Social sector spending and inequality

Economix (via the OECD - Society at a Glance 2009 survey) has a nice graphic which captures the relationship between social sector spending as a proportion of Net National Income (NNI) and the Gini coefficient among all OECD nations.



The graphic appears to show an inverse relationship between inequality and social sector spending. For the 30 OECD members, public social spending accounts for an average of 24.4% of net national income, and the average Gini coefficient is .311, whereas the same for the United States are 18.1% and .391 respectively. Predictably, the Scandinavians are at the other end of the spectrum.