#28 for child poverty was interesting for the way they chose to rate it. Lots of underlying issues in that one.
Following the link given for the map, this is included:
Quote:
The report, which compares kids in 29 Western countries, measures well-being across five metrics: material well-being, health and safety, behaviors and risks, housing and environment, as well as education. It ranks the United States in the bottom third on all five measures of well-being and particularly low on education and poverty. The United States is joined at the bottom by “emerging” European economies, while the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands come out on top. The report notes that this latter group of countries tends to spend far more per capita on social welfare programs.
The countries with the best reported child well-being tend to invest in strong social safety nets.
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It appears that they rate the amount of money spent rather than effect of the spending. And they do not account for the growing trend of the wealthier and more educated to have fewer children. Those in and closer to the poverty have the majority of children and use the majority of welfare services. And to what end......
They hint at it a little later:
Quote:
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The low U.S. rating, then, does not mean that all American children are worse educated, less healthy and less well-off than all children in, for example, Greece and Slovakia. After all, many American kids are doing great. But the report, just as worryingly, means that significant numbers of American children are so much worse off than the average Greek or Slovakian child as to bring the overall U.S. average beneath those other, relatively less wealthy and developed countries
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