UN Report: Economic Inequality in America Same as Africa

Yesterday the United Nations Habitat agency publicized its report that, mathematically speaking, the divide between the “poor” and “rich” of some major American cities was equal to that of some cities in Africa. That is to say, the mathematical ratio – the ratio itself- (using the gini-coefficient means of measurement) was equal to some African cities. But so what ! Poverty in America has been consistent- even using the negatively misleading definition of the US Census Bureau- poverty in America has been consistent at 12% for decades now. In addition, the gini-coefficient used by UN Habitat, does not measure wealth, stored assets, savings accounts, access to credit- it makes the statement comparing inequality in US cities comparable to Africa a completely misleading and outlandish statement. The gini-coefficient merely measures the ratio of lowest average incomes with highest average incomes- in given cities- which hardly gives the real picture.

It’s an OUTRAGE for the UN to give such misleading publicity- when they are glaringly ignoring the fact that the “poor” of America still maintain standards that would be the “envy” of the middle class of much of the world. It’s simply outrageous and petty for the United Nations to ignore the huge difference between a poor person in oil rich Lagos- without running water, no food or access to a job or medical care, no credit card, living in a shack to a “poor” person in New Orleans who has shelter, food, education, air conditioning, credit cards, free medical care- the UN is being outrageous! What does it mean to be poor in America- what is the definition? The UN uses the statistics of what the US Census Bureau classifies as “poor” which is: family of four making less than $21,000 in net income (there is a scale of family members to income to determine poverty- family of four is just a median example for 2007), however, that excludes that the family is eligible for thousands of dollars of free government aid, like food stamps, housing benefits, Medicaid, capital gains, other cash benefits- meaning- we could be talking about a family of four with total benefits of $45,000-$60,000 !! that’s poor ? Relatively- maybe- in America, but certainly that is NOT poor compared to the “poor” person in Africa- who has little to no access to similar services. So, what is the point, the UN is using apples and oranges to compare “rates” of inequality between America and Africa. If you’ve ever been to Africa, or other poor areas of the world, you will see the gigantic difference of poor over there and poor over here. (We are not talking about people in America who live on the streets because of other social problems- and chose not to take advantage of free housing, medical, job assistance etc.). As a former diplomat for the United Nations for 12 years, LNR would ask the UN to compare the wealth of those of us who weren’t corrupt and those at the top who were and still are ( the majority of the leadership of UN agencies are)- let’s look at those “rates” !