The
Face of Poverty
/ Old
Beggar by Maciej Ciezki
Mahatma Gandhi wrote Poverty is the worst form of violence. As
such, America is the greatest perpetrator of this violence with close to 50
million people living in poverty including 16 million children ~ yet the Obama
administration refuses to publicly acknowledge this great leveler of society:
Allen L Roland
"Coming
generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes." Khalil Gibran
John
Berger correctly wrote that " The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It
is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of
priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich."
Nowhere is that more evident than the United
States where the number of people enrolled in the food stamp program has risen
by 70 percent since 2008 to almost 50 million citizens ~ while the Stock
Market and corporate profits have soared to all-time highs.
Poverty is
the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money
while absolute poverty or destitution refers to the one who
lacks basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water,
nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter.
Worldwide,
about 1.7 billion people are estimated to live in absolute poverty today. One third of
deaths ~ some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day ~ are due to
poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and
children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990. According to
the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the
single gravest threats to the world’s public health and malnutrition is by far
the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.
Instead
of a worldwide War on Terror based on illusory fears we, as a society, must
institute a worldwide War on Poverty (the feeding ground of social unrest
and revolt) and in the process reinforce our innate desire of altruism
and social cooperation versus separation and social deprivation.
Unless
we make this a priority, as Gibran wrote, our children and grandchildren will
be condemned to learn equality through
universal poverty and be forced to eventually love and cooperate with each
other through their common woes.
Half of the world is
affected by this disease of poverty and the
rest will soon be as our financial house of cards built on greed and
selfishness eventually crumbles ~ as it almost did in 2008.
Last
month President Obama signed a bill making permanent 85
billion dollars in budget cuts, which will slash billions from
benefits for the poor. The cuts will affect subsidized housing, pre-school
education programs and healthcare in underprivileged neighborhoods further
leveling our society.
The
people in power are not truly our friends
and that includes President Obama. Three minute video ~ http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/22862.html
So what is
"poverty"? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it's less than
$11,945 per year for a single person, and $23,283 for a family of four.
Nearly a quarter of
people who live in poverty have jobs, but
their pay is so low that they still don't have enough money to meet basic needs
like food, shelter, clothing and health care. That most certainly includes
veterans who are committing suicide at the rate of over 22 a day.
Here
are five ugly extremes of poverty in America ~ courtesy of Paul
Buchheit, AlterNet.
1. $2.13 per hour
vs. $3,000,000.00 per hour "Each
of the Koch brothers saw his investments grow by $6 billion in one year,
which is three million dollars per hour based on a 40-hour 'work' week. They
used some of the money to try to energy standards around the country… For CEOs
and minimum-wage workers, the difference is $5,000.00 per hour vs. $7.25 per hour."
2. A single top income could buy
housing for every homeless person in the U.S. "For
anyone still believing "they earned it," it should
be noted that most of the Forbes 400 earnings came from minimally-taxed, non-job-creating capital gains."
3. The poorest 47% of Americans
have no wealth. " In 2009 the poorest 47% of America owned ZERO PERCENT of
the nation's wealth (their debt exceeded their assets). At the other
extreme, the 400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million
families ~ 62% of America.
The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has
approximately doubled. Inflation-adjusted wages have gone down,
but the stock market has increased by over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans owns 93% of
it."
4. The U.S. is nearly the most
wealth unequal country in the entire world. "Out
of 141 countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in
the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon… According to the authors
of the Global Wealth Report, the world's wealth has doubled in ten
years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330
trillion by 2017."
5. A can of soup for a black or
Hispanic woman, a mansion and yacht for the businessman. "That's
literally true. For every one dollar of assets owned by a single black or Hispanic woman, a member of the Forbes 400
has over forty million dollars. Minority
families once had substantial equity in their homes, but after Wall Street
caused the housing crash, median wealth fell 66% for Hispanic households and 53%
for black households. Now the average single black or Hispanic woman has
about $100 in net worth."
Buchheit offers two solutions for a much
needed attack on greed ~ " End the
capital gains giveaway, which benefits the wealthy almost
exclusively and Institute a Financial
Speculation Tax, both to raise needed funds from a currently untaxed
subsidy on stock purchases, and to reduce the risk of the irresponsible
trading that nearly brought down the economy." See
article ~ http://www.alternet.org/economy/five-ugly-extremes-inequality-america-contrasts-will-drop-your-chin-floor
Obviously, the great leveler of society in
America, if not the world, is also moral poverty for we have replaced altruism
and social cooperation ~ the driving forces of evolution ~ with greed and
selfishness and the consequences are now upon us with accelerating worldwide
social unrest
and revolt.
Is it any wonder that 44% of
Americans are one financial shock away from complete ruin.
A stunning new report out of the Corporation
for Enterprise Development, finds that 44% of Americans are just one
financial shock away from complete ruin. Nearly half the nation doesn’t
have enough savings to keep them out of poverty for more than 3 months, should
they suffer a job loss, an accident, a sickness, or other financial setback.
Another recent study out of the Consumer Federation of American, found that
40% of all American households live paycheck-to-paycheck, with virtually no
savings.
Why are the rich getting richer,
and the poor getting poorer?
Because state and local governments are
taxing the super-rich at half the rate they tax the poor. That’s the conclusion
of a new study out of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which
examined state, local, property, and sales taxes around the nation. According
to the results, the poorest 20% of Americans pay an effective tax rate of 11%.
And the middle 20% pay a 9.4% rate. But guess how much the top 1% pays? Just a
measly 5.6% - half the tax rate of the poor.
A new report published by FICO Labs, finds
that the student-loan delinquency rate rose 22% from 2005 to 2007 – with
more than 15% of all students being forced into default on their loans. The
rapidly increasing price of college tuition, the cutbacks in government
assistance for students, and the non-existent job market, are all conspiring
together to saddle our next generation of leaders with enormous piles of debt.
And most seniors over 65 years of age, which
includes myself, who anticipated that their social security would be a safety
net in their golden years are facing the sad reality that their social
security check is the only thing keeping them from facing poverty ~ if not
absolute poverty.
It all starts at the top with the US
Government and the stark reality that the Federal
Reserve is propping up the entire U.S. economy and house of debt by buying at least 61
percent of the government debt issued by the Treasury Department ~ "a
trend that cannot last", Lawrence Goodman, a former Treasury official
and current president of the Center for Financial Stability, wrote in a Wall
Street Journal opinion article published last year.
"Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61 percent of the total net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008 financial crisis," Goodman wrote. Goodman also warns that U.S. economy and markets are “at risk for a sharp correction” if conditions aren’t “normalized.”
"Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61 percent of the total net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008 financial crisis," Goodman wrote. Goodman also warns that U.S. economy and markets are “at risk for a sharp correction” if conditions aren’t “normalized.”
"This not only
creates the false appearance of limitless demand for U.S. debt but also blunts
any sense of urgency to reduce supersized budget deficits." Goodman correctly
predicted.
So the national deficit doesn't matter, right?
So the national deficit doesn't matter, right?
That's
what TV economists and politicians continue
to say.
Not
quite the case ~
for
we pay for the deficit every day and WE are ultimately responsible for leveling our
society through excessive debt and eventually its
offspring, poverty.
5
minute must see Video:
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed
of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of: Confucius
Allen
L Roland
Allen
L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and
lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and
website allenroland.com He also
guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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