If Sweden and Germany Became US States, They Would be Among the Poorest States The battle over the assumed success of European socialism continues. Many European countries like Sweden have gained a reputation as being very wealthy in spite of their highly regulated and taxed economies. From there, many assume that the rest of Europe is more or less similar, even if slightly poorer. But if we look more closely at the data, a very different picture emerges, and we find that the median household in the US is better off (income-wise) than the median household in all but three European countries. Worse than Mississippi? Last year, a debate erupted over how Britain would compare to individual US states. In the UK Spectator, Fraser Nelson explained "Why Britain is poorer than any US state, other than Mississippi." A week later, TIME shot back with an article titled "No, Britain Is Not Poorer than Alabama." The author of the TIME article, Dan Stewart, explained that, yes, Britain is poorer than many US states, but certainly not all of them. (See below to confirm that the UK is, in fact, poorer than every state.)... https://mises.org/blog/if-sweden-and-germany-became-us-states-they-would-be-among-poorest-states
Puts these median stats into perspective: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html
I'd be shocked if you couldn't use UNICEF's definition to show that states like Mississippi have less child poverty than states like Mass and Cali. I imagine the median income for Mass and Cali is higher than Mississippi. But I think it would take some leaps (if using common sense alone) to conclude that Mississippi has less child poverty than almost any other state.
