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Sunday, December 3rd, 2017

Why the UN is investigating extreme poverty … in America, the world’s richest nation

Author:     Ed Pilkington
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Friday 1 December 2017 13.00 EST
 Link: Why the UN is investigating extreme poverty … in America, the world’s richest nation
Stephan:   A small skim of America is prospering outrageously. But for more than 41 million Americans grinding poverty is their day-to-day experience, and another 20 million are just getting by. Poverty has become so pervasive that the United Nations is sending in teams to assess how bad things have become. Here's a story you may not know about, and may not want to know about, but this is America. This is who we are, and it is a trend that is growing.

Deana Lucion, who lives in McDowell County, West Virginia. Life expectancy for men in McDowell County is 64 years old – the same as for men in Namibia.
Credit: Jeff Swensen

The United Nations monitor on extreme poverty and human rights has embarked on a coast-to-coast tour of the US to hold the world’s richest nation – and its president – to account for the hardships endured by America’s most vulnerable citizens.

The tour, which kicked off on Friday morning, will make stops in four states as well as Washington DC and the US territory of Puerto Rico. It will focus on several of the social and economic barriers that render the American dream merely a pipe dream to millions – from homelessness in California to racial discrimination in the Deep South, cumulative neglect in Puerto Rico and the decline of industrial jobs in West Virginia.

With 41 million Americans officially in poverty according to the US Census Bureau (other estimates put that figure much higher), one aim […]

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