'Comparing Poverty In India & America May Surprise You' Poor Is More Than Lack of Money, Possessions
'Comparing Poverty in India and America May Surprise You.' Being poor is much more than the lack of money and possessions. By Paul Buchheit, Common Dreams, Aug. 3, 2020. - Excerpts, Edited:
The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to impoverish millions of people around the world, in both developing & advanced countries. But many Americans refuse to allow their nation to be compared to a developing country. Their poverty definitions are simplistic, based on globally calculated "dollars per day" numbers that ignore critical aspects of day-to-day survival in the world's poorest communities. This dependence on absolute numbers leads to some astoundingly misleading conclusions, as when the foundation of multi-billionaire Charles Koch claimed that Americans earning $34,000 per year are among the wealthiest 1% in the world. That amount of money is not enough to sustain a middle-class family of four in America.
- Defining Poverty: It's absurd to put a number on the quality of life. Poverty is not just the lack of money & possessions. The World Bank defines poverty as the pronounced deprivation of well-being. The UK's Poverty & Social Exclusion project lists numerous indicators of deprivation that contribute to poverty. In the U.S., pronounced deprivation of well-being is brought on by unmanageable debt, inferior or nonexistent health care, increases in homicides and suicides & drug & alcohol deaths, unaffordable housing, outlandish higher education costs, growing painkiller dependencies, steadily diminishing work opportunities, the stress of uncertain paychecks, the threat of incarceration, the pervasiveness of elevated pollution levels & food deserts, & especially the absence of the form of social cohesiveness that supports very poor residents of villages in developing countries.
- A homeless man sleeps under an American Flag blanket on a bench on Sept. 10, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of NYC.
But how does this compare to the worst forms of poverty in other countries?
- Extreme Poverty in India: From a dollar-value point of view India has much more poverty than the U.S. The great majority of India's people are in the world's poorer half, and about one-eighth of adults have less than $135 in total wealth. The impoverishment reaches extreme depths.. Many of the slum dwellers gain their sense of upward mobility by contrasting their lot with that of their less fortunate neighbors, "miserable souls" who "trapped rats & frogs & fried them for dinner." Karolina Goswami speaks of "Happy, friendly, & joyful people. In Indian slums you can find them everywhere, all the time. In the U.S. & also in many other western nations, you tend to find anger & unrest when you visit the poor areas." Planning expert Jim Chappell suggests that India has "managed to provide work that is necessary for society & meaningful enough to the individuals that they do it. The people have a place to live, very substandard though it may be." It seems in many ways as though America’s impoverished are worse off than the most destitute people of the country we believed set the standard for the world’s most indigent people.
- America, Sliding Backwards: Most Americans assure themselves that our nation's levels of poverty could never sink to the depths of the Mumbai slums. But there are clear signs of deterioration in our self-described "exceptional" nation, which owns 30 % of the world's wealth but has one-eighth of its adults in debt-ridden poverty. Disturbing parallels exist between the U.S. & India in the essentials of human survival. In a review of UN goals & a 2016 report by the OECD, Quartz found that "the U.S. scores dismally in most areas—such as healthcare, education, & violence." The U.S. also has a dismal record on poverty & inequality. Credit Suisse states 34 million American adults are among the world's poorest 10%—because of debt. That's one out of every 8 adults, approximately the same ratio as in India. It's unclear which is worse, the absence of material goods in India or unmanageable debt in America. According to the World Bank, the World Population Review, & Credit Suisse, the U.S. has greater inequality than India. In both the U.S. & India, according to Credit Suisse, the richest 10% own about three-quarters of their country's wealth.
The Economist is in denial about the likelihood of a "generalised rise in poverty" in the U.S., even with continuing loss of jobs & housing for millions of Americans. There's little question of a worldwide economic decline. Economic projections by three global organizations—OECD, IMF, & World Bank—show an expected downturn in 2020 for both the U.S. & India...
- Read The Full Article,
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/03/comparing-poverty-india-and-america-may-surprise-you
- Paul Buchheit, advocate for social & economic justice, author of numerous papers on economic inequality & cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace & Justice Leaders & Models. Paul is the author of "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017).
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