[US] ...tops in poverty among the Rich

From the Economic Times India

NEW YORK: Despite being the wealthiest country in the world with highest per capita income levels, the US also has one of the highest incidences of poverty among the rich industrialised nations, says a UN expert.

Arjun Sengupta, a well-known Indian economist, a former ambassador and an independent expert on human rights at the UN Commission on Human Rights, said here, “Despite a multitude of federal and state social benefit systems in the US, a number of problems ranging from the high cost of healthcare to lack of low-cost housing impede people struggling to get out of poverty and can been seen as a human rights abuse”.

UN statistics show that 12.7% (37m) of the population lived in poverty in ’04, while 15.7% (45.8m) were without health insurance coverage and 11.9% of households (38.2m people, including 13.9m children) experienced food insecurity.

“Resource constraints have limited the reach of the assistance programmes and social discrimination has aggravated the problems in many situations, resulting in poverty clearly seen as a violation of human rights,” Mr Sengupta declared.