The world sees America’s poverty. Why can’t we?

A recent report re-affirms that America is struggling with poverty and income inequality.

Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, released a statement in December. The United Nations appointed Alston, a volunteer without ties to any government or organization, to research poverty in the United States.

Alston found that “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion.” Voters are disenfranchised and have little impact on the elections, according to Alston. His research shows that stories of people living in poverty as scammers of welfare are “contradicted by the facts.” He also writes about homelessness, a lack of sewage sanitation in rural areas, high child poverty rates, and high infant mortality rates. The complete list is too long for this column.

Alston gives one vivid example of where America falls short. Many children are eligible for dental care, but for some adults, the emergency room is the only place to get treated. And unfortunately what’s available is the treatment of last resort — pulling painful teeth. “Poor oral hygiene and disfiguring dental profiles lead to unemployability in many jobs, being shunned in the community, and being unable to function effectively,” according to Alston. Missing teeth means missing job opportunities. 

Alston’s statement reflects on the tax policy as it was discussed in December (and passed after this statement was released), saying the policies will help America “become the most unequal society in the world.”

The rhetoric surrounding the new tax policy pushes the intent of growth of the United States’ economy, so I researched trickle down economics. It’s been debunked for a long time. In 1978, an academic journal, Economic Inquiry, published “Poverty and Economic Growth: Trickle Down Peters Out.” In the abstract, the authors write that after their investigation, “Our findings indicate that the contribution of growth has been overstated, that much of the past success has been illusory, and that poverty will be more intractable in the future.” Trickle down doesn’t work on poverty. And we had this figured out in 1978!

Fast forward to 2015. The International Monetary Fund published their findings about income inequality, “Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective.” One purpose of the report is to show why it’s beneficial to create policies that help the poor and middle class.  The report states “Previous IMF studies have found that income inequality …negatively affects growth and its sustainability.” The report also suggests that increased income for the poor and a stable middle class help economic growth. It also states that inequality hurts investment because of “economic, financial and political instability.”

Since we’ve known about income inequality for some time and haven’t addressed it fully, it’s no surprise that the United Nations report shows the holes through which Americans can tumble into poverty.

I’ll end with one additional observation from Alston about American women, who are “more exposed to violence, more vulnerable to sexual harassment, discriminated against in the labor market.” When services are cut, women, usually the primary care-givers, are often the ones who suffer. He states “male-dominated legislatures rarely pay any heed to this consequence of the welfare cutbacks they impose.” In other words, men are making decisions that negatively affect women. Sound familiar?

The best solution to our income inequality in America is to encourage lower and middle class stability, the opposite of what’s happening now on a national level. The rest of world sees America’s poverty and income inequality as a problem. Why can’t we?

This is the opinion of Linda Larson, an Avon resident. She is the author of "A Year in My Garden" and "Grow It. Eat It." which won the national Ben Franklin Award. Her column is published the second Thursday of the month. She welcomes comments at notes4linda@hotmail.com.