Official US date recently released shows that the number of US citizens living in poverty rose to a record 46 million last year. Yet the world is encouraged to believe that the US model of ‘democracy’ and ‘economic growth’ is the one that should be followed to eliminate poverty. Surely there is a contradiction here?
The BBC reports the release of these data as follows: “The number of Americans living in poverty rose to a record 46.2 million last year, official data has shown. This is the highest figure since the US Census Bureau started collecting the data in 1959. In percentage terms, the poverty rate rose to 15.1%, up from 14.3% in 2009. The US definition of poverty is an annual income of $22,314 (£14,129) or less for a family of four and $11,139 for a single person. The number of Americans living below the poverty line has now risen for four years in a row, while the poverty rate is the biggest since 1993. Poverty among black and Hispanic people was much higher than for the overall US population last year, the figures also showed. The Census Bureau data said 25.8% of black people were living in poverty and 25.3% of Hispanic people. Its latest report also showed that the average annual US household income fell 2.3% in 2010 to $49,445. Meanwhile, the number of Americans without health insurance remained about 50 million. The data comes as the US unemployment rate remains above 9%”.
Is it not time that global organisations, aid agencies, and governments across the world stopped pretending that economic growth leads to a reduction of poverty? Capitalism fundamentally depends on the maintenance of inequalities: between rich and poor countries, between rich and poor people. The increase in US poverty revealed in these data reinforces such arguments. The US ‘system’ enables Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to acquire huge wealth, while large numbers of their compatriots are consigned to poverty.
Freedom carries responsibilities. The focus of US capitalism on the freedom of the individual at the expense of the wider public good is surely not a model that the world should be encouraged to follow. As the BBC report notes, 50 million people in the US do not have health insurance. While the rich can have the benefit of the latest medical research, such care is beyond the means of the poor.
These figures should be seen as a wake up call to economists and politicians across the world. Unfettered capitalism, fueled by a self-reinforcing cycle of individual greed, can never lead to a reduction in poverty. Only when governments act explicitly to support the most marginalised in their societies can we begin to redress the balance.