Poverty amid plenty
Unfortunately, not all Americans experienced Having a lot of money or owning a lot of things. In 1962, Michael Harrington’s book The Other America stated that 40 million Americans were living below the The estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life. This meant that around a quarter of the American population couldn’t afford to clothe and feed themselves.
A 1960 A chamber of the United States Congress, which together with the House of Representatives, makes up the legislature of the United States. report stated that 8 million Americans earned less than $1,000 a year and that some rural workers’ wages were as low as 50 cents an hour. By the early 1960s, the military was reporting that one-third of people wanting to join the armed forces had to be rejected because they were medically unfit to serve.
Causes of poverty
In a speech in 1952, Democratic senator Adlai Stevenson declared:
“How can we talk about prosperity to the sick who cannot afford proper medical care, to the mentally ill for whom there is no room in our over-crowded institutions? How can we talk about prosperity to the hundreds of thousands who can find no decent place to live at prices they can afford? And how can we talk about prosperity to a Farmers who had to pay to use land by giving a proportion of their produce to the owner. living on worn out land, or city dwellers packed six to a room in an unlit tenement with a garbage-strewn alley for their children’s playground?”
There were many reasons why people were living in poverty in the USA, even during this age of affluence and consumerism:
- African Americans and other ethnic minorities were To treat someone differently or unfairly because they belong to a particular group. against, so they were paid a lot less than white Americans. They had less job security as they were often the first people a business would fire. They also found it much harder to afford decent accommodation. In 1955, 40 per cent of the people in New York who were claiming Payments and other benefits, such as education, health care, and unemployment payments, given to a population free at the point of use, although paid for by general taxation. benefits were African Americans.
- The elderly had little in the way of A sum of money paid to people upon their retirement. as they had not had the money to save for one. Many faced expensive bills for their medical treatment or needed to pay for someone to look after them when they could not look after themselves. In 1960, almost 68 per cent of people over the age of 65 had an income of less than $1,000 a year.
- Disabled people found it difficult to get jobs as a result of discrimination and a lack of suitable roles. People faced rising costs for medical treatment and many people ended up with long-term illnesses because of their living conditions. In 1947, 3 per cent of US homes had no running water and 40 per cent didn’t have access to a toilet. People receiving low incomes were only able to afford poor-quality rented accommodation.
- With no national health service, the USA was behind many European countries in terms of medical, pension and welfare provision.
- In rural communities there were fewer job opportunities as a result of In industry, the process of introducing machines to carry out tasks that humans used to do. and farm wages were very low. The situation was particularly difficult in the southern states. For example, in Mississippi in 1960, 60 per cent of families were living on less than $2,000 a year.
Welfare, health services and pensions
Many European countries had adopted a A state (or country) where the government provides welfare benefits, such as education, health care and unemployment payments, to its population free at the point of use, although they are paid for by general taxation. in the first half of the 20th century, in order to help their citizens who could not help themselves. This was paid for from taxes. Welfare states provided pensions for the elderly, unemployment benefits, access to free medical treatment, slum clearance and programmes to build new Lower-cost accommodation provided by local or central government or a housing association.
However, there was very little of this in the USA beyond the very basic systems put in place by the New Deal, which only covered a very small number of people. This was because:
- there was still a very strong belief, particularly among Americans receiving decent incomes, in rugged individualism - the idea that people should work hard to improve themselves and that charities should only help out when people were unable to help themselves
- people were reluctant to pay higher taxes to help those who were unable to help themselves
- medical insurance companies had pressured The legislative body of the US government, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. to not provide health care so that they could continue to sell expensive health insurance policies to people
It was only in the 1960s that the Political party in the United States. Democrats tend to hold a more liberal viewpoint on politics and society. presidents began to give the Part of the government of the USA as a whole rather than relating to an individual state. government some responsibility for solving these problems directly.
