The United States produces more income, but its distribution leaves many people further from economic security.
OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM
A new economic measure suggests that poverty is considerably more severe in the United States than in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, despite higher average American incomes. Developed by Oxford University economist Olivier Sterck, the indicator measures the average amount of time people across an entire population need to obtain one international dollar of income.
An international dollar represents equivalent purchasing power across countries. The calculation is not based solely on employed people or their working hours. Instead, time refers to each person’s share of a full day, regardless of age, employment status or personal circumstances. This allows the measure to incorporate children, unemployed adults, retirees and people with little or no reported income.
Using 2025 data, the average time required to obtain one international dollar was calculated at 63 minutes in the United States. The corresponding figure was 26 minutes in Germany, 31 in France and 34 in the United Kingdom. Under this framework, average poverty in the United States is approximately twice as high as the mean recorded across those three European economies.
The historical trend is equally significant. In 1990, the US figure stood at 43 minutes, close to France and below the United Kingdom. It has since increased by approximately 47 percent, even as average American income continued growing. Germany, France and Britain moved in the opposite direction, with the time required to obtain the same purchasing power declining.
Sterck attributes the divergence primarily to income inequality. Average incomes grew by slightly more than one percent annually across all four countries, but inequality in the United States reportedly increased by about 2.2 percent each year. Consequently, income growth concentrated near the top failed to compensate for the much lower resources available to people at the bottom of the distribution.
The measure remains an academic proposal published through a research repository rather than an official poverty standard adopted by governments or international institutions. Its results depend on income data, purchasing-power calculations and methodological assumptions that require further scrutiny. It should therefore complement, not replace, conventional indicators such as poverty thresholds, disposable household income and material deprivation.
Its central contribution is conceptual: national prosperity cannot be understood through gross domestic product or average income alone. An economy can grow while the distance separating its citizens expands faster. Under those conditions, greater national wealth does not necessarily translate into less poverty, because distribution determines who can convert economic growth into everyday security.
Lo visible y lo oculto, en contexto. / The visible and the hidden, in context.