>2.) While
> poverty is high as a percentage of population, the
> level of income required to be considered 'poor' would
> be considered middle class almost anywhere in Europe,
Nope. The US have the higest percentage of poor in western world.
>3.)
> Prison population is inflated by jailing drug users,
> who in any other country would be given at most a slap
> on the wrist, well except for Singapore where they'd
> be beheaded).
Doesn't matter. The whole point is that theres is a significant percentage of
population thats excluded from the buying feast. This percentage is far larger in the
US than comparable western nations. Hence, the market isn't as large as seems from
pure population number and income statistics. This is because the money is less evenly
distrubuted in the US than probably anywhere else. Theres far smaller percentage of
poor in, say, Sweden than in the US. Hence, an average population of 8 million Swedes
will consist of larger market than 8 million average americans. This is because this
average american groups will contain more people unable to consume Pentax cameras than
the similar Swedish group. The american group will on the other include far more
onscenely rich people but that does not create more consumers. This is illustrated
also by the density of typical consumer goods like computers and cellular phones where
the US isn't on top because a large number of people fall out. My point isn't to bash
the americans (although its sometimes tempting), but to illustrate that the number of
people don't have linear relation to the number of consumers even when comparing
within the western world. I know the third world have it far worse but this was about
Pentax markets and third world isn't an important market.
Pål
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