Why the U.N. is investigating extreme poverty in America, the world's richest nation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/01/un-extreme-poverty-america-special-rapporteur Your thoughts?
This reeks of agenda, as it is misleading. The Census bureau has TWO sets of data, yet only one gets all the attention and is described as "official". The Census Bureau also publishes something called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which adjusts for the various cost of living differences, across the U.S. The federal government has two sets of "poverty measures" it uses in the "official" publication. One for the 48 continental states and another for Alaska and Hawaii. This does not adjust for cost of living, etc. When compared side by side, there is a big difference. Below is a chart with the highest rates of poverty, adjusted for cost of living, with the added color coding of red v blue... From the Report. This is not to suggest that poverty is not a problem, but rather the political bias of the author and usage of partial data.
When same-states are compared above, where both are included, note the difference is not great. Arizona, for example, 1.6%. Or, NM, 18%. LA 11%. Personally, I see U.N. involvement in U.S. poverty study/recommendations as B.S. What is U.N. doing about bettering poverty in Africa? Frank
The SPM indicates poverty levels are higher than the official report, with the official at 13.7% and the SPM at 14.7%. Cost of living is major component left out of the official. Example: The poverty level is $24,600 across the 48 states and D.C., for a family of four. The official result being 794,000 people in Ky at or below the level, for a percent of 18.2%. By that same metric, California has 5,671,000 persons at or below, being 14.5% of population. When considering the cost of living (spm)... the number in Kentucky falls to 653,000 or 15%, whereas California increases to 7,955,000 and a percent of 20.4%. When comparing that purchasing power of $24,600 between the states, Kentucky's is equivalent to $27,765 and California's drops to $21,769. Another way to look at it would be to leave Kentucky flat at $24,600 and consider it would require California to be at $32,845, to have the equivalent standard in Kentucky. What was actually used for the SPM, was adjusting for cost of living and setting Kentucky at $21,795 and California at 27,798 which would reduce the number on Ky's roles and increase California's number.
The United Nations monitor on extreme poverty and human rights has embarked on a coast-to-coast tour of the US to hold the world’s richest nation – and its president – to account for the hardships endured by America’s most vulnerable citizens. Trump has been in office for 10 months and he is going to "Hold him accountable" for poverty in the US? I suppose it's also his fault that one in three people in Lowndes County have hookworms?