| Introduction |
Universal healthcare is how the drug war is being rolled back in Europe. Much of Europe has a harm reduction attitude to drugs. Harm reduction only works well if there is universal healthcare:
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm
Universal healthcare costs less than U.S. healthcare, and gets better national health indicator results. Here is a great thread on universal healthcare in Canada. The first post is propaganda from a Canadian corporatist think tank. The replies are from Canadians mostly. They rip the propaganda to shreds. Forum thread:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/viewtopic.php?topic=51285&forum=3
Most Greens understand all this much better than most Libertarians. When Libertarians liberate themselves from ideology, they will be a powerful force for drug law reform and healthcare cost savings in the USA. For more on this see:
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm#ha
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Poverty rates worldwide. Charts |
Poverty Rates. By nation. Timelines. The stats in the chart below are from the Luxembourg Income Study. |
| Poverty_rate._Those_below_50%_of_median_income. _______________________________________________ As_a_percent_of_each_age_group.________________ _______________________________________________ Nation________Year____________Children__Elderly ____________________All_ages___________________ _______________________________________________ Australia_____1981______11.3_____13.8______24.0 Australia_____1985______11.9_____14.0______24.3 Australia_____1989______12.2_____15.0______23.8 Australia_____1994______14.3_____15.8______29.4 Austria_______1987_______6.7______4.8______18.5 Austria_______1994_______8.7______9.7______11.9 Austria_______1995______10.6_____15.0______10.3 Austria_______1997_______8.0_____10.2______10.5 Belgium_______1985_______4.5______4.0______10.9 Belgium_______1988_______4.6______3.8_______9.7 Belgium_______1992_______5.2______4.6______12.1 Belgium_______1997_______8.0______7.7______11.7 Canada________1971______16.1_____16.6______36.9 Canada________1975______13.9_____14.4______34.7 Canada________1981______12.4_____14.8______22.1 Canada________1987______11.4_____14.9______10.8 Canada________1991______11.0_____15.3_______5.8 Canada________1994______11.3_____15.4_______4.9 Canada________1997______11.9_____15.7_______5.4 Canada________1998______12.8_____16.3_______7.8 Canada________2000______11.4_____14.9_______5.9 Czech_Rep.____1992_______2.3______2.2_______5.0 Czech_Rep.____1996_______4.9______6.6_______7.4 Denmark_______1987______10.1______4.7______31.5 Denmark_______1992_______7.2______5.0______11.1 Denmark_______1995_________-________-_________- Denmark_______1997_________-________-_________- Estonia_______2000______12.4_____13.6______11.0 Finland_______1987_______5.4______2.8______11.9 Finland_______1991_______5.7______2.3______13.9 Finland_______1995_______4.2______2.0_______5.6 Finland_______2000_______5.4______2.8_______8.5 France________1979_______8.2______7.2______10.3 France________1981_______7.3______6.9______(na) France_(a)____1984_______7.4______7.5_______4.8 France_(b)____1984______11.5______9.8______19.3 France________1989_______8.9______8.3______14.7 France________1994_______8.0______7.9_______9.8 Germany_______1973_______6.7______4.4______17.8 Germany_______1978_______6.5______3.4______17.6 Germany_______1981_______5.3______2.8______14.4 Germany_______1983_______5.8______4.7______14.3 Germany_______1984_______7.9______8.5______14.0 Germany_______1989_______5.8______4.1______11.3 Germany_______1994_______8.2______9.5_______9.7 Germany_______2000_______8.3______9.0______10.1 Hungary_______1991_______8.2______6.9______14.0 Hungary_______1994______10.1_____11.4_______8.8 Hungary_______1999_______6.7______8.8_______3.7 Ireland_______1987______11.1_____13.8______14.4 Ireland_______1994______11.9_____14.6______17.3 Ireland_______1995______12.9_____15.7______17.6 Ireland_______1996______12.3_____14.4______24.3 Ireland_______2000______16.5_____17.2______35.8 Israel________1979______10.9_____10.3______29.7 