41 million living in poverty. 80 percent of U.S. adults face near-poverty, unemployment.
Poverty in the United States is extensive and is deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor, while rewarding the rich, a UN human rights investigator has found.
Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, called on US authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than "punishing and imprisoning the poor".
At the end of the day, however, particularly in a rich country, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power,"
While welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed, US President Donald Trump's tax reform has awarded "financial windfalls" to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in a report.
"Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world's highest incarceration rate...and the highest obesity levels in the developed world,"
