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Data source: Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. Smeeding, 'Doing Poorly:
The Real Income of American Children in a Comparative
Perspective', Luxembourg Income Study, Working Paper No. 127,
August 1995.
The poverty line is defined as 50% of national median income.
Chart source: UNICEF, "Safety nets
for children are weakest in US," The Progress of Nations 1996.
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/indust4.htm July 21, 1997 (last
viewed 7/21/01). |
Discussion: This is an example of
bar-charting at its best. For a bar chart, it contains a lot of data,
depicting 35 data points for the two main variables and 18 cases. The
cases are sorted on the most meaningful variable. Gridlines are made
unnecessary by displaying the actual data points (although the 0 to 30
scale at the top is also unnecessary).
Most importantly, the data provide for
some really interesting comparisons. Comparing the blue bars tells us
that the United States has the highest child poverty rate among
developed nations; comparing the blue with the orange we see that United
States government policies do the little to address the problem of child
poverty. One does need to know that "transfers" consist mostly of
government social welfare payments; the orange bar represents the
percentage of children that would have been in poverty without such
income supports.
Look at this chart and you can quickly grasp the main points, but then
spend some time with it and you'll discover other interesting things.
Note, for example, that the top four countries are located in Northern
Europe, the six countries not on mainland Europe all fall at the bottom.
Key question: What are the implications
of the definition of the poverty line as "50% of national median
income"? (In at least one other article using the Luxembourg data,
Smeeding employs an "absolute" poverty standard --the US still stands
out, but not as starkly). |