weekend that promote our values of inclusion, love of community and acceptance of all.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also chimed in, tweeting “For men who are allegedly so “proud” of being straight, they seem to show real incompetence at attracting women to their event. Seems more like a “I-Struggle-With-Masculinity” parade to me.”

    A good time was had by all.

    Posted September 2, 2019 at 6:47 pm | Permalink

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