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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Sat Jan 10, 2015, 08:29 AM Jan 2015

U.S. ranks poorly in commitment to fight global poverty



Each year the sharp minds at the foggy bottom think tank known as the Center for Global Development release a very cool and easy-to-use metric for evaluating to what extent wealthy countries are truly committed to fighting poverty and inequity in poor countries.

It’s dubbed the Commitment to Development Index and, despite its somewhat boring name, is quite fascinating and enlightening. This year’s authors, Owen Barder and Petra Krylová (both work in CGD’s European office), note that they measure countries not only by how much they spend per capita on foreign aid but also by poverty mitigation efforts within the context of trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology.

Overall, the United States doesn’t measure up so well even though our leaders like to repeat that we spend more (in total) on foreign aid than any other country. True enough, but as this index shows that’s a bit of a red herring. As the report notes:

For the third year in a row, Denmark tops the Commitment to Development Index in 2014. Denmark is also the only country which is at or above the average on all seven components. The runners up are Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Norway. These five countries do well on the index because of their consistently high performance across all policies. … The United States is above average in trade, but below average in every other component.

Go to their site and explore their interactive graphic and data. The accompanying graphic above is just a screen grab of the tool from CGD’s website. Below is another way to show the rankings:



http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2015/01/us-ranks-poorly-in-commitment-to-fight-against-global-poverty/

4 of the top 5 countries are Scandinavian countries. Not exactly a surprise but they do set a high standard for the rest of us. Of course, they also set a high standard for domestic income equality and standard of living.
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U.S. ranks poorly in commitment to fight global poverty (Original Post) pampango Jan 2015 OP
How does the US rank in fighting domestic poverty, using GDP as a comparison tool? djean111 Jan 2015 #1
Great point. The countries that lead in fighting global poverty do also lead on domestic poverty. pampango Jan 2015 #2
du rec. xchrom Jan 2015 #3
Wow. I had no idea. Brigid Jan 2015 #4
 

djean111

(14,255 posts)
1. How does the US rank in fighting domestic poverty, using GDP as a comparison tool?
Sat Jan 10, 2015, 11:15 AM
Jan 2015

And then, of course, there are those who compare our poor to the poor in other countries, saying hey, it could always be worse. After all, lots of our poor have refrigerators and whatnot, and even the homeless sometimes have warm places to sleep, sometimes.

I think we are fighting homelessness in the US by making it illegal. Easier than requiring homeless people to buy a house; more profitable.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
2. Great point. The countries that lead in fighting global poverty do also lead on domestic poverty.
Sat Jan 10, 2015, 11:27 AM
Jan 2015

You could conclude that countries that care about dealing with poverty are strong in acting against all poverty - domestic and global. Those countries that don't care about dealing with poverty are weak against all poverty - domestic and global.

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