opinion

The bipolar division of the rich getting ever richer and the poor getting poorer has been dramatically aggravated in the United States, which clamours for the “equality of all people” and “welfare for all”, and such phenomenon is emerging as a serious issue leading to social division.

The US Department of Agriculture has recently reported that 18 million families, or 13.5 percent of the total number of households in the US, suffered from starvation last year.

This is the largest number in the past ten years, and 6.8 million families are in a very serious state. In particular, food shortage worsened among low-income citizens during the world-sweeping pandemic.

Last year, the gap between the rich and the poor in the US reached the most serious level since the Great Economic Depression in 1929.

In the third quarter of 2023, 66.6 percent of the US total wealth was possessed by 10 percent of people earning the highest income. The wealth owned by low-income earners accounting for 50 percent of the population was only 2.6 percent of the total wealth.

Though many working people are subjected to backbreaking labour all day long, their wages are so low that they find it hard to eke out their living.

Low-income families cannot pay for their basic living, including food, rent and electricity tax, and therefore they are burdened with heavy debts.

The sky-rocketing price of goods makes people’s life more difficult. According to an opinion poll, 74 percent of respondents asserted that the increase in food prices is worsening their financial situation.

Many homeless people wander about streets that are said to be flourishing and luxurious, and their number is increasing day by day.

According to information published in December 2023, American vagrants numbered more than 650 000, a record high since statistics collection started in 2007. Forty percent of them live in streets, abandoned buildings or other places with poor conditions.

Many people who can no longer live in the abject reality are seized with extreme pessimism and despair and commit suicide. The number of suicides in the country reaches about 50 000 every year.

Even though productivity grows, broad working masses cannot be freed from poverty and all afflictions, but polarization of the rich getting ever richer and the poor getting poorer is becoming more serious. This is the reality of American society.