Israel________1986______11.7_____12.7______23.3 Israel________1992______10.2_____11.6______17.2 Israel________1997______13.5_____13.3______26.4 Israel________2001______15.6_____18.0______21.6 Italy_________1986______10.4_____11.4______13.1 Italy_________1987______11.2_____13.7______12.6 Italy_________1989_______9.7_____11.3______15.0 Italy_________1991______10.4_____14.0______15.7 Italy_________1993______14.0_____19.9______13.8 Italy_________1995______14.1_____19.0______14.3 Italy_________1998______14.1_____18.4______15.5 Italy_________2000______12.7_____16.6______13.7 Luxembourg____1985_______5.3______5.2______12.7 Luxembourg____1991_______4.7______5.4______11.8 Luxembourg____1994_______3.9______4.5_______6.7 Luxembourg____1997_______6.2_____10.1_______5.5 Luxembourg____2000_______6.0______9.1_______3.7 Mexico________1984______20.8_____23.5______27.3 Mexico________1989______21.1_____24.7______27.9 Mexico________1992______20.6_____24.6______27.1 Mexico________1994______21.8_____26.2______31.0 Mexico________1996______20.2_____25.0______27.4 Mexico________1998______21.9_____27.6______29.4 Mexico________2000______21.5_____26.9______28.3 Mexico________2002______20.2_____24.8______27.9 Netherlands___1983_______3.9______2.7______23.7 Netherlands___1987_______4.7______5.2_______0.3 Netherlands___1991_______6.3______8.1_______3.2 Netherlands___1994_______7.2______7.9_______5.3 Netherlands___1999_______7.3______9.8_______2.4 Norway________1979_______4.9______4.8_______6.3 Norway________1986_______7.2______4.3______21.7 Norway________1991_______6.4______5.2______14.0 Norway________1995_______6.9______3.9______14.5 Norway________2000_______6.4______3.4______11.9 Poland________1986_______9.7_____11.7______17.0 Poland________1992_______7.7______8.4______12.5 Poland________1995______11.6_____15.4_______8.4 Poland________1999_______8.6_____12.7_______3.6 Taiwan________1981_______5.5______6.7______13.3 Taiwan________1986_______5.2______5.9______13.0 Taiwan________1991_______6.5______6.9______18.4 Taiwan________1995_______6.7______6.2______21.7 Taiwan________1997_______9.1______9.2______24.7 Taiwan________2000_______9.1______8.0______25.7 Romania_______1995_______8.5_____10.8______12.8 Romania_______1997_______8.1_____10.0______10.4 Russia________1992______19.2_____17.6______38.3 Russia________1995______20.1_____23.7______18.4 Russia________2000______18.8_____22.2______13.8 Slovak_Rep.___1992_______2.1______2.0_______2.2 Slovak_Rep.___1996_______7.0_____(na)______(na) Slovenia______1997_______9.5______9.4______15.7 Slovenia______1999_______8.2______6.9______17.9 Spain_________1980______12.2_____12.7______18.8 Spain_________1990______10.1_____12.2______11.3 Sweden________1975_______6.5______2.4______13.9 Sweden________1981_______5.3_____4.8________2.9 Sweden________1987_______7.5_____3.5________7.2 Sweden________1992_______6.7_____3.0________6.4 Sweden________1995_______6.6_____2.6________2.7 Sweden________2000_______6.5_____4.2________7.7 Switzerland___1982_______7.6_____4.3_______19.3 Switzerland___1992_______9.3_____10.0_______8.4 U.K.__________1969_______5.5_____6.0_______15.3 U.K.__________1974_______9.1_____8.0_______29.7 U.K.__________1979_______9.2_____9.0_______21.6 U.K.__________1986_______9.1_____12.5_______7.0 U.K.__________1991______14.6_____18.5______23.9 U.K.__________1994______10.8_____13.9______15.1 U.K.__________1995______13.4_____19.8______13.7 U.K.__________1999______12.5_____15.4______20.9 U.S.__________1974______15.9_____19.3______27.5 U.S.__________1979______15.8_____20.4______27.3 U.S.__________1986______17.8_____25.1______23.5 U.S.__________1991______17.5_____24.3______20.8 U.S.__________1994______17.8_____24.5______20.6 U.S.__________1997______16.9_____22.5______20.7 U.S.__________2000______17.0_____21.9______24.7 |
| First link below is for the Luxembourg Income Study. It has references, methods, explanations, and much more info: |
| http://www.lisproject.org/keyfigures/povertytable.htm and http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/poverty.htm mirror page. http://corporatism.tripod.com/poverty.htm mirror page. |
