'Poverty Triggers Social Unrest In US'

According to a survey conducted by The Associated Press, US poverty could reach a 46-year high, with suburban families, underemployed workers, and children among the hardest-hit people.

The census was based on expert opinions from more than a dozen economists and academics in the US. The figures are expected to be made public just weeks ahead of the November presidential elections.

The data also showed that the official poverty rate could have reached 15.7 percent in 2011, which reflects a whopping increase of six percent compared to the previous year.

The estimates, offered by the experts, contributing to the census, suggested some 47 million people in the US, equal to one in every six, were poor last year. The highest level on record was 22.4 percent in 1959 when the government began calculating poverty figures.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Phil Wilayto, author and editor of the Virginia Defender to further discuss the issue.

The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Wilayto, thank you so much for being with us. Tell us about this. Are you surprised at the release of this latest information saying that possibly this is going to be the largest percentage of impoverished people in almost 50 years in the United States?

Wilayto: No, it does not surprise me, it does not surprise most folks I know. We do not really have to read the statistic to understand the reality. Here in Richmond the poverty rate is close to 25 percent in the capital city of Virginia and that includes one out of every three children.
 

These last few years since what they call the great recession, that started in 2007, have really been devastating to people. This situation is not changing and it is not getting better for working people or poor people no matter how much profits are being made on Wall Street.

Press TV: So you are saying that it seems that as some say the profits on Wall Street are turning around but on the ground the average American is not reaping the benefits. Has the situation gotten worse this year 2012 comparatively? Is it getting better or do you feel that the pressure is becoming even more intense?

Wilayto: Well there has been a structural adjustment. During the beginning part of the recession corporations either shut down many operations or they invested in labor saving devices. What that means is that here we are five years after the start of that recession and from the number of jobs that we lost, 5,000,000 of those will not come back.

There are many economists who looking at the situation say they are not coming back because of this adjustment that the corporations have made in the number of workers that they need to employ. That being the case, if people are not working, they do not have money, and they cannot buy things. This is an economy that is driven 70 percent by consumer spending.

So you can see that most working people are making enough money to go­ out and buy things. They are not going to be able to tribute to the economy. And it is always the Wall Street folks making the profits and they are not really concerned about the rest of us. So there has been what seems to be a permanent adjustment in the economy such that is not necessary for the corporations to employ those five million people in order to continue their profit level.

Press TV: Well Mr. Wilayto, you just talked about as far as the shifting of jobs from the continental United States to other countries and these jobs will not be returning. Do you think the average American understand this fact that those jobs are not going to be returning as you said and the reality of what that means for their life style and the American economy?

Wilayto: Well, the change over from a manufacturing economy to what they call a … or the information technology that began in mid 70s and the cities that have experienced the closing of factories and seen those operations move overseas understand that those jobs are not coming back and that it is not a new phenomenon for this year.

What is new is the fact that the corporations are finding ways to produce the same amount of goods and services with fewer and fewer numbers of workers. There is a surface population, those are not my words, those are the words of the people who worry about profits or the one percent. video here
 

We have people in this country who cannot be employed and they will not be employed in the future. And we see that prison population has increased fivefold over the last thirty years. We have more people in prison than any other country in the world, than any country in the history of the world. That is because it is so dangerous to have so many young men out on the streets without any means of livelihood. The solution of course will be to create jobs, that the government to create jobs as they did in the 1940s, but that is not a priority to them.Presstv

TNP/JR