oulds wealth and black and hispanic households increased in the wake of the great recession and twenty sixteen white households in these brackets had four times the wealth of comparable african-american families and three times the wealth of hispanic households interestingly pew did find that among lower income households white families lost more wealth than their african-american and hispanic peers. reports about the poor are unfortunately not a new thing over the years we've seen a steady flow of papers studies and reports about the growing poverty united states and what seem to many people some obscene numbers separating the rich and the poor the haves and have nots as we say with all of this information and data being delivered revealing the staggering level of poverty in the country we may need some help to break it all down and put it into the proper perspective and in that regard

we are fortunate and honored to have just such a person joining us now is a presser economics of merit to the university of massachusetts and her father richard will professor we're very pleased to have you join us again thank you bob glad to be here so let's start with a benchmark i mean you teach classes and look at these sorts of things all the time as an income inequality always existed in the u.s. . the answer simply is yes it has our economic system and there's no nice way to say this our economic system capitalism is at least as efficient in reproducing poverty as it is in reproducing wealth it has tried over and over again to say that it is confronting the problem of poverty but if it's true that it did so it failed to solve the problem because here we are three hundred years into our history and we're still confronted with serious amounts of poverty and serious

degrees of extreme poverty as the u.n. and others have been documented right up to this moment well there's another report out to professor it may go along with that but i want to get your take on it it's a united way the nonprofit organization they have a project called alice it's that action acronym but it's geared toward trying to quantify and describe the number of u.s. households that are are struggling financially and the result of that work indicates that more than fifty one million homes and their actual people least one person in these homes cannot afford basic necessities like food aus and transportation and we have a total of about three hundred twenty five million people in the state so what do you make of the report and do you think that figure is accurate. there's no question that it's accurate it's been reinforced and validated by other comparable studies what's remarkable about the united way documents is that it gets away from formal statistics of the government to really look at what

a family's situation is it's not just do you have enough food this evening on the table but can you rely on next week and next month when your children go to school knowing that there's food that they'll be heat in the house when they come on to do their homework in other words are the basic qualities of life secure and adequate or not and for them to have discovered with no axe to grind that somewhere between a third and a half of the american people aren't secure in the most basic way is the most profound criticism of our economic system that i could imagine it's really disconcerting and we you know that's why i said there we're asking the question no they're not just homes are real people that live live there and you know bring it to a personal level we often hear about people and politicians tell these stories sometimes

about how difficult the decisions are between choosing between you only have a certain amount of money in your paycheck between health care and housing or health care and food to eat and you know those are tough choices that all folks that are financially strapped have to make but when we consider the basic necessities like those things i was in food health care etc which of these has become so privily expensive for some that they're just increasingly inaccessible. i think the key culprit among several is housing. the problem with housing is we allow that in this country to be a private profit making enterprise and to put it as simply as i know how the money to be made the profits to be made in building housing is building housing for the one percent the luxury apartments the luxury mansions the luxury condos and all the rest and that's where the money goes meaning that the mass housing for the mass of

people isn't growing and so what happens is there's a scarcity not in the sense that we couldn't produce the housing but that we don't in a private profit driven economy with the result that the rents are going crazy and we believe in general that a family should never spend more than twenty to thirty percent of its income on housing because if it goes above that it starts eating into the minima levels of everything else education transportation health care and so on and we have a reality in america that if you look at what's happened to housing particularly rental housing it has driven people into that precarious state that the united way discovered so much is being spent for housing that they literally cannot provide the basics in the case of a third to a half of our households of what's needed in a modern society like ours professor just got

a little bit of time but let me ask you do you see any signs of hope for reversing this trend wage and income inequality. well as your report from the london. you know documentary library there shows no the trends we are stuck with now are trends that do not give us hope they are trends in which this is them works to make the rich richer and everybody else a spectator of their wealth and that's why many of us are realizing we really have to change the system if we're going to deal with one of its worst outcomes which is this level of poverty after hundreds of years of seeing that it's a problem that needs to be solved i want to keep an eye on it we appreciate folks like you speaking out will try to do our part here a boom bust professor richard walter resurrected nomics america's university of massachusetts amherst we're in your debt search kindly for your time thank you.

and we mention the united nations report with the professor the report looks at poverty in the united states arctic correspondent on your part bill looks not only at the report but at some of the reactions surrounding its recent release. for fifteen days in december two thousand and seventeen professor philip alston the un special rapporteur tor on extreme poverty and human rights travelled to the united states in order to quote evaluate and report to the human rights council on the extent to which the government's policies and programs aimed at addressing extreme poverty are consistent with its human rights obligations his findings paint a dire picture of life in the us the report states that a staggering forty million americans live in poverty eighteen point five million in extreme poverty and a whopping five point three million americans toil under third world conditions characterized as absolute poverty of the thirty five member states in the

organization for economic cooperation and development the report finds the united states has the highest youth unemployment rate and highest infant mortality rate among comparable countries the us also has one of the lowest voter registration levels in the o.e.c.d. the report reads quote its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies are radical tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world's highest incarceration rate and the highest obesity levels in the developed world professor alston's conclusions have drawn a harsh response from members of the trumpet ministration us ambassador to the un nikki haley wrote in a letter to senator bernie sanders of vermont quote it is patently ridiculous for the united nations to examine poverty in america the special repertoire wasted the un's time and resources deflecting attention from the world's worst human rights abusers and who can sing instead on the wealthiest and freest come. tree in the