Child Poverty Rates. In the USA the "War on Drugs" has replaced the 1960's "War on Poverty." Prisons, guards, courts, and police have replaced schools, food, healthcare, and shelter. And the USA does not have the universal healthcare that nearly all other Western (long democratic traditions) nations have. The USA stats in the chart below are from the Luxembourg Income Study (1974 to 2000) and the U.S. Census Bureau (1960 to 1969). They use slightly different calculation methods. |
| Child_Poverty_Rate._______________________________________________ Percent_of_children_in_poverty.___________________________________ By_year.__________________________________________________________ ______________2000__1997__1994__1991__1986__1979__1974__1969__1960 ______________________________________________________ USA.__________21.9__22.5__24.5__24.3__25.1__20.4__19.3__13.8____26 __________________________________________________________________ |
| First link below is for the Luxembourg Income Study. It has references, methods, explanations, and much more info: |
| http://www.lisproject.org/keyfigures/povertytable.htm and http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/poverty.htm mirror page. http://corporatism.tripod.com/poverty.htm mirror page. |
"[1998] is the first time that the [U.S.] child poverty rate has been below 20 percent since 1980." -U.S. Census Bureau. Ronald (6) Wilson (6) Reagan (6) was elected President in 1980. Reaganomics, tax cuts for the rich, the vastly expanded Drug War and military, and huge increasing interest payments on the national debt, have all contributed to stealing wealth from the poor and lower-middle class. Note the relatively low 1969 rate. President Johnson's War on Poverty had managed to lower the poverty rate that far before his and Nixon's Vietnam War reversed the trend. From an excellent 2001 report with maps and charts (the maxwell.syr.edu links below) yet to be incorporated into the table above: "New fully comparable figures on child poverty across the industrialized world and the 50 United States show a huge disparity from country to country and state to state." There is also detailed, worldwide adult and child poverty info at the UNICEF Innocenti Library at the unicef links below. There is the new poverty measure for industrialized countries, the Human Poverty Index (HPI-2), from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) links below. The Eurostat links below have excellent charts for OECD nations. There are other very useful links below from other sources. There is a useful Google.com search shortcut. First link below is from the Luxembourg Income Study:
http://www.lisproject.org/keyfigures/povertytable.htm Best poverty rate timeline. Many nations.
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/indust4.htm and
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov24.html and
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/gmklass/COW/archive/2001/nov2101pov.htm and
http://www.census.gov/income/histpov/hstpov2.lst and
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html and
http://www.commondreams.org/views/071200-104.htm and
http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/repcard1e.pdf and
http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty and
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/news/releases/child_poverty_map.html and
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/news/releases/child_poverty.htm and
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/cprb2txt.html and
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/images/cp2tab1.gif and
http://www.unicef-icdc.it/aboutIRC/IRClibrary.html and
http://www.unicef-icdc.it/cgi-bin/unicef/series_down.sql?SeriesId=16 and
http://www.undp.org/hdro/ihpprof.htm and
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/indust4.htm and
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/img/incpov98/chart7.gif and
http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/income98/prs99asc.html and
http://www.google.com/search?q=poverty+rates+industrialized+nations
