This statistic is so bonkers wrong I cannot fathom how it could have made it past an elementary gut check, even if the gut belonged to an ardent Communist. (Rep Pramila Jayapal is not an ardent communist).
https://twitter.com/PramilaJayapal/status/1441045442901340164
I mean, Rep Jayapal was born in India, surely she does not actually believe that on a consumption basis, America has more poor people, as a fraction of our population, than three out of the seven nations of the Indian subcontinent.
Or, for that matter, that poverty in America is worse than the majority of nations in central America, south America, and the Caribbean, whose citizens are piling up on our border.
An excellent lesson for all of us: before you tweet out or write up whatever tag line google barfs up when when you type "where does the US rank in poverty" or similar query, it is wise to do an elementary gut check. And remember that the Google algorithm cannot actually read.
A simple "Can I personally think of four countries that clearly have a higher fraction of their population in poverty than America does?" would have saved a lot of embarrassment here.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
