[ch4s3]

What I'm getting at is that Germany isn't some paragon of equality, it's average. The US as I pointed out is skewed by the high number of staggeringly wealthy people and a trend of people moving from the lower to upper levels of what you might call middle class. In the US wealth held by people form 50% of the distribution up to 99% represents about $91T vs $18.2T for the top 0.1% and $4.4T for the bottom 50%. The coefficient really hides the vast middle and upper middle distribution in the US.

Also this obscures the fact that it is far better to be poor or working class in the US than somewhere with a similar Gini coefficient.

[smcl]

> The US as I pointed out is skewed by the high number of staggeringly wealthy people

I think you might want to lookup what Gini tries to measure. You used Gini as a way to suggest the USA isn't so bad, and now you're having to backpedal and say that actually Gini kinda sucks but the USA isn't so bad.

[ch4s3]

> You used Gini as a way to suggest the USA isn't so bad

No, I'm pointing out that at lot was being made of a small difference in a ratio that's really sensitive to marginal differences. I'm noting a marginal difference that makes the US look more different than other OCED nations than it is in fact and more like autocratic developing nations than it is in fact.

I'm also pointing out that it isn't a good measure at all. It's as coarse as GDP and more misleading.