This piece looks at some conservatives’ characterization of poor Americans as being “pretty well off by international standards.” It cites new work by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin who analyze this issue, looking at four indicators of wellbeing: life expectancy, infant mortality, risk of homicide and risk of incarceration. Shaefer and Edin say that, by these metrics, Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder experience conditions comparable to those of countries with a small fraction of the per-capita output of the US.

More about Shaefer compares low-income Americans to populations in poorer nations >