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>That is a preposterous way to compare poverty between countries. My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living. Th

>That is a preposterous way to compare poverty between countries. My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living. The idea is that the absolute differences between the countries might not mean much given differences in cost of living, so you compare relative difference inside a country. I can't defend it vigorously, but that's my guess. >Our child mortality and life expectancy are conflated with a large immigrant population and the existence of an underclass. If you equalize the results for diversity, America does just as well as the other developed countries. "Hmm, if we cut out of our statistics the points that draw it down, it will bring our average up." That seems like cooking the books. Shouldn't we include those who bear the brunt of externalities in society? Is that exactly what they are looking for here?

Turing_Machine 9y ago
> My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living. How does using national median income factor in the difference in the cost of living between states?
- noobermin 9y ago
  Point taken. While I also feel like delineating by regions in the US might be smart to some extent, the states are somewhat coupled to each other due to federal programs and such. But yeah, you're probably right about it not helping since states have widely varying cost of living. Regardless, even if you do delineate by geography, excluding populations within a population is still "lipping your bad statistics to push up your mean.
marcoperaza 9y ago
>My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living It’s a pretty bad way of doing that. Despite having a much greater GDP per capita, the US has a much lower cost of living than the major European countries. My guess is that it’s an attempt to define inequality as poverty, which smells suspiciously like a predetermined conclusion against the United States.

Turing_Machine 9y ago

> My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living. How does using national median income factor in the difference in the cost of living between states?

noobermin 9y ago
Point taken. While I also feel like delineating by regions in the US might be smart to some extent, the states are somewhat coupled to each other due to federal programs and such. But yeah, you're probably right about it not helping since states have widely varying cost of living. Regardless, even if you do delineate by geography, excluding populations within a population is still "lipping your bad statistics to push up your mean.

marcoperaza 9y ago

>My guess is it's a quick way to compare while factoring differences in the cost of living It’s a pretty bad way of doing that. Despite having a much greater GDP per capita, the US has a much lower cost of living than the major European countries. My guess is that it’s an attempt to define inequality as poverty, which smells suspiciously like a predetermined conclusion against the United States.