Citizens living in poor conditions in the United States
The United States is a developed nation with one of the best performing economies worldwide, but it is so unfortunate that there are citizens who live in poor living conditions. Surprisingly, the poverty level in the United States is still high in the 21st century. According to the United States Census Bureau in 2018, the rate of poverty stood at 11.8 percent, a slight decline from 12.3 percent in 2017 (Abowd 581). The country is well endowed with natural resources like crude oil and engages in other income-generating activities like export of foods and beverages, aircraft engines, and spare parts, and car tires. There are few individuals who channel the returns from the above resources into their pockets, rather than focusing on developmental projects that would result in the overall development of the country and thus reduce poverty levels. Ironically, these resources only benefit few capitalists at the expense of the majority who need better living standards. Evans & Jonathan (340), noted that the concept of capitalism has contributed to the division and destruction of the Americans. However, there are individuals who think that the level of poverty has been addressed through creation of employment opportunities, and improvement of the economy and therefore people are able to cater for basic needs. Thus the opposition believes that currently there is no poverty in the United States. Being a developed nation, the United States needs a revolution to ensure that poverty is eradicated and citizens live to the dream of America. Among the factors that have resulted in poor living conditions among the American citizens include corruption, exploitation of people, slavery, drug and alcohol abuse, although some opposition believe that poverty has been eradicated and those living in poor conditions is their personal decision.
Corruption has immensely contributed to poor living conditions of several Americans. Corruption scandals have been regular in the political systems and government in the United States. Americans have to acknowledge that they are yet to experience institutional integrity associated with politics. Corruption has been present in both the executive and legislative arms of government. For instance, during the Obama regime, Attorney General Eric Holder was associated with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun walking scandal (Keene 89). The attorney general was accused by the House of Representatives for withholding documents that were associated with the scandal. Eric was not convicted of any crimes, and he still continued serving in his position despite the corruption allegations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed firearms manufacturers to sell firearms illegally and this resulted in an increase of crime scenes where people were killed and property destroyed leading to poor living conditions of the affected citizens. Currently, Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump’s regime was accused of corruption for his gain, increasing his salary without approval from relevant authorities and extravagant spending (Panitch 25). The implication of this corruption case was that people would still continue to live in poor environmental conditions. People hardly report minor corruption cases that translate into bigger scandals, and consequently result in poor living conditions.
Another factor that has contributed to poor living conditions is exploitation of people. Instead of the American citizen building their fellow citizens, they have been exploiting them for personal gain. Those with authority have continued to amass themselves exorbitant wealth at the expense of the poor citizens (Brito et al. 38). Hedges and Sacco in what they termed as the sacrifice zones, capitalists amass themselves more wealth at the expense of those living in the sacrifice zones. People in the sacrifice zones live in extreme poverty. America is divided into the rich and the poor. In their book of Days of Destruction, Days or Revolt, Hedges and Sacco asserted that “It’s like a jungle, where a jungle is survival of the fittest…Unions communities, people – everybody’s gonna have to learn to accept that in the United States you have a capitalist society, and that capitalism, from a business standpoint, is survival of the most productive” (Hedges & Joe 168). The poor Americans have increased the prevalence of their exploitation by the rich because they never report exploitation cases to relevant authorities for appropriate measures to be taken. One form of exploitation that people have been exposed to is being forced to live in dilapidated houses, otherwise they would face eviction. In addition, the poor face exploitation in their incomes where they rarely receive a salary increment unlike the rich whose income keeps on increasing.
In addition, slavery has made many Americans live in poor conditions. It is very unfortunate that a developed nation like the United States is associated with slavery in the modern times. Tickler et al. (5), asserted that in 2018, the United States had around 400,000 individuals living as modern slaves, and providing forced labor in United States’ companies. Hedges and Sacco stated that slavery existed in the sacrifice zones where people faced exploitation, and the workers provided labor for long working hours with meagre pays. As a result, such people continue to languish in poverty. United States’ citizens provide slave labor in domestically through cleaning, childcare and cooking services whereby they receive minimal pay or sometimes the employers may deny them salaries, despite working extra hours. The slaves work on hand-to-mouth basis, and some even lack money for acquiring basic needs. The American citizens have caused the existence of slavery in the country because despite the slave Americans, there are other slaves who are trafficked from other countries. Slavery paints a bad picture of the United States in the global map. Hedges and Sacco hinted that slaves were exposed to inhuman hours of work, paid meagre wages and faced murder whenever they portrayed objection to the slavery (Tickler et al. 7)
Besides, drug and alcohol abuse have increased the chances of American citizens living in poor conditions. Hedges and Sacco in the chapter of Days of Theft attempted to demonstrate the case of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota whereby the residents, particularly Indians were fighting to regain their culture while at the same time struggling with poverty and alcohol and drug abuse (Warne et al. 1562). Most of the population in the Pine Ridge are the American-Indians are they are termed as the poorest in the United States. Warne et al. (1566), hinted that the population has a poverty rate of 53.75 percent. Unemployment rate is also high in the area, and there are high chances of people engaging in drug abuse as a result of idleness. In addition, the population is the second with the worst health outcomes, and it is estimated that 1 in 4 infants born in Pine Ridge has fetal alcohol spectrum or fetal alcohol syndrome condition (Warne et al. 1569). Another significant statistic is that at least 85 percent of families in Pine Ridge are affected by excessive alcohol drinking, and thus such families continue to live in poor living conditions (Warne et al. 1573).
