Economy and the poverty rates

So.

one in six americans are in poverty.

That is 16.6% of the population. Some people say it is about 20%. One in five. But those are those nasty republicans who are doing it for political purposes.

Lets see in comparison to the rest of the modern, civilized world how does said poverty rate compare.

Population below poverty line by country - Thematic Map - Europe

Country/% of population in poverty/last recorded date
Ukraine 35 2009
Macedonia 31 2010
Belarus 27 2003
Moldova 22 2010
Bulgaria 22 2008
Romania 21 2010
Slovakia 21 2002
Greece 20 2009
Spain 20 2005
Bosnia and Herzegovina 19 2007
Croatia 18 2009
Portugal 18 2006
Estonia 18 2010
Poland 17 2003
Turkey 17 2010
Germany 16 2010

So the USA, the richest country on the planet, has the same poverty rate as Germany and Turkey.

United Kingdom 14 2006
Hungary 14 2010
Denmark 13 2011
Albania 13 2008
Slovenia 12 2008
Netherlands 11 2005
Serbia 9 2010
Czech Republic 9 2010
Switzerland 7 2010
Montenegro 7 2010
France 6 2004
Austria 6 2008
Ireland 6 2009
Lithuania 4 2008

These are the countries who take better care of their population.

These are just the facts out there. You can see that Lithuania, Montenegro, Serbia and the Czech Republic, Albania and Slovenia, all countries in Europe who are in the eastern part have a lower poverty rate for their perspective economic situation than the USA. How acceptable do you find that?

Poverty is relative. I'd rather be poor in the US than poor in Serbia.

Fisher said:

Poverty is relative. I'd rather be poor in the US than poor in Serbia.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Even more, the graph doesn't say what it considers the "poverty line", and whither this measure varies between countries.