Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
You are wrong on that. Hell, you even used India as an example.
So there is your first country to prove that wrong.
In the United States we have the majority of people living very comfortably in the "middle" of your two extremes.
You need to test your "no other country in this world" theory. Go down to Mexico. Go to Jamaica. Go to Peru. I've spent a bit of time at those three countries. And they totally prove your statement wrong.
I've never been to Asia...but from what I have seen and read, the nations there also prove that there are LOTS of countries with no middle class at all.
I think your statement is way over-exaggerating things and totally ignoring the FACT that a person in the U.S.A. who lives at "poverty level" would be considered "rich" in many nations.
In most places in the world a person in "poverty" doesn't own a car, a cellphone, and have cable t.v. in their apartment.
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BINGO!
As a matter of fact, the poorest people in the US on average are still living in the top 32% of the planet. That remark about Kolkata can ONLY come from someone who has NEVER been to Kolkata
Then, when you look at this one:
" Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That?s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America?s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world?s inhabitants.
Now check out the line for India. India?s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that?s right: America?s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India?s richest.
All of which should be something of a reality check for those who insist that America?s poor are being forgotten, left behind and all the rest.
Even if you?re stuck in the bottom 5% of the US income distribution your standard of living is about equal to that of the top 5% of Indians. Even if you?re in the bottom 10% your standard of living is about the same as that of the bottom 10% in other rich countries (which, so we are told, care so much more and do so much more) like Sweden and Finland. And when we sweep everything together into some sort of quality of life measure the American poor are better off than the French or German poor.
Maybe it?s true that the US doesn?t do enough for the poor in the US. That?s rather a judgement call based upon your own morals. But it?s very difficult to see in the actual figures that the US doesn?t do enough. The poor in the US are richer than around 70% of all the people extant. The poor in the US are about as poor, perhaps a bit richer, than the poor in other rich countries. It is true that there is more inequality in the US: but this isn?t because the poor are poorer. It?s because the rich are richer."
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