As politicians point fingers
Growing poverty needs organized response
By Monica Moorehead
While the Bush administration and Congress are
shelling out virtually unlimited funds for the horrific war and
colonial occupation against the Iraqi people, they are also
waging another war here in the "land of plenty."
The casualties of that war of intensified economic
aggression are increasing.
According to a Sept. 26 U.S. Census Bureau report, those
living in poverty increased to 12.1 percent of the population
in 2002. The 2001 impoverished rate had been officially 11.7
percent. That's an additional 1.7 million people plunged into
poverty.
Today there are 34.6 million poor people in the United
States. That's defined as an individual annual income of $9,183
or less, or an income of $18,392 or less for a family of
four.
The number of those in poverty is actually much higher--if
the millions of extremely low-paid undocumented workers who
have migrated to the United States from Latin America, the
Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe are included.
The number of people living in severe poverty-those who earn
less than half the official poverty income--increased from 13.4
million in 2001 to 14.1 million in 2002. Of those, African
Americans and those living in the Midwest experienced the most
dramatic drop in their living standards.
The Census Bureau report also states that median household
income--half the households earn that amount or less--decreased
in 2002 by $500 to $42,400. Per capita income fell by 1.8
percent to $22,784, the first decline in 12 years. Per capita
income, which considers the mean income of everybody,
regardless of age, is derived by dividing the total income of
all people 15 years old and over in a geographic area by the
total population in that area.
The overall poverty rate among African Americans rose to
24.1 percent from 22.7 percent over the entire U.S. States with
a higher concentration of African Amer icans such as Arkansas,
Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, plus Washington, D.C.,
suffered a poverty increase even worse than the national
average. In the Midwest, once referred to as the "industrial
heartland," the states hit hardest are Illinois, Michigan,
Missouri and Ohio.
To make matters even worse, the Census Bureau announced in a
separate report on Sept. 30 that there are now 43.6 million
people in the United States who are without any kind of health
insurance. This marks an increase of 6 percent, or 2.4 million,
from 2001 to 2002.
Government officials say 15.2 percent of the population is
without health insurance. But if all those who are undocumented
are included, the rate would be much higher.
The overall situation will only get worse for the working
class as more jobs disappear.
The Internal Revenue Service released startling data on
Sept. 26 showing that the richest 1 percent of people living in
the United States "lost" income in 2001. But don't feel too
sorry for them, they paid $66 billion less in taxes, and will
pay even less as more tax cuts for the wealthy go into
effect.
The real causes of poverty
Once the U.S. government released the report on the growing
poverty rate, what was the Democrats' response?
Did they call for the unions to mobilize for a national
emergency march on the White House? Such a march could demand
billions of dollars in relief for the workers and the poor,
through creating millions of jobs, and health care for all.
The Democratic Party has the clout with the union leadership
to ask them to respond concretely to this national crisis.
Instead, the Democrats used the opportunity to point fingers at
the Republicans in typical demagogic fashion. The Repub licans
in turn went on the defensive. After all, the capitalist
elections are only a year away.
The Democrats are hoping that President George W. Bush's
economic policies of helping the rich get richer and the loss
of 2.7 million jobs since 2001 will prompt his ouster from the
White House in 2004.
While what they are saying is undeniable, is Bush's
pro-rich, anti-worker, anti-poor program the root cause for so
much suffering in the United States?
President Bill Clinton's 1996 so-called welfare reform
legislation and his reneging on his 1992 campaign promise to
create millions of new jobs helped lead to the deepening schism
between rich and poor.
But the policies of presidents are symptomatic of what is
happening below, in the inner workings of capitalism--a system
that feeds off profits at the expense of the full social
development of humanity.
Capitalism today has taken the form of imperialist
globalization. Worldwide socialized production has become more
privatized in ownership by a small clique of super-rich
corporations and banks. This privatization destroys local econo
mies in the poorer countries. There fore, workers from the
developing countries have become displaced in the millions as
they search for decent-paying jobs inside rich, imperialist
countries like the United States.
Just as capital investment knows no border when it comes to
super-exploitation, the workers' struggle knows no border in
the struggle to seek jobs.
If Cuba, a country lacking natural resources, can provide
quality health care for all of its citizens, why not the United
States? If Cuba can provide jobs and a guaranteed income, why
not the United States? Socialism, an economic system based on
planned production and socialized ownership of the means of
production, is the answer.
The workers and oppressed inside the United States may not
be ready to fight for socialism at this moment. But right now
an organized fight is needed to demand that the more than $1
trillion that goes to the Pentagon budget, the occupation of
Iraq and tax breaks for the rich be diverted to providing jobs,
health care, housing, education, full citizenship for
immigrants and much more.
The Oct. 25 march in Washington, D.C., is a timely
opportunity to connect the war against the working and
oppressed peoples at home with the war for empire abroad.
Reprinted from the Oct. 9, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page