UN: US Poverty Is Trump’s Fault

The UN has appointed an Australian professor who moved to the US to teach at NYU, because he prefers the wages, to denigrate the abysmal poverty in the US as a result of Trump policies. Using figures through 2016, which would cover through the Obama administration, Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston, is actually imposing these numbers on Trump because he ‘believes’ the Trump policies will negatively impact poverty…

One such statistic he quotes is the fact that 41 million people in the US or 12.7%, live in poverty, while 1/3 are children – the highest for any industrialized nation.   Digging a bit more we find that the census also states that 20% of those people are non-citizens and 10% are naturalized citizens. In addition 30% of those in poverty are not working at all, 25% have not graduated from high school, and 15.4 million of adults not working have a disability.  Of course these statistics are – from the Obama era…

If we extrapolate the non and naturalized citizens the figure is reduced to roughly 9% overall.   Nearly half that of Germany…  Oops.

Statistically, Australia, the home country of Philip Alston, has a rather abysmal record of it’s own that should be illustrated:   In 2014, the poverty rate was 12.8%, social assistance payments had not increased since 1994, poverty rates were growing, the indigenous population suffer the greatest and ¼ of their homeless are children under the age of 18.

But Australia prefers not to measure poverty and does not provide a real number, estimates are speculative and statistically defined by private organizations. Obviously, they would rather not discuss this issue with the world at large…or the UN.

Germany as well refuses to measure poverty on a national level although charities indicate the rise of poverty is indicative of ‘unemployment’ (gosh darn, how many committees were necessary to determine that tidbit) and as of 2014 was estimated to be 15.5%.   That would be before the massive immigration policies of Merkel which would have added an additional 2.5 million to the roles or roughly 3.4%, increasing the poverty level to about 19%.  Hmmm, ten points higher than the extrapolated US rate.

Oddly, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, hasn’t remarked on these Australian or German issues, nor is he remarking on Obama, Bush and Clinton policies wherein the US poverty rate was roughly 13.2%, instead he is blaming the US rates on – Trump. Within his own version of ‘extrapolations’ that he has not presented in any mathematical or statistical manner.

Presenting his report to the UN later this month, Alston visited Puerto Rico, rural Alabama and Skid Row.

Skid Row sits in the heart of LA. The elected mayor, Eric Garcetti is a Democrat whose alma mater includes, the London School of Economics.   Prior to his election, he served on the California Board for Human Rights Watch, a Soros funded organization.   LA continues to have the highest poverty rate of any large city in the US which does not extrapolate for the high cost of living.  Alston’s report does not mention these statistics.

Puerto Rico is by far the worst off with a poverty rate at 46% despite the World Bank classifying it as a ‘high income economy’. It is however, not a part of the US, but is a US territory meaning it’s highly inefficient government is guided by regulations and laws of the US Federal government.  

In June 2016 Obama instituted PROMESA in Puerto Rico which included: an oversight board, reduction of minimum wage, increased austerity programs, and non-governmental interference.   The ‘oversight board’ is a committee of 7 appointed by President Obama to make sure the government doesn’t spend money on stuff it shouldn’t… the board includes some bankers, Jerry Brown’s former Finance Director, and a few US law professors.  It isn’t working very well.

Alabama is a country of its own. Poverty dates back hundreds of years made worse by the Civil War and Reconstruction.   Many left the state and only tenants were left to scrounge a living off land they didn’t own requiring children to work instead of go to school, and a descension into Hell ensued. Despite numerous programs aimed at bringing jobs, skills and education, the state continued to fall behind dramatically.

While Wikipedia claims that ‘white rural interests’ dominated the government policies including slave cropping, a quick look found that the Democrat Party ruled Alabama up until 1987.    The economy began expanding in 1990 with the automobile industry being the primary driver followed by steel, iron, paper and lumber. In addition, a driver for expanding commercial interests is the fact that Alabama has a significantly low individual and corporate tax rate, ranking it the second lowest in the country.

While Mr. Rapporteur Alston would focus on these three particular areas as demonstrative negatives is curious.   The fact that the issues underlying poverty in all three can date back hundreds of years is even more curious…  Unless the greater agenda is to create a dark cloud over Trump…   While Republican capitalism has begun to draw Alabama out of its dirge, Democrat policies continue to manage LA and Puerto Rico.

Even curiouser and curiouser is the fact that the Trump administration has basically instituted a tax policy whereby the first $25,000 of a married couple’s income is taxed at $0 can be observed as a failure by Alston would bring to question his intellect and/or common sense.  

Maybe He Didn’t Do his Homework while at London School of Economics…