There is a pretty clear link between amount of social spending and poverty: http://www.epi.org/publication/ib339-us-poverty-higher-safety-net-weaker/ http://www

There is a pretty clear link between amount of social spending and poverty: http://www.epi.org/publication/ib339-us-poverty-higher-safety-net-weaker/ http://www.epi.org/publication/ib339-us-poverty-higher-safet... I'm not sure what graph you are looking at, according to Chart CO2.2.A there are only five countries with higher child poverty rates: Chile, Turkey, Romania, Mexico and Israel. This is their methodology for determining social spending: http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/SOCXAnnex-DescriptionProjections.pdf http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/SOCXAnnex-DescriptionProjections...