[coldtea]

>areful, the French measure of “poverty” is a percentage of the median income. It’s more an indicator of inequality than anything else

It does say "below the 1,063-euros-per-month poverty line in France" which whether it was calculated with the median income in mind or not, it's quite fine as a poverty measure, not just inequality (that's like making less than $12K/year, or if we adjust for cosr of life, less than $18K/year or so).

[namdnay]

Two things:

1) being a fixed percentage of a median, any variation in the median will change the “poverty rate” without it necessarily meaning anything. If the minimum wage increases by 100 euros, the poverty rate will actually increase because the median income will go up and more people will come under X% of it

2) you can’t really compare income across countries. 1000 euros a month means you will receive social housing or subsidies for private rental. It means neither yourself nor your children will pay for any state services (school, school meals, health, swimming pool etc, public transport etc). I’d far far prefer to be on 1k in France than 2k in the US

[coldtea]

>2) you can’t really compare income across countries.

As a close by European whose been to France many times and have friends there, I can assure you 1000 euros a month doesn't by you much in France. Not sure if it corresponds exactly to $18-20K year, but it's not far.

That said, of course, being someone making 1K in France is better than 2K in the US -- regarding education, health, and several other aspects....