摘要：In all developed nations, governments frequently affirmthe importance of providing equal opportunities and a fairchance at life to every child. The Bush administration inthe United States vows to "leave no child behind," theLabour government in the United Kingdom to halve childpoverty in ten years and eliminate it in twenty. Yet bymany conventional measures of child poverty, there existwidespread disparities within and across these nations.The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), using a measure ofdisposable income, finds great variation in the percent-ages of children in developed nations who are livingbelow the poverty level.1At one end of the spectrum inthe year 2000 was Finland, with 2.8 percent of childrenbelow poverty; at the other end was the United States,with 21.9 percent of children below poverty. The En-glish-speaking nations in general compare poorly with themajor European nations by this measure
