The Growing Division Between the Rich and the Poor Leading to Increasingly Severe Human Rights Issues in the United States

Poor children and single mothers have a hard time in the United States. The BBC reported on December 11, 2017, that according to 2016 figures, there were 13.3 million poor children in the United States, accounting for 18 percent of the US population under the age of 18. The website of the Urban Institute reported on May 18, 2017, that nearly 9 million children grew up in persistently poor households, accounting for 11.8 percent of the total US child population, and in the meantime, these persistently poor children were significantly less likely to improve their economic status than their non-poor and less-poor peers after they come of age. Many single mothers and their families in the United States live a difficult life. The Single Mothers Survival Guide website reported on September 17, 2016, that among the more than 9.6 million single US mothers, 23.2 percent were unemployed throughout the year and only 22.4 percent of the single mothers who were fired or looking for jobs could receive unemployment benefits, and that about 7.83 million children raised by single mothers lived below the poverty line.

Part 3 The Division Between the Rich and the Poor Remaining a Difficult Problem to Solve in the United States

The causes of the division between the rich and the poor in the United States are not something occasional or periodic. The so-called US democratic system deprives its citizens of economic, social, and cultural rights, leading to a growing gap between the rich and the poor and the long-unsolved problem of poverty that affects tens of millions of people.

(1) Structural Causes Leading to the Division Between the Rich and the Poor

First, disorderly competition in the capital market and hostile takeovers have resulted in fewer middle-income jobs in the United States. The Gallup website reported on September 20, 2016, that high-priced acquisitions of rival businesses resulted in a significant reduction in middle-income jobs, and that in the recent 20 years, the number of companies listed on the American stock exchanges had plummeted from 7,300 to about 3,700, and bankrupted small businesses had significantly outnumbered newly-established ones in recent years. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on December 8, 2017, that in 2017, the unemployment rate of young US citizens was as high as 15.9 percent and that due to insufficient full-time jobs, about 4.8 million people who wanted to work full-time jobs could only engage in part-time jobs.

Second, the structural rise in housing prices has made housing more unaffordable for low-income people in the United States. In 2018, the National Association of Realtors of the United States conducted a survey on home buyers and found that due to rising housing prices and interest rates, housing affordability declined and house purchasing was no longer an easy decision for home buyers. "The State of the Nation's Housing 2018" released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies showed that in 20 urban areas, more than 30 percent of middle-class households spent at least 30 percent of their incomes on housing. The website of The Washington Post reported on August 6, 2018, that poor urban residents had experienced sharp increases in rent in recent years. According to the report, since 2011, the nation's minimum rent has increased by 18 percent, and it is particularly noteworthy that since the summer of 2017, in San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and other places, the rent for the high-income group has fallen, while the rent for the poorest group has risen.