Is Trump turning the US into into the “world champion of extreme inequality”.

The United Nations monitor Philip Alston on poverty and human rights has issued a devastating report on the condition of America, accusing Donald Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress of attempting to turn the country into the “world champion of extreme inequality”.

Not only does he warn that the tax bill currently being rushed through Congress will hugely increase already large disparities between rich and poor, he accuses Trump and his party of consciously distorting the shape of American society in a “bid to become the most unequal society in the world”.

In his most stark message, Alston warns that the Republicans’ declared intent to slash crucial welfare programs next year in order to pay for some of the $1.5tn tax cuts could cost American lives. “The consequences for an already overstretched and inadequate system of social protection are likely to be fatal for many programs, and possibly also for those who rely upon them,” he writes.

Latest figures put the number of Americans living in poverty at 41 million – almost 13% of the population. Of those, almost half (19 million) are living in deep poverty, defined as having a total family income that is below one-half of the poverty threshold.

from The Guardian.

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puck61

In the United States, poverty is mostly a lifestyle choice.

QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

@puck61 If you phrase it narrowly enough - it's a lifestyle choice everywhere. But that perspective is not very useful if you want things to get better.

puck61

@QuixoticSoul Things are pretty damn good here actually. The US is a place where those in poverty consume far more calories than those who are considered wealthy! People in poverty eat drink and smoke more that wealthy people, and they have plenty of electronic pacifiers to keep them happy too.

nudistsueaz · 61-69, F

@puck61 That is the truest reply here.

QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

@puck61 As I said - if you phrase it narrowly enough, poverty is a lifestyle choice, and if you use the right metrics, everything is just groovy here, and nobody needs to do anything.

But people coming down with hookworm in the richest country in the world is bloody embarrassing.

puck61

@QuixoticSoul Survival of the fittest. Natural selection. I think meth and fake fentynal is a worse problem, but that is survival of the fittest and natural selection too.

LegendofPeza · 61-69, M

@puck61 Under Trump you've gone from being a champion of the homeless to describing poverty as 'a lifestyle choice'. You should reflect on that sometime .... when , or if , your sense of perspective ever returns.

puck61

@LegendofPeza I'm still the same person I always was, pezzza. I just don't jump of ridiculous bandwagons .

nudistsueaz · 61-69, F

@LegendofPeza there have always been homeless. When I was young they were called hobo's. Some have been and still are war veterans, sadly. When people come to the USA without a job or money and within ten years of being here and working hard they are wealthy, it makes you wonder. Is it a choice for some?

QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

@nudistsueaz

When people come to the USA without a job or money and within ten years of being here and working hard they are wealthy,

Those stories - and I've observed them up close myself before, are first and foremost exceptions. Things don't - and can't work out that way for everyone, even everyone who works very very hard and lives virtuously/intelligently. Hard work is only the baseline in those examples - they also tend to involve a heaping dose of luck, or unique backgrounds (for example, a foreign PhD emigrating here with nothing has a different 10-year outlook than most), or simply extraordinary individuals. There are always some of those in every bunch.

There are a ton of factors involved in what sort of outcomes people see. Presence of exceptions doesn't mean that it's not important to take a hard look at the systems involved. Even though some people succeed against all odds, we should still figure out why those odds can be so long for people, often due to little fault of their own.