Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are proof that poverty in the US doesn't have to be this high

[LiberalArkie]

Ever since Bernie Sanders emerged as a major contender for the Democratic nomination for president, debate has heated up about whether the Nordic countries whose welfare states he celebrates — countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway — really do provide a better life than the United States. Critics insist that this is a myth. For instance, the Fordham Institute's Michael Petrilli and Brandon Wright assert that poverty actually isn't lower in Scandinavia than it is in the US. That's a big, counterintuitive claim: that for all these countries' social spending, they don't actually do a better job of taking care of their most vulnerable citizens than we do.

The problem is that this claim is false. Poverty is not just lower in Scandinavia than in the US, it's dramatically lower.

Poverty is lower in Scandinavia — even if you use the US's poverty line

Petrilli and Wright — in a column for National Review drawing upon a longer piece for the journal Education Next — attempt to show that the poverty rate in the US is about the same as in Finland, one of the celebrated Nordic states (one that is especially relevant to education policy debates, because Finnish students score incredibly well on international standardized tests).

Snip

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/11/11/9707528/finland-poverty-united-states

[w0nderer]

1. K & R N/T

[enid602]

2. spain

Spain, with Socialists in power for over ten years is also an EU member. The poverty rate is 25.1% this year, and unemployment is off the charts. These comprisons of the US and Denmark are simplistic.

[merrily]

3. Not half as simplistic as not comparing them.

[appalachiablue]

6. Spain is also still laboring from the speculative housing bubble of the 2000s that burst in 08

similar to Ireland but unlike the Nordic countries who didn't get involved the banking property schemes.

[valerief]

4. So as those "governmental transfers" are chipped away by our conservative government,

that absolute poverty rate gets larger and larger.
(See Figure 3 at OP link.)

[Romulox]

5. But that would be SOSHIALISM!!!!!!

[former9thward]

8. None of those countries are socialist.

All have private market based economies.

[appalachiablue]

7. K & R. Although I've been to Germany but not Scandanavia my brother and sister

loved Sweden and Denmark when they visited friends there. Close associates who've travel to Belgium, Norway and Sweden in the last 5-10 years always comment on how the airports, transportation and telecomm systems are modern and excellent esp. compared to the US.

[former9thward]

9. Those countries don't have global militaries.

So it is hard to compare.