Aquest quadre estadístic correspon a un informe elaborat pel Economic Policy Institute, una institució nord-americana considerada d'esquerres. Amb aquest informe es vol demostrar la necessitat que tenen els EUA d'evolucionar cap a un model de redistribució similar al dels països nòrdics.Però resulta que les dades no només no corroboren aquesta necessitat sinó que avalen el contrari, com assenyala Johan Norberg:
But interestingly, it shows something very different. In the US, the rich are much richer than the rich in other countries, for example they get 210 percent of the median compared to 113 in Sweden. But the poorest tenth in the US gets 39 percent of the median, actually slightly more than the poorest tenth in Sweden gets (38 percent).
In other words, the EPI´s own graph shows that the call for high taxes and dramatic redistribution does not make the poor better off, it just makes the rich worse off. Which fits the ancient wisdom that some of those who hate inequality actually hate wealth more than they hate poverty.