These reports are disingenuous but are wonderful European circlejerk porn.

One of the factors not considered is that in Europe, the impoverished are relegated to countries and mistreated in a quite sadistic manner.

A German would say "hah, America has such poverty" while the Californian would say "We take care of our impoverished governments while you turn the screws on Greece and Romania and others, fucking your European brothers for cheap gains, call us when you unilaterally fund their welfare with zero strings".

The reality of a large diverse population, 330,000,000 compared to ethnically homogenous Euro-states who have the luxury of deporting their poor, is that there are cases of extreme poverty.

However, what you're doing is exaggerating, shining a light on a tiny minority and stating "THIS IS THE TRUTH FOR ALL". You could not be further from the truth when you do that, and frankly all you do is demonstrate the insane and rabid bias of a very ignorant person.

I love that the Guardian garbage you link is all based on averages. Averages, averages, averages. Nothing lets you tilt statistics and tell your fake story better than averages.

But seriously, when countries like Germany stop ass fucking countries like Greece, manipulating the currency to ensure their exports are uncompetitive and economies floundering, while "benevolently" indebting them, and instead write 100% no-strings-attached checks for the welfare of all Europeans, you can start comparing.

Could you imagine if rich American states charged the impoverished ones for their welfare, or worse, made them wrack up crazy unsustainable debts just to provide for the basic welfare of their people while their economy was being destroyed by regional forces out of their power?

Why, we'd be seen as monsters!