I watched an interesting news article very early this morning on our migrant tv channel (It was a US news broadcast).
They said that 1 in 6 US citizens now live beneath the poverty line, with that number changing to 1 in 4 for African and Hispanic Americans.
Now before anyone hoots - I am not America bashing, although those of you who have read my posts now probably realise that I am not that kind of person.
It does make me think of all the movies I have seen recently where the main character asks the question 'who needs a second job to survive, and then is still broke at the end of the week?'
Where I come from there is a saying about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and some argue that one day in the future there may not be a middle-income group, though I personally am not so sure about that. (Our left wing party is different from the US left wing party in that it's primary stakeholder is a powerful union movement, and while I am centre-right myself, I personally appreciate things like annual leave entitlements, long service leave and sick leave that a strong union movement has enshrined in the culture of my nation - hence why tourist buses in Europe and the US have half their buses filled with young Aussies taking two months paid vacation at age 21).
Anyway, I wonder if the US has already reached the point where the rich have become super rich and the poor have become very poor and I cannot help but wonder what it will be like to live there in twenty five years time. As it is, when people move to the US to live we tell them 'don't get sick!'
Again - not America bashing, since it's my next big holiday location, just interested in peoples thoughts on the topic.
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They said that 1 in 6 US citizens now live beneath the poverty line, with that number changing to 1 in 4 for African and Hispanic Americans.
Now before anyone hoots - I am not America bashing, although those of you who have read my posts now probably realise that I am not that kind of person.
It does make me think of all the movies I have seen recently where the main character asks the question 'who needs a second job to survive, and then is still broke at the end of the week?'
Where I come from there is a saying about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and some argue that one day in the future there may not be a middle-income group, though I personally am not so sure about that. (Our left wing party is different from the US left wing party in that it's primary stakeholder is a powerful union movement, and while I am centre-right myself, I personally appreciate things like annual leave entitlements, long service leave and sick leave that a strong union movement has enshrined in the culture of my nation - hence why tourist buses in Europe and the US have half their buses filled with young Aussies taking two months paid vacation at age 21).
Anyway, I wonder if the US has already reached the point where the rich have become super rich and the poor have become very poor and I cannot help but wonder what it will be like to live there in twenty five years time. As it is, when people move to the US to live we tell them 'don't get sick!'
Again - not America bashing, since it's my next big holiday location, just interested in peoples thoughts on the topic.