However, there are individuals who feel that the government has done whatever it takes to curb the poverty level in the United States, and any poverty that maybe existence is a personal volition. The opposition argues that the government has created adequate employment opportunities for its citizens, and thus they are able to acquire basic needs and thus improve their living conditions. For instance, the employment rate in 2019 stood at 60.8 percent, and the opposition argues that with this statistics many people are able to cater for their lives (Pollak 249). In addition, the opposition asserts that the private sector has been working tirelessly with the government to increase employment levels. For example, September of last year, the private sector created approximately 135, 000 jobs (Pollak 256). Therefore the opposition if highly convinced that the government in conjunction with the private sector are working harder to fight poverty levels in the country, and the option of whether to live in poverty rests with the individuals. Besides, the opposition argued that cases like exploitation and slavery are an individual option. People are the ones who accept to be exploited and forced into slavery.
The American citizens need to realize that they have highly contributed to the suffering of their fellow citizens. In the case of Pine Ridge, the government has done little to solve the unemployment, education level and health conditions of the citizens living in that particular area. In addition, the citizens themselves have not resolved to look for employment in other areas. Instead, the citizens have opted to engage in alcohol and drug abuse resulting in poor health outcomes. In the case of exploitation, citizens hardly report on any exploitation cases, and therefore the relevant authorities may not be aware of much exploitation cases. Additionally, people also accept to be treated in forced labor and they are paid low wages or denied their salaries. Whenever, denied their salaries or mistreated in their working environments, the individuals may not notify the concerned authorities, and this increases the prevalence of slavery (Keene 104). Therefore such individuals still continue to live in poor conditions. However, the above cases can be avoided in future. For instance, people should say no to slavery. In the modern times the government and community organizations need to sensitize the public on the essence of shunning slavery, exploitation and reporting any cases involving the above vices to prevent further dehumanization. Anticorruption bodies need to be independent and effective in fighting corruption. Those convicted of corruption cases should face the full force of the law. In addition, the government should improve employment, education and health levels in all areas, as one way of helping people to live in better conditions.
In conclusion, it is unfortunate and worrying that in a developed country like the United States, there are citizens living in poor conditions. Surprisingly, the Americans have caused the suffering of their fellow citizens. Those in authority have resolved in amassing themselves huge wealth at the expense of the poor citizens. Corruption, slavery, exploitation of people and drug and alcohol abuse have contributed to poor living conditions among the Americans. However, there is opposition who believe that there is no poverty in the United States since it has been fully addressed by the working collaboration between the government and the private sector through creation of more employment opportunities. Hedges and Sacco also hinted that the status of poor living conditions is not a life issue and there is still a glimmer of hope, which lies in the hands of the citizens, and not the political class.
Work Cited
Pollak, Micah. 2020 Northwest Indiana Economic Outlook. Center for Economic Education & Research, School of Business & Economics, Indiana University Northwest, 2019: 245-267.
Warne, Donald, et al. “Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) among American Indians in South Dakota and associations with mental health conditions, alcohol use, and smoking.” Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 28.4 (2017): 1559-1577.
Tickler, David, et al. “Modern slavery and the race to fish.” Nature communications 9.1 (2018): 1-9.
Brito, Cristina, et al. “Digging into our whaling past: Addressing the Portuguese influence in the early modern exploitation of whales in the Atlantic.” Environmental History in the Making. Springer, Cham, 2017. 33-47.
Hedges, Chris, and Joe Sacco. Days of destruction, days of revolt. Bold Type Books, 2014: 141-189.
Keene, Shima D. Corruption, Legitimacy, and Stability: Implications for the US Army. US Army War College Carlisle United States, 2017: 76-124
Panitch, Leo. “Democratizing the Party and the State.” From the Streets to the State: Changing the World by Taking Power (2018): 25.
Abowd, John M. “The us census bureau adopts differential privacy.” Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining. 2018: 564-634.
Evans, M. D. R., and Jonathan Kelley. “Communism, capitalism, and images of class: Effects of reference groups, reality, and regime in 43 nations and 110,000 individuals, 1987-2009.” Cross-Cultural Research 51.4 (2017): 315-359.