The US, Europe, statistics, and fraud

The United States Is Doing Better Than Europe on Poverty: An Economics Rorschach Test | Coyote Blog

In almost every case, the US has the best, and frequently the only meaningful data, and statistical information in the world. The European nations, suffer from many data problems, and all of them seem to stem from a need to be seen as excellent, while suffering with uncooperative data. So, whether the data concerns medical conditions like cancer, infant mortality, or poverty, the data coming out of the European nations must nearly always be interpreted as it seldom is complete, or accurate. 

Examples of this include that most European nations deflate their infant mortality rates by simply defining births of less than a specific weight, or gestational period as something akin to miscarriages, and not births, regardless of whether the child was born alive or not. This obviously makes any nation, like the US, which reports accurate data appear worse. But the truth is these European nations have their thumb on the scale.

The same thing applies to poverty calculations, which Warren points out so well in the above post. The European nations seek to deflate their poverty numbers by creating a calculation which is highly likely to deflate their numbers while inflating the US numbers. This seems to be the primary game in these statistical calculations, give the US a black eye. But a careful look at the data Warren provides shows that the black eye, while deserved, is not deserved by the US, but by the European nations. 

Please go read the article, it is short and well worth your while. 

The data comparatives are well done, and meaningful.

Initially, look at the very low end, only Canada, Austria, and Norway beat the US at the 10% income level, and then only by a fairly small margin. The US has a much steeper curve and so by the 20% income level only Canada remains competitive with the US, thereafter, the US Pulls away from the pack. It is obvious from the chart that the Canadian and US economies are closely linked, and this is why Canada does so well against the other nations. It seems unlikely, that the US poor would choose to live in another of these nations (exception being perhaps Canada) due to the low disposable income levels after the 25% income level, and the fact that the poor in most of these nations do even more poorly than in the US. 

Notice in the chart that if you compare the US 50% income level with Denmark, you find that it is equal to the 90-95% income level (Disposable Household Income (Dollars, PPP). Effectively the average family in the US has the disposable income of the top 95% level Dane. Where would you rather live?

Also note that two nations commonly held out as paeans of high GDP, Switzerland, and Norway, perform quite badly on this chart with the 95% income level for both falling at about the 75% level of the US. Meaning the wealthy in those nations have the disposable income level of the middle to upper middle class American. Again, where would you rather live?

I have written before about how surprised I am every time I travel to Europe with the low standard of living in the middle and upper middle classes. It is only the upper class and the uber wealthy who have large amounts of disposable income, or even American upper middle class levels of income. 

The OEDC chart is part and parcel of the European nations attempting to disguise just how far they are behind the US economically. This is the primary driver behind the European nations desire to ensnare the US with global warming foolishness. This is one of the only ways the European nations will have to slow US economic growth. Baring success in this area, the US will continue to grow far faster than the European nations, and within a decade or two the differences will become shocking. 

The real key for the next President is to reduce the Obama regulatory strictures, and free the economy to return to full on active growth. Only by doing so will we be able to create the dynamic growth necessary to begin pulling the world, and Europe out of its current mired state. 

And it is only a growing economy which will help continue to move the poor from poverty into wealth.