Cross posted at Faithfully Liberal.
In a UNICEF study(pdf) Child poverty in perspective, that I mentioned a few days ago from the Intrepid Liberal it seems that when we compare ourselves to other rich countries, the United States does not fair well.
The first evaulation in the study was conducted on 21 countries through six categories of assessment. On average the United States scored an 18, which was good enough for 20th out of the 21 countries. Only Great Britian finished below us.
Ranking for each category for the U.S. Material Well-being - 17 Health and safety - 21 (dead last) Educational well-being - 12 Family and peer relationships - 20 Behaviours and risks - 20 Subjective well-being - N/A
Main findings
- The lowest rates of relative income poverty (under 5%) have been achieved in the four Nordic countries.
- A total of nine countries – all in northern Europe – have brought child poverty rates below 10%.
- Child poverty remains above the 15% mark in the three Southern European countries (Portugal, Spain,
Italy) and in three anglophone countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland).
- The Czech Republic ranks above several of the world’s wealthiest countries including Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
These findings are startling to say the least, but shocking? I guess not. One of our problems in realizing without the international studies is the way we define poverty.
The European Union offered its definition of poverty in 1984: "the poor are those whose resources material, cultural, and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member States in which they live". For practical and statistical purposes, this has usually meant drawing national poverty lines at a certain percentage of national median income.
In the United States a single person is in poverty if they earn $9,570 or less per year. For a family of four it is $19,350. Can you imagine trying live by yourself, without assistance, on $9,570. The question is not if it is possible, the question is simply, is it right? Now try to envision a family of four, either a single parent with three kids or two parents and two kids trying to make ends meet with under $20,000 in an annual income. It is no wonder that roughly 35 million people including 12 million children live in homes that experience hunger or the risks of it.
If we were to change our poverty levels to represent households that sit at the same benchmark as Europe, the United States would have to reevaluate our statistics to say something entirely different. Accordingly, households making $24,000 or less would be in poverty. So take a look at the study(pdf), then reevaluate your own thinking, then act... there are plenty of causes to be passionate about.
