President Donald Trump has been touting that he will Make America Great Again. However, instead of making the country great, he is taking it into a wrong direction. America is becoming a country with extreme inequality and poverty, according to a UN envoy.
Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights submitted a shocking report regarding the condition of the United States. According to him, Trump and the Republican Party are leading the country to becoming the “world champion of extreme inequality.” He noted that millions of people in the country are living in poverty.
Prof. Alston strongly criticized the GOP’s tax bill, which he beliebed will all the more widen the big gap between the rich and poor. He accused Trump and his party of intentionally destroying the American society in a a bid to become the world’s most unequal society.
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 19: U.S. President Donald Trump departs the United Nations after his speech on September 19, 2017 in New York City. He addressed his first UN General Assembly meeting. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
“My visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and extreme poverty. The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans. The dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by the President and Speaker Ryan, and already beginning to be implemented by the administration, will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes,” according to Prof. Alston.
The American Dream is becoming the American Illusion
The UN envoy noted that the United States is one of the richest, most powerful, and technological innovative countries worldwide. However, it is not using its power and technology to address situation of its 40 million people currently living in poverty.
According to Prof. Alston, he met many people “barely surviving” on Skidrow in Los Angeles” and saw the plight of homeless people in San Francisco. He also heard that “thousands of poor people are getting minor infraction notices, which seems to be intentionally designed to quickly explode into unpayable debt, incarceration, and the replenishment of municipal coffers.
He also noted that local governments don’t consider sanitation facilities to be their responsibility citing the fact that sewage yards are full.
Furthermore, Prof. Alston said the vast majority of programs available for very poor people are insufficient. He also learned about the increasing number of deaths due to the opioid epidemic, which is also destroying families and communities.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren,
In Puerto Rico, people are living next to a mountain of completely unprotected ciash ash that’s causes illness, disability, and death.
“American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations. But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound,” said Prof. Alston.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Furthermore, Prof. Alston made emphasized that the poor in the America are “overwhelmingly assumed to be people of color (African-Americans or Hispanic immigrants). However, he stated the reality that “there are 8 million more poor Whites than there are Blacks. ”
He pointed out the the “face of poverty in America is not only Black, or Hispanic, but also White, Asian, and many other colors. “ It is not also confined to a particular age group.
Based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds, more than one in every eight Americans were living in poverty–40 million people or 12.7% of the country’s population. Almost 50% or 18.5 million are living in extreme poverty. Their family income is below 50% of the poverty threshold.
Alston concluded, “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion since the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries.”