Report: Inequality debunks American dream

The China Society for Human Rights Studies published an article on Tuesday laying bare the harsh reality of the serious division between the rich and the poor in the United States under the cover of its overall prosperity.

The growing division between the rich and the poor in the US has further highlighted and exacerbated the existing social and economic inequality within US society, reducing people at the bottom to a more difficult situation, according to the article titled The Growing Division Between the Rich and the Poor Leading to Increasingly Severe Human Rights Issues in the United States.

The United States has a high level of income polarization, the article said, noting that the size of its middle class continues to shrink, while poverty rates remain high.

The wealth of the top 0.1 percent of US households equaled the wealth of the bottom 90 percent, according to a report quoted by the article.

The United States has the widest gap between the rich and the poor of all Western countries, with tens of millions of US citizens living in poverty, the article quoted a United Nations special rapporteur report as saying. The article added that the American dream has rapidly been transformed into the "American illusion".

The article said that nearly half of US households are unable to maintain an adequate standard of living, low-income groups are faced with the threat of hunger and do not enjoy equal opportunities for education, the homeless are living in poor conditions and poor children and single mothers have a hard time in the United States.

Poverty-induced stress causes the deterioration of US residents' overall health, and those who have no medical insurance due to poverty cannot afford medical expenses. The division between the rich and the poor has led to a decline in the average life expectancy and increasing suicide rates in the country, the article said.

"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," it said.

The US government lacks the political will to change the structural roots that lead to the division between the rich and the poor. Instead, it has adopted a series of policies and measures that further widen the gap, the article said.

This situation is closely related to the US political system and the capital interests represented by the US government, it added. The vigorous development of money politics has turned the US government into a spokesman for the rich.

The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power, the article said.

It said the division between the rich and the poor in the US will be a stable, long-term trend, and the severe negative impact it has brought on the enjoyment and realization of the human rights of the US people will continue to worsen.

Xinhua