The alarm rings. It is 6:00AM. Time to get up. From your bedroom, you walk to the shower. From the shower, it is downstairs to the kitchen for a small breakfast. You turn the TV and your laptop computer on to get the morning news and the weather before jumping into your car for another commute to work..
Does this description at least partly describe a typical day in your life - excepting days off? If so, then consider yourself very fortunate. You are a member of the middle class. In every nation of the ex-British Empire, however, a significant number of people wake up to a completely different reality. For tens of millions of citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom, life has become an empty struggle - fraught with daily hardships, hopelessness and pure misery.
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The United Kingdom: God Save the Poor
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In a recent speech in Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron ascribed the cause of the recent riots and looting to 'immorality.' When one leads a middle class life with unlimited access to education, jobs and opportunities for socio-economic advancement, it becomes all too easy to judge others from the lofty perch of status and relative wealth. While immorality certainly was a factor in the breakdown of law and order, was individual immorality the sole cause for every act of looting and violence?
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In terms of financial assets, the United Kingdom is the fourth wealthiest country in the world. Yet, nearly 14 million of its 62 million citizens (21-22%) were living in households under the income poverty line in 2009. Few gains have been made by the British underclass over the last two years, and signs point to a recent decline in their economic fortunes.
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In a report just issued last month (August 2011) by the Office of National Statistics, the data indicates that the ranks of the 'long-term unemployed' (more than six months) has spiked over the past few months. In July, the number of jobless benefits claims also markedly increased. A double-dip recession? For Britain and much of the ex-British Empire, the first recession has not ended. It is an economic downturn with two cycles: low and lower.
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What has happened to London? It has reverted to being a tale of two cities - one for the rich and one for the poor with fewer and fewer people in between with each passing year. Over the last decade, the wealthiest ten percent have seen their incomes rise dramatically. At the same time, the poorest ten percent have experienced a decline in wealth according to the authoritative study released by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (see below).
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As for racial exclusion in the UK, the bleak statistics speak for themselves. It is bad enough that 20% of 'white' Londoners live in poverty. For UK residents with darker skin color, their reality is even more appalling. Consider and compare the poverty rates for the following four ethnic groups in the UK: Black Caribbeans 30%, Black Africans 45%, Pakistanis 55% and Bangladeshis 65%.
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Mr. Prime Minister (Cameron), when you poured out your righteous indignation upon the looters and thieves engaged in acts of 'immorality,' why did you not consider the immoral socio-economic conditions that pushed at least a few of them over the abyss? When a person has been robbed of his or her dignity by being denied a job with a living wage, forced to live in dilapidated housing and refused access to an affordable education, an inner rage, born of desperation and pain, develops - and can push good people over the edge into committing acts of destruction that they would otherwise not consider. Does not history and common sense teach us that lesson?
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It seems two forms of immorality produced the recent London riots. One was from individuals who failed to redress their grievances in a peaceful and constructive manner by organizing a non-violent protest movement consistent with democratic principles. Over the long term, a campaign for economic justice offers the only effective solution. The other form of immorality - and the most significant one - is the socio-economic composition of the state. If one lacks a 'marketable skill' or is not Caucasian, does that individual deserve to be reduced to beggary? Of course not. That would be immoral. Yet, that is the degraded life twenty percent of citizens of the UK wake up to everyday. The young people that make up the gangs of London, of which there are many non-white members, did not grow up hoping to join a gang, Mr. Prime Minister. They were socialized into that world from the conditions of social, racial and economic exclusion. As such, they know only one value - survival. For more than a few of the perpetrators, the state, by allowing such great suffering and socio-economic exclusion, is by definition 'immoral.'
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If Britons refuse to debate these heartbreaking realities of wealth inequality and socio-economic exclusion - and if the upper and middle classes continue to ignore the suffering of so many, then only God can save the poor. And there is nothing more 'radical' than that.
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The USA: 'Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness' Denied
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More than two centuries after Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" in a document that gave all citizens a right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," his American dream remains unfulfilled.
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In the wealthiest nation in the world, thirteen to seventeen percent of the population of the United States (approximately 45 million of a total population of 300 million) lives in poverty. From this figure, it is then not surprising that 44.2 million Americans - or 1 out of every 7 - survives on food stamps (a government-sponsored rations program for the indigent).
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Economically speaking, some people are clearly more equal than others. While the median household income for 'whites' averages $113,149, Hispanics and African-Americans exist on $6,325 and $5,677 respectively. A post-racial America? In terms of basic economics, the legacy of systematic racial exclusion from meaningful work and educational opportunities still tilts the American landscape against non-white minorities. This is not to suggest that the poor are all non-white in America. As poverty does not discriminate, a considerable number of 'white' Americans of European heritage are among the poor as well.
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The Great Recession from 2007 to the present has only exacerbated wealth inequality and the daily numbers of the poor, the unemployed and the chronically jobless. Although the national unemployment rate is 9.2%, the actual figure is much higher. Those who have stopped looking for work (due to the absence of jobs) and the underemployed are not accounted for in the data compiled by the Bureau of Labor.
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Several states and cities have considerably higher unemployment rates than the national average. For Californians, their unemployment rate is 12.0%. In Michigan, it is 10.9%, and residents of the Detroit area are experiencing unemployment at Great Depression levels where 15.7% live without work.
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The American dream is becoming a dream denied to an entire generation of people outside the national conversation. In the three presidential debates between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in 2008 - a year of severe economic downturn and despair, how many times were the poor or the subject of poverty mentioned? No need to count. The answer is zero. If America wishes to live up to its ideals and inspire other nations to adopt democracy, then it must begin a substantive national debate on how to end a scourge that breaks the hearts and wrecks the lives of millions of people everyday - the collective scourge of poverty, unemployment and underemployment.
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The UK and the US: Two Nations In Need Of Repair
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Is there any good news? Yes. As US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) quipped several times, man-made economic problems can be solved by man. There is absolutely no reason why citizens in two of the most democratically accomplished and wealthiest nations in the world cannot end poverty on both sides of the Atlantic. All it takes is for a small group of people to start an energetic political movement that calls for an open and honest dialogue on these hard facts. When the issues of poverty, unemployment and the nature of work then become the key components of a nation's politics, then substantive debates will occur, solutions will be offered, one compassionate policy will beget another and soon - the number of people living lives of despair will begin to diminish. Finally, a light will appear at the end of the tunnel for the virtual eradication of poverty.
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If slavery can be ended and women's rights achieved by relentless political action, then poverty can be ended in the same manner. For the sake of humanity, our societies and our own character, we cannot fail.
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(Photo: A homeless woman in London, 2011)
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Key Recommendations and Sources
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1. To read a report on poverty and food stamps in the US by the Wall Street Journal, please click onto the following link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/03/about-1-in-7-americans-receive-food-stamps/
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2. To read a recent report on the UK economy in BBC NEWS, please click onto the following link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
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3. To read an authoritative report on poverty in the UK "Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2010," please click onto the following link: http://www.poverty.org.uk/reports/mpse%202010.pdf
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4. To read a report on poverty in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2007), please click onto the following link: http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/2057.pdf
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5. To review the varying unemployment rates in the US in a report compiled by the Bureau of Labor, please click onto the following link: http://www.bls.gov/bls/unemployment.htm
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Next Week: The second installment in this series will cover poverty in Canada and Australia.
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J Roquen