Britain poorer than all US states except Mississippi
According to one calculation, the United Kingdom would be the second-poorest US state. More than that, Americans are richer at almost every income level. The US just has more money.
According to one calculation, the United Kingdom would be the second-poorest US state. More than that, Americans are richer at almost every income level. The US just has more money.
Having spent a number of years living in Alabama, I鈥檓 well acquainted with the phrase, 鈥淭hank God for Mississippi.鈥� While we had a lot of problems, we could always point to our western border for a state that was even more backwards. Perhaps it鈥檚 time for that slogan to cross the Pond.
The Spectator's Fraser Nelson聽did the math and explains 鈥淲hy Britain is poorer than any US state, other than Mississippi.鈥� His methodology is pretty straightforward:
He then put the calculations into a rank-ordered table. The Washington Post鈥檚 Hunter Schwarz uses Mr. Nelson鈥檚 data and produces a bar graph that shows the United Kingdom slotting in between Alabama and Mississippi with a GDP per capita of $36,202. The top European country? Norway slots between Massachusetts and New Jersey with a GDP per capita of $65,515. If it were a US state, it would rank eighth.
I鈥檓 not an economist but the methodology appears reasonable to me with one small caveat: Nelson seems to be making the PPP adjustments聽based on national data despite making state-level comparisons. 聽While the 50 states are part of the US national economy and pricing is the same or similar in all states for all manner of products, there are significant differences in the purchasing power of a dollar in Michigan vs. Mississippi or Alabama vs. Arizona. That鈥檚 likely not a major deal in terms of his overall point 鈥� the average Briton is indeed likely poorer than the average Alabamian 鈥� but the rankings are likely off. Indeed, a PPP adjustment for the poorer states would likely put the UK behind even Mississippi given how close they are already.
The impetus for Nelson鈥檚 investigation was local commentary on the tragic events in Ferguson, Mo., and the attention it drew to not only the pockets of poverty but the rampant income and social inequality in the United States. But, here, too Nelson sees no room for his fellow Brits to crow. Indeed, Americans at most every level are richer than their UK counterparts; only the bottom 5 percent are better off there than here according to his chart.
In a related piece for The Telegraph, Nelson explains,
Of course, the fact that even rich, modern countries like the UK have the sort of troubles we have here in the USA doesn鈥檛 make them non-problems. There are genuine outrages in both places, some of which are direct results of conscious policy choices. Still, it鈥檚 useful to have perspective.
James Joyner is editor of the Outside the Beltway blog at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/.