Class, Money, and the Gap between the United States and Other Developed Countries

"Although the income per capita in the United States is 25 to 35 percent higher than in most other advanced countries, workers in the bottom third of the income distribution are poorer than workers in the bottom third in the European Union or Japan. And workers in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution of the average European Union country earn about 44 percent more than Americans in the bottom 10 percent. And even this statistic underestimates the disparity between the poorest Europeans and the poorest Americans. Europeans have national health insurance and other economic cushions that most Americans at low-income levels either pay for out of their own pockets or do without." -Nisbett, Intelligence and How to Get It