The UN investigates inequality in the US

The United Nations monitor, The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, a New York University law professor on extreme poverty and human rights,  has embarked on a coast-to-coast tour of the US to hold the world’s richest nation to account for the hardships endured by America’s most vulnerable citizens. 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. As well as sky-high house prices and gentrification fueling a homelessness crisis in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco

The USA fails to recognize fundamental social and economic rights such as the right to healthcare, a roof over your head or food to keep hunger at bay. The federal government has consistently refused to sign up to the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights – arguing that these matters are best left to individual states. Such an emphasis on states’ rights has spawned a patchwork of provision for low-income families across the country. Republican-controlled states in the Deep South provide relatively little help to those struggling from unemployment and lack of ready cash

41 million Americans officially in poverty according to the US Census Bureau (other estimates put that figure much higher).  In its 2016 state of the nation review, the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality placed the US rank at the bottom of the league table of 10 well-off countries, in terms of the extent of its income and wealth inequality. It also found that the US hit rock bottom in terms of the safety net it offers struggling families, and is one of the worst offenders in terms of the ability of low-income families to lift themselves out of poverty – a stark contrast to the much-vaunted myth of the American dream.

“Despite great wealth in the US, there also exists great poverty and inequality,” Alston said before the start of the visit.  However, Alston is reserving his comments until the end of the tour. 

David Grusky, director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Stanford, said globalization combined with a host of domestic policies have generated a vast gulf between rich and poor. “The US has an extraordinary ability to naturalize and accept the extreme poverty that exists even in the context of such extreme wealth.” 

The Trump administration in its first year has taken a radically hostile approach towards communities in need. He has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to abolish Obamacare in a move that would deprive millions of low-income families of healthcare insurance, was widely criticized for his lackluster response to the hurricane disaster in Puerto Rico that has left thousands homeless and without power, and is currently pushing a tax reform that would benefit one group above all others: the super rich.

 In his previous role as UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Alston blamed the Obama administration and the CIA for killing many innocent civilians in attacks he said were of dubious international legality.