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How is it that the United States, a country with a gross domestic product “larger than the combined economies of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Fran
by refurb 4y ago
How is it that the United States, a country with a gross domestic product “larger than the combined economies of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Italy,” has a higher relative poverty rate than those other advanced democracies?
What does the size of the US economy have to do with the rate of relative poverty?
The fact questions like this are asked - questions that compare two unrelated measures - makes me think the analysis isn't all that rigorous.
- polygamous_bat 4y ago> What does the size of the US economy have to do with the rate of relative poverty? A larger economy roughly means that more value is created in that country. Combining that with a higher relative rate of poverty means that the extra value created is not captured in a similar proportion. How are those two unrelated metrics?
- refurb 4y agoBut it’s comparing the US economy to a bunch of smaller economies. You cant ignore population when it comes to “more value”. Then it adds India, a poor country where the poor are much worse off than in the US. Then it compares the size of the economies of that mish-mash of countries to relative poverty in the US. So what exactly am i supposed to draw from this comparison?
- Spooky23 4y agoYour observation makes the point. We’re living in a nation almost drowning in wealth, yet many among us see no issue or feel no culpability in bettering the dreadful state of our neighbors. As a society we like to cast moral failures to circumstance. It’s easy to roll your eyes at the trailer trash and ignore the reasons why those folks are where they are.
- tastyfreeze 4y agoYou are free to donate all the money you want to your neighbors.
- djrobstep 4y agoUnfortunately poor people are not free to acquire the food they need or live in shelter without being violently attacked for doing so if they fail to pay money to property owners. Poverty isn't voluntary - it's violently enforced at the point of a gun.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kilpikaarna 4y agoGood ol’ making systemic issues questions of personal morality
- Spooky23 4y agoThank you for reinforcing the point! Let them eat cake.
- ngai_aku 4y agoI see what you’re saying, but I don’t think the measures are completely unrelated. Would a per-capita adjustment drastically change the argument? Anyway, I think the point was to draw attention to just how large the pie really is before asking the principal question: > Why do many of us seem to accept that the problem is one of scarcity—that there is simply not enough to go around in our very rich country? to me, it seems like a question worth asking.
- notch898a 4y agoIt would be terrifying to find out the same reason that makes us the largest economy, also is the reason why we have so many in poverty.