The hidden side of the gap between rich and poor in the "promised land" of America

Homelessness and poverty

Kaels Raybon is homeless in San Francisco. Photo: Straitstimes

Sitting amid a jumble of meager belongings on a San Francisco sidewalk, Kaels Raybon began to come to terms with the bad choices he had made.

Raybon was a drug addict and was imprisoned. After his release from prison, Raybon's wife and four children, including two sons and two daughters, also disowned him. Other family members also died, leaving Raybon with nowhere to live. Up to now, this 41-year-old man has spent 15 years living on the streets.

America is considered a land of equal opportunity for all. However, like many other countries, there is a thin line between life on the streets and life under a roof. For a former convict like Raybon, the opportunity to find a job is even more difficult.

“Emotionally, I’m like a cripple. I see kids and dads, and I want to be like that. But it’s not in my hands,” Raybon said of his children.

Raybon's children came to visit him, but Raybon was emotionally torn at the time.

“I both wanted them to stay and wanted them to go, because I had nothing to feed them,” Raybon said.

Raybon is one of the evidences that the gap between rich and poor and inequality is getting worse in the US - where there are currently about 500,000 homeless people. This seems to be completely contrary to the image of a country considered the richest, most powerful and most modern technology in the world.

Homelessness, however, is just the tip of the poverty iceberg in the United States. Outside of major cities, there are pockets of persistent poverty. The definition of poverty varies from region to region, but in the United States, the common measure, based on 2015 data, is an annual income of less than $12,092.

There are currently about 41 million Americans living in poverty, accounting for about 12.7% of the population, of which about 46% are in “extreme poverty”, meaning annual income is below $6,165. About 1.5 million households in the US, including 2.8 million children, live in poverty, living on less than $2/person/day.

“These are people who can’t find work… they don’t qualify for other welfare programs or they live in remote areas. They don’t have access to the safety net or the job market,” Premilla Nadesen, a professor at Barnard College in New York, wrote in the Washington Post in December 2017.

Widening gap

The rich-poor divide is a social reality in the US. Photo: Reuters

The gap between rich and poor in the United States is widening. In 1981, the top 1% of Americans earned 27 times as much as the bottom 50%. Today, that figure is 81 times as much.

Dr. Philip Alston, a law professor at New York University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Poverty, has released a 15-page report on poverty. Not wanting to tackle the issue halfway, Alston embarked on a 15-day trip to six states and cities in the United States to learn about the reality of poverty last December.

Dr. Alston recognizes that it is the culture and the cognitive environment that makes poverty worse in America. According to him, in America there is a perception that if someone lives in difficult circumstances, “it is their fault because opportunity is equal for everyone.”

On Christmas Eve, President Donald Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law. Analysts say the bill will help ease the burden on the middle class, but it will ultimately benefit the wealthy, or in other words, make the rich richer.

“We just saw $1.5 trillion go into the hands of the super-rich in America. That money could be used to alleviate poverty if the government was determined. But it hasn’t,” said Mr. Alston.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nadasen said the welfare system in the US has been declining since the 1970s.

“Labor rules to protect workers’ rights have been dismantled, while spending on education and community programs has declined. The poor have suffered the most. The lack of a safety net has led to a rise in poverty. The United States now has the highest child poverty rate of any developed country, at 25 percent,” said Nadesen.

Social reality

A homeless person sleeps on a chair in New York. Photo: Getty

On a recent trip, Dr. Alston saw homes in rural Alabama surrounded by puddles of sewage.

“The Department of Health has no idea how many households are currently living in this situation and they have no plan to find out or address it,” said Mr Alston.

Dr. Alston observed that most of the residents in these rural areas are people of color. Although racial segregation remains a widespread problem in the United States, it is a mistake to assume that African-American or black minority communities have higher poverty rates. This is true across all ethnic groups, with white Americans outnumbering black Americans by 8 million.

Rudy Damian, 53, became homeless in San Francisco after struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and a run-in with the law. Damian is now back on his feet and working part-time as a security guard, but still can’t afford to rent a house. Damian said he has a sister and a 94-year-old mother, but they both avoid him.

“They were disappointed with my lifestyle. I was alone. I decided to leave home and that isolation lasted throughout my life,” Damian shared.

Family breakdown and lack of community support have left homeless people in the US isolated. Meanwhile, Dr. Alston also mentioned how society views the divide between rich and poor in the US. The rich are often described as “hardworking, patriotic, and the driving force behind economic success,” while the poor are seen as “wastes, failures, and evil.”

“As long as we keep the mindset that we’re only living for ourselves, then maybe one day, when my brother stumbles, I’ll be able to say to him, ‘You had the same chance as me. You failed, and you have to deal with it,’ instead of saying, ‘I can’t let that happen. I’m going to do something,’” Dr. Alston said.

In Los Angeles, Dr. Alston learned that the goal of local officials was simply to raise the standard of living in Skid Row, an area less than 1 square kilometer in size but home to hundreds of homeless people, to the level of a Syrian refugee camp.

“One of the richest countries in the world, and we’re just aiming to match the standards of a Syrian refugee camp to a population in one of the richest cities in America. It’s mind-boggling!” Dr. Alston added.