MSN - "What The World Eats" Interactive Chart On Wealth & Health

[TomCADem]

I can't cut and paste it because it is an interactive spreadsheet, but it has nice sortable chart for such expenditures as health care costs and income. The most surprising fact is that U.S. government health care expenditures are higher than the U.K. even though the U.K.'s program is completely government run.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/what-the-world-eats.aspx?GT1=33004

[tritsofme]

1. A more pertinent figure would be spending as % of GDP or of all government expenditures.

Differences in population size make an absolute number like that meaningless.

[TomCADem]

2. I Think The Chart Uses Per Capita Figures...

...and the U.S. at 16% of GDP is far and away the leader when it comes to the proportion of GDP spent on health care.

[enlightenment]

3. 8.43% of GDP, according to this table:

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/downchart_ukgs.php?year=1900_2010&view=1&expand=&units=p&fy=2009&chart=10-total&bar=0&stack=1&size=m&color=c&title=UK%20National%20Debt%20As%20Percent%20Of%20GDP

That is lower than the rest of the EU, which I believe is around 9%.

[HamdenRice]

4. A tiny improvement over the blatantly racist version of a few years ago

Some photographer did something like this a few years ago, and for the African family, they chose a refugee mother and child with a sack of UN donated food.

This is an improvement, but a family from Mali is hardly a "typical" African family, because Mali is poor even by African standards and has a very small population. At least the Malian family portrayed has some locally grown food.

A "typical" African family would be from one of the biggest population countries -- Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda -- and the food for a week would look a lot like the food of the family from India or Ecuador, not like the food from a family from Mali.

I guess the MSM just can't resist continuing to promote the idea that everyone in Africa is starving, or close to it.

On edit: If it were a South African family, there would be an awful lot of their very, very good, strong beer, Castle Lager or Lion Lager!

[Warpy]

7. That family in Mali must be middle class

because there are enough calories and nutrients in that diet, heavy on grains, legumes and veggies. What you don't see are processed foods and big slabs of meat or fish.

That was my diet when I was poor.

Yes, beer was notable for its absence. Also, the differences from poor countries with basic foodstuffs to rich countries with processed junk foods was pretty striking.

[HamdenRice]

8. I wouldn't call them "middle class" by African standards, but "prosperous peasants"

They are people who have had good harvests (they look well nourished), but they probably don't have a big enough cash income to be considered middle class.

Generally, middle class in Africa means "civil servant" or manufacturing worker to business functionary.

The improvement over the last photo montage is they don't appear to be hungry.

Btw, you mentioned meat, and meat is considered a necessity in Africa. I think it was the Wiki article on African cuisine that said that if you invite an African to dinner in Africa and serve a vegetarian dish, you would be considered demented.

So if this were a "typical" African family -- even a relatively poor one -- there would be at least one dead plucked chicken and maybe a little goat meat.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Amazing that Coke and chips are in so many diets, even Turkey.

[pansypoo53219]

6. i look at the crap the 1st world eats AND ALL THE PLASTIC PACKAGING.

we are eating sick.