US poverty and inequality: Obama
meets Pope
-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL
_______________
Capitalism, which uses ordinary work force as raw
material, squeezing and exploiting it for extra profits, is incompatible with equality
and it only promotes poverty, escalates social
tensions.
Talk of equality and
poverty elimination under the
conditions of capitalism, therefore, is absolutely
ridiculous. America which developed on capitalist ideals and
also officially declared capitalism as their
key ideology occasionally tries to talk about
giving people equality status
and poverty reduction without in fact undertaking any
worthwhile steps.
Even as the Pentagon-CIA keeps planning for future
wars alongside continuing the ongoing terror wars in Mideast plus South Asia
for resource cum routes' hunt,the US President Barack Obama has
called for action to remedy what he described as profound income inequality and
a lack of social mobility in the US. He called for a rise in the minimum
wage and for stronger collective bargaining laws, among other measures. He also
said his embattled healthcare overhaul would ease one part of American
families' financial struggle.
The White House announced US President Barack
Obama will visit Pope Francis on a European tour in March, looking forward to
discussing their "shared commitment” to fighting poverty and growing
inequality. The US president quoted Pope Francis in a speech about income
inequality on December. The March visit will be the first meeting between the
two men.
The US president said the country had accepted
higher levels of economic inequality than other developed nations because
Americans are convinced that America is a place where even if you're born with
nothing, with a little hard work you can improve your own situation over time.
Gap
The income gap between the richest 1% of
Americans and the other 99% widened to a record margin in 2012, according to an
analysis of tax filings. Income inequality in the US has been
growing for almost three decades. The top 1% of US earners collected 19.3% of
household income, breaking a record previously set in 1927. Overall, the
pre-tax incomes of the top 1% of households rose 19.6% compared to a 1%
increase for the rest of Americans. And the top 10% of richest households
represented just under half of all income in the year, according to the
analysis.
Income includes wages, private pension
payments, dividends and capital gains from the sale of stocks and other assets,
but it does not include unemployment benefits or federal public pension
benefits, known as Social Security. While the crash of 2007-09 adversely
affected top earners, benefits of rising corporate profits and stock prices
since then have largely gone to the richest, according to the study.
Incomes among the richest fell more than 36%
between 2007-09, compared with a decrease of 11.6% for the rest of Americans.
But in the last three years, 95% of all income gains have gone to the richest
1%. The top 1% of American households had income above $394,000 (£250,000) last
year. The top 10% had income exceeding $114,000.
While acknowledging the political difficulty
of passing any such government action with a divided and acrimonious Congress,
Obama's speech in Washington DC gave a broad overview of economic themes for
the rest of his term. Obama, a Democrat, said rising income inequality had been
accompanied in recent decades by diminishing opportunities for social mobility.
Obama faulted tax cuts for wealthy Americans,
declining investment in schools and infrastructure, and laws that have weakened
labour unions, compounded by broad structural changes in the global economy.
"The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose
a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand
for around the globe," he said.
Obama said Americans can't tackle inequality if the economic pie
is shrinking or stagnant. "The idea that so many children are born
into poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth is heartbreaking enough. The
idea that a child may never be able to escape that poverty because she lacks a
decent education or healthcare, or a community that views her future as their
own, that should offend all of us and it should compel us to action."
Remedy
To remedy the growing income inequality, Obama
called for a rise in the national minimum wage, currently $7.25 (£4.43) - as
low as it was during the administration of President Harry Truman in the 1950s
in terms of spending power. Several states and cities have raised their own
minimum wages, most recently New Jersey and Washington DC.
A proposal is currently being floated in the
Senate to increase the national minimum wage to $10.10 in three steps and tie
further increases to changes in the cost of living, but its path even through
the Democratic-controlled Senate is unclear. Obama suggested targeted programs
for cities and regions hardest hit by the 2008 recession and other sea changes
in the US economy, universal preschool education for young children, a shoring-up
of the US pension and social safety net schemes, and laws to make it easier for
workers to organize into labour unions. Obama also pressed Congress to extend
unemployment benefits to 1.3 million people who have been unemployed long-term,
set to expire toward the end of December. Additional weeks of benefits have
been approved since 2009, but recently, a senior Republican congressman,
Representative Tom Cole, said his party opposed an extension.
Obama said US government policy must remain
relentlessly focused on strengthening the economy. "It may be true that in
today's economy, growth alone does not guarantee higher wages and
incomes," he said, but USA can't tackle inequality if the economic pie is
shrinking or stagnant."The US president argued rising inequality was
eroding trust in institutions and reducing civic and community involvement. And
he said the "growing gap" was as much about class as it was about
race.
While in Rome, Obama will also meet Italian
President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Enrico Letta. He will visit the
Netherlands for a nuclear security summit, and will meet Nato and Belgian
officials in Belgium. His visit to Belgium will include his first official trip
to two EU institutions - the European Council and the European Commission.
Among those Obama is scheduled to meet is Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen.
Missing will?
The inequality rise may have been in part
because of sales of stock to avoid higher capital gains taxes in January.
Despite recent policy changes aiming at lessening income inequality, the
measures were relatively small in comparison to policy changes that took place
coming out of the Great Depression. Therefore, it seems unlikely that US income
concentration will fall much in the coming years.
Poverty and inequality have stayed because of
pro-capitalist ideology the White House has pursued for too long, also as the
result of unwillingness to crate the right environment for change by the policy
makers and plan executers.
Policy and practice determine the outcome of
any state project and measures to combat poverty and inequality should be
sincere enough!. One has to wait and see how the dialogue between Obama
and the Pope would herd an revolutionary change in capitalist world, led by unilateral
USA.
It seems the American dream of global
capitalism by all means, including terror wars, is slowly changing possibly for
the better. It is unfortunate that US president is unable to get top
politicians, seeking self-centered huge capitalist profits, onboard
to help reduce US poverty and inequality.
Obama's major worry now is his approval
ratings have plummeted in recent weeks amid that law's botched rollout. He
feels unless his regime does something tangible it may not be easy for the
Democrats to win the next Presidency.
The issue here is whether USA can become a
normal nation without hidden war agendas so as to focus on domestic
policy very seriously to commit to people’s genuine problems.
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