North America Observation丨U.S. differentiation: 8 million people fell below the poverty line, but the bailout cake was mainly distributed to the rich
According to the New York Times, as the federal aid program has expired, the poverty problem in American society has become increasingly serious.
Researchers found that about 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since May. Until September, the poverty rate was not only higher than April to May, but also higher than the level before the outbreak.
With the increasingly unfair distribution of wealth, the polarization of American society has become increasingly prominent.
8 million people fall into poverty
The New York Times cited a report by Columbia University researchers that although the number of applicants for unemployment benefits hit a record high, generous financial assistance programs, especially the weekly additional unemployment benefit of $600 and a one-time check payment of $1200, In April, 18 million Americans were "lifted out" of poverty.
Unfortunately, these are temporary.
Today, as some of the most effective federal aid programs expire, the distribution of wealth in the United States is undergoing dramatic changes.
Researchers found that since May, about 8 million Americans have fallen below the poverty line.
The monthly poverty rate calculated by the researchers based on the household's monthly estimated resources showed that the poverty rate in September was not only higher than April to May, but also higher than the level before the outbreak.
In terms of ethnicity, African Americans and Hispanics have the worst conditions. The poverty rate of both groups exceeded 25% in September, while the poverty rate of whites was 12%.
Megan Colan, one of the authors of the research report and a scientist at the Center for Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, said that although the US government’s previous US$2.2 trillion "Care Act" was not perfect, the aid program in it did alleviate poverty. problem.
"If the high unemployment rate continues as expected, the poverty level may continue to rise." She said.
But since then, the situation has taken a turn for the worse. As the bailout funds disappeared, the job market has not improved, and many indicators that measure the living standards of the poor in the United States have continued to deteriorate.
According to survey data from the World Economic Forum, one out of every five households in the United States is feeling anxious about eating problems.
The unemployment wave is the unemployment wave of the poor
If the poor can keep their jobs, even without government assistance, they can barely survive.
But sadly, the massive unemployment wave triggered by the epidemic seems to be “tailored” for the poor in the United States.
A number of data of different calibers show that industries where low-income earners are intensive are more affected by the epidemic, such as the catering industry, hotel industry and other service industries.
High-income people can usually work from home and are less affected by unemployment.
Fed Chairman Powell has repeatedly stated that the epidemic has exacerbated class and racial inequality in the United States, with low-income workers, African Americans and women suffering the most.
He believes that the "most important thing" the Fed can do to deal with high African American unemployment and other economic inequality is to use its tools to reduce the unemployment rate.
But half a year after the outbreak, the unemployment problem in the United States has not improved significantly.
On October 15, local time, the US Department of Labor released data showing that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits for the first time in the United States last week was 898,000, which was much higher than market expectations and reached the highest level since August.
Many economists predict that the US labor market may not fully recover until 2023.
Nowadays, some economists in the United States call the previous labor market recovery "K-shaped recovery"-like this letter, the high-income group goes up and the low-income group goes down, as if living in a parallel world.
To make matters worse, the unemployment assistance that the poor depend on can hardly benefit everyone.
Researchers at Columbia University have found that about one-third of the unemployed cannot get unemployment benefits.
Among them, a large number of undocumented workers have been disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits, and some unemployed people lack information channels and do not know what unemployment benefits they can apply for.
Bailout money is the bailout money for the rich
On the other hand, since the outbreak of the epidemic, the super-rich in the United States are accumulating wealth at an unprecedented rate.
Take Amazon CEO Bezos and Tesla CEO Musk as examples. Thanks to the rise in stock prices, Bezos's value will rise by US$65 billion in 2020, while Musk’s value has soared 2.4 times, exceeding US$100 billion.
According to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve, the top 1% of the population at the top of the wealth pyramid in the United States holds a total wealth of US$34.2 trillion, while the total wealth of the bottom 50% of the population at the bottom of the wealth pyramid is only US$2.1 trillion, which is only ten of the former. one fifth.
Even more exaggerated is that the total wealth of the 50 richest people in the United States increased by 339 billion U.S. dollars during the epidemic, reaching about 2 trillion U.S. dollars, which is almost the same as the total wealth of the bottom 50% of the wealth pyramid. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge. People were dumbfounded.
Although the US government’s previous US$2 trillion aid plan did ease the plight of the poor to a certain extent, many studies have found that this huge sum of money and the large amount of liquidity released by the Fed through the quantitative easing policy are more in reality. Many flows to the capital market.
Analysts generally believe that a large amount of bailout funds are the most direct driving force behind the rapid recovery of US stocks after successive plunges.
US President Trump has repeatedly bragged about the government's rescue policy in public, saying that "everyone has a share when stock prices rise", but is this really the case?
According to data released by the Federal Reserve, 1% of the population at the top of the US wealth pyramid holds 50% of the stock market’s assets, while the next 9% of the population holds 38% of the stock market’s assets. This shows that the stock market has performed strongly, mainly benefiting the wealthy. Not much help to ordinary people.
Currently, the U.S. Congress is negotiating a new round of relief plans. For the middle and lower classes, they urgently need government assistance to survive the difficult times.
However, analysis believes that even if the new aid plan can be implemented, it is still difficult to avoid the fact that funds mainly flow into the middle and upper class pockets, which will further aggravate the polarization between the rich and the poor.
If American society is compared to a "rubber band," then this and "rubber band" are being tightened by the epidemic.
(CCTV reporter Gu Xiang)