A new study of worldwide wealth showed the bottom 20% of U.S. income earners were wealthier on average than people in most European countries.
The study, conducted by Just Facts, released last week found the bottom fifth of American citizens “consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries,” including European countries on a per capita basis. Individuals in the poorest 20% of the United States on average have more material resources than those in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
The analysis examined income, charity, and noncash welfare benefits to determine how many goods and services people consumed in each country. Henrique Schneider, the chief economist of the Swiss Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, said the study “provides valuable insight into poverty measures.”
The study placed itself in opposition to a video op-ed by the New York Times published in July, which claimed the U.S. was not the greatest country in the world, but had more in common with “developing countries.”
Just Facts noted that poverty rates only “measure relative poverty within nations, not between nations” while their study focused on consumption as a measure of wealth.
