David Frum on Child Poverty

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/07/david-frum-on-child-poverty

David Frum's post on child poverty and income inequality has attracted some favorable attention from the Washington Examiner's E.D. Kain, who calls the Frum item "excellent and thought provoking."

Mr. Frum writes "America suffers much more child poverty than do comparably wealthy countries," in part because of "our much lower levels of social spending, which mean that poor families receive far less social support than do poor families in other countries."

That turns out to be inaccurate. As we wrote back in May:

Think the American social safety net is stingy and full of holes compared to Europe's? Think again. University of Arizona economist Price Fishback has a new paper out from the National Bureau of Economic Research headlined, "Social Welfare Expenditures in the United States and the Nordic Countries, 1900-2003." From the abstract: "The common view that America spends much less on social welfare than the Nordic countries does not survive closer inspection....Per capita net public social expenditures in the U.S. rank behind only Sweden. Add in the private spending, and per capita spending in the U.S. is higher than in all of the Nordic countries."

by Ira Stoll  |  Jul 7, 2010 at 1:48 pm Related Topics:  Income Inequality receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list