SV: [lbo-talk] Re: Political Cartography

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Nov 22 06:58:55 PST 2004


<Johan.Lif at vlt.se> wrote:


>How long ago was this? I may be wrong, but there seems to be little
>awareness in this disussion of the political changes Sweden has gone
>through over the past 20 years. Reading this, you'd think nothing
>has happened since the 1960s.

Lots has happened since the 1960s, for sure, but some basic stats for the year 2000 (LIS key figures <http://www.lisproject.org/keyfigures.htm>):

relative poverty rate (household income <50% of median)

Sweden 6.5% U.S. 17.0

gini index

Sweden .252 U.S. .368

In other words, Swedish income distribution remains about the most equal in the world, and its poverty rate, near the lowest. The U.S. is at the opposite end of the league tables on both measures.

Doug



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