5 ms·

Gun violence is responsible for nearly 2% of annual deaths in the US, I imagine that might skew the statistics slightly. But yes, US poverty is much worse than

Gun violence is responsible for nearly 2% of annual deaths in the US, I imagine that might skew the statistics slightly. But yes, US poverty is much worse than poverty in other countries. But the flip side is also true - it's generally better being rich in America than in Canada, for example.

bestouff 1y ago
Not even that, even rich people have better life expectancy elsewhere.
- rwyinuse 1y ago
  I would bet that unhealthy eating habits and car-centric city design affect rich people as well. Use of sugar and fatty processed foods appears to be out of control in America compared to your average EU country.
JPLeRouzic 1y ago
> "US poverty is much worse than poverty in other countries" You must be restricting your thinking to other Western countries, because there are a lot of areas on Earth that look like hell. At least no part of the US is in a constant state of war.
- bobxmax 1y ago
  The post you're commenting on is comparing the US to other developed countries.
  - JPLeRouzic 1y ago
    Please, show me where it compares the US to other --developed-- countries.
    - bobxmax 1y ago
      The title: "The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations"
marcusverus 1y ago
US poverty is vastly overstated. The most common measures of poverty are based on census data, but the census excludes the vast majority of redistributions from its calculation of income. It even excludes cash programs like "refundable tax credits". We spend $1.3 trillion dollars per year on medicaid, HUD, Food Stamps, and refundable "tax credits" like the earned income credit and child tax credit. That's $32,500 of spending for each of the 40 million Americans who live "in poverty" (before including state-run programs and private charities like churches and food banks), meaning our welfare spending per "poor indvidual is higher than the median income for an EU household. America's poor are doing just fine.
- bobxmax 1y ago
  Comparing spend is an odd way to look at poverty - why wouldn't you look at outcomes? I'm not sure how many pockets of, say, the Netherlands, look like Gary, Indiana.
- nicoburns 1y ago
  > That's $32,500 of spending for each of the 40 million Americans who live "in poverty" My understanding is that the amount of money spent on people in poverty isn't the problem. The problem is that it's spent so inefficiently due to an insistence from certain parts of the electorate on not making things "too easy" for such people. It would probably actually be cheaper to have european-style welfare state, provide housing for the homeless, etc. See also: the US spending many times what other countries spend on healthcare without actually getting better care.

bestouff 1y ago

Not even that, even rich people have better life expectancy elsewhere.

rwyinuse 1y ago
I would bet that unhealthy eating habits and car-centric city design affect rich people as well. Use of sugar and fatty processed foods appears to be out of control in America compared to your average EU country.

JPLeRouzic 1y ago

> "US poverty is much worse than poverty in other countries" You must be restricting your thinking to other Western countries, because there are a lot of areas on Earth that look like hell. At least no part of the US is in a constant state of war.

bobxmax 1y ago
The post you're commenting on is comparing the US to other developed countries.
- JPLeRouzic 1y ago
  Please, show me where it compares the US to other --developed-- countries.
  - bobxmax 1y ago
    The title: "The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations"

marcusverus 1y ago

US poverty is vastly overstated. The most common measures of poverty are based on census data, but the census excludes the vast majority of redistributions from its calculation of income. It even excludes cash programs like "refundable tax credits". We spend $1.3 trillion dollars per year on medicaid, HUD, Food Stamps, and refundable "tax credits" like the earned income credit and child tax credit. That's $32,500 of spending for each of the 40 million Americans who live "in poverty" (before including state-run programs and private charities like churches and food banks), meaning our welfare spending per "poor indvidual is higher than the median income for an EU household. America's poor are doing just fine.

bobxmax 1y ago
Comparing spend is an odd way to look at poverty - why wouldn't you look at outcomes? I'm not sure how many pockets of, say, the Netherlands, look like Gary, Indiana.
nicoburns 1y ago
> That's $32,500 of spending for each of the 40 million Americans who live "in poverty" My understanding is that the amount of money spent on people in poverty isn't the problem. The problem is that it's spent so inefficiently due to an insistence from certain parts of the electorate on not making things "too easy" for such people. It would probably actually be cheaper to have european-style welfare state, provide housing for the homeless, etc. See also: the US spending many times what other countries spend on healthcare without actually getting better care.