CORRECTING THE RECORD: Tim Worstall: It Is Not True That 15% Of Americans Live In Poverty. “The 15% number is not the number living in poverty. It is the number who would be living in poverty if it weren’t for all the money n’stuff we give to the poor. For when we calculate the poverty number we ignore almost all of what is done to alleviate poverty.”

Plus: “Everyone else measures poverty after all the things that are done to alleviate it. Thus any comparison across countries is going to leave the US looking very bad indeed: for others are talking about the residual poverty left after trying to do something about it and the US is talking about the poverty before alleviation. Very different things I hope you’ll agree.” It’s almost like we’re deliberately being fed bogus information in order to encourage more government spending.