Standard of living in the United States
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The standard of living in the United States is one of the top 15 in the world by the standard economist measure of standard of living. Average income per person is high but also less evenly distributed than in most other developed countries; as a result, the United States fares particularly well in measures of average material well being that do not place weight on equality aspects.
On comprehensive measures such as the UN Human Development Index the United States is always in the top ten, currently ranking number ten, though generally ranked lower than the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Belgium, Canada, Australia, and (until recently) Japan; Canada and Norway have alternately held the top spot for some time. On the Human Poverty Index the US is ranked worst among the selection of 17 wealthiest countries, scoring bad on all counts but long term unemployment.
While the United States' mean wealth is one of the highest of any major country most of the wealth in the United States is held by the upper middle and upper class. The median income is $43,318 per household.[1] However, there is an unequal income distribution.
The United States has more people below the defined poverty line than 26 other countries; however, the measures used to establish a poverty line are controversial and may not always be comparable among countries. What is clear, however, is that the United States has the widest rich-poor gap of any high-income nation today, and that gap continues to grow.[2] The ten percent of Americans with the highest incomes earn 15 times more than the bottom ten percent. In Japan, for instance, the ratio is only 4.2:1. While the exact reasons for this extent of economic disparity are complex, some analysts and critics regard the imbalance as a product of the United States' long policy of having more of a free market economy, while other countries have enacted policies which may sacrifice net wealth in favor of economic equality. However, this argument is inconsistent as Ireland has the third most free economy in the world, according to the Index of Economic Freedom In recent times, some prominent economists including Alan Greenspan have warned that the widening rich-poor gap in the U.S. population is a problem that could undermine and destabilize the country's economy and standard of living.[3]
[edit] See also
- Household income in the United States
- Economy of the United States
- Human development index
- Gross domestic product
- Federal assistance in the United States
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[edit] US related topics
[edit] References
- ^ US Census Bureau news release in regards to median income. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
- ^ Rich-Poor Gap Widening. Retrieved on 2006-07-27.
- ^ Rich-poor gap gaining attention. Retrieved on 2006-07-27.
