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19.9% of US children live in poverty
- spikels 12y agoStiglitz has a political agenda so his definition of poverty is not what you might think (i.e. lack of food or shelter) but "relative poverty" - defined as income below 50% of median adjusted for family size (which are larger for poor families). It would be nice if he mentioned this... Edit: Also this is based on (pre-tax?) income before transfers such as subsidized food, housing and healthcare which distorts comparisons (i.e. in the US, unlike almost every rich countries, only the poor get free or subsidized healthcare).
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoIsn't the whole world dealing with poverty with fair success? We'll have to redefine lots of terms I guess. Being poor is 'having less than average'. Being liberal is 'valuing civil liberties'. Being ignorant is 'having less than a BS'.
- dizzy 12y agoThat isn't true. The data comes from the US Census Bureau. If you look at the report he linked, appendix B goes in to details. The overall poverty rate given is approx 15%.
- spikels 12y agoWas referring to the methodology in the UNICEF report Stiglitz linked[1]. While not a relative poverty measure the regular Census methodology you refer to has all the other weaknesses I mentioned but the biggest is it is based on a rather arbitrary level established in the 1960s then updated based on broad inflation. Not clear how relevant these thresholds are today - may be worse or better. BTW - Census also has a relative poverty measure, known as the "supplemental poverty measure". [1] http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc10_eng.pdf http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc10_eng.pdf