world and haley may have a point about the united states being one of the wealthiest countries in the world it just so happens that the vast majority of the nation's wealth is hoarded by an ever shrinking elite in march of this year for example amazon c.e.o. jeff bezos amassed an estimated net worth of one hundred twenty seven billion dollars and that amount is equal to the combined wealth of the two point three million poorest americans and november two thousand and seventeen a report by the institute for policy studies found the three richest americans bezos bill gates and warren buffett were worth two hundred forty eight billion dollars combined that number is equal to the wealth of one hundred sixty million americans who make up the bottom half of the country's population when measured in dollars following the reports released senator sanders in one thousand other members of congress sent a letter to the trumpet ministration urging it to address the growing poverty rates the letter says trump's one point five billion dollars in tax cuts signed into law

last year quote overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality and while many headlines concerning the report emphasized the trump administration's role in exacerbating poverty professor alston makes this important note successive administrations including the current one have determinedly rejected the idea that economic and social rights are full fledged human rights meaning if you're poor in the united states your government has never seen you as a priority in washington on your part hill party. time now for a super fast break but stay calls because when we get back the c.e.o. of strong marker from your report which tells us about the wealthiest nations not including the u.s. and the poorest nations around the globe plus our to correspondent trinity trados go to the picture i would for

a very special report. in the wealthiest zip code and on the other end of the spectrum. one looks at the more unfortunate and analyzes poverty united states notably even here in the gilded capital that is paying right here will be back in a what.

you know world. and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell. me to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. they put themselves on the line they didn't accept it or reject. when you want to

express. something i want to be preached. to the right to be it's like the full story of the more people. i'm interested in always in the water. sitting. where does that come to call russia no one's ever known one has ever heard of a country never even heard about most schools.

and now we take a more global view about inequality from a national perspective to help us along we are joined by the c.e.o. of straw mark our friend henry ford which it's great of you to be with us thank you so much now tell me tell all or bull busters about what are the wealthiest nations and sort of the poorest nations and let's just take g.d.p. by g.d.p. right a great to be about thank you so the wealthiest nations are outside of the u.s. that is china germany japan and closely followed by the u.k. the poorest nation actually probably not many of all of us have maybe even heard

all. about tuvalu which used to be former ellis island in the polynesian islands but the poorest nations are actually a lot of the former communist countries and sub-saharan africa and then good and then in the middle east the big bright star of course is saudi arabia ok in it if you look at growth rates in the different regions you know your. power they're looking for new growth rates going forward yes some of the hot spots coming up actually there are some of the emerging nations and then there are just growth rates so one of the most outstanding growth rates that continues and is outpaced all nations actually is australia and that's really due to their brilliant immigration policies to get into australia i mean you have to have a certain network you have to come with certain skills they have not been stupid about that and most importantly they had a mining boom where they were mining coal and iron ore that they were shipping to all the factories in the nation so there's a great growth rate some of the emerging nations where there's a men's growth are you've got the from the. in the pacific basically all the

countries right and you have argentina you have indonesia india india is projected to have a seven percent growth rate seven point nine next year yes and then actually you know they overtook china by just two percentage or two points that don't sort of percentage exactly yes they did yes and it is in india and that's a lot of that and everybody of course in the u.k. we think that is because they can speak english but they've actually been a have a lot of those outsourcing call centers but a lot of global business they've always had a very global outlook on the fiscal stimulus has been as they also very smart but also as you jim o'neill the former chairman of morgan stanley in two thousand and one he used to call them the bric nations and that was brazil russia india china and sub-saharan africa i think over the emerging nations in sub-saharan africa is somewhat to look because of course there's a great percentage opportunity for growth and a lot of the the real commodities which are more in demand now it's very interesting we did some the other day in australia which hasn't been in recession you know twenty five years or so but the young. any developed nation ever so

outdated even. in the netherlands crazy crazy us i guess it's pretty difficult to predict what's going on given the current circumstance trade weighted water through but you know what sort of trends you see there in the desert leave it were you know i think of trade was on healthy but i think there's going to be an even ing out i think the one thing that's concerning globally in terms of inequality is the tremendous gap actually in skills skilled labor the good news is inequality actually is the lowest it's been since one thousand nine hundred one it pete forty four percent of the world was below the abject positive positive level in eighty one do you know it's less than ten percent today so that's actually good news in terms of inequality but the inequality is with in nations there's this technology gap between skilled labor and unskilled labor and that actually accounts for a lot of the nationalistic vote of populist vote like bricks it in the u.k. populism vote here in the u.s.

do to try to trump and that's what's accounted for inequality inside of nations is actually more concerning than global inequality super interesting me ask you for a go the you know when you're when you're don't have a good economy it leads to all sorts of. including terrorism on roast and everything yes if you look around the world hilary what are the real slow g.d.p. countries that we you know heaven forbid predicted the problems in those countries what are the ones that sort of stick out to you well i mean obviously i mean we've had a disaster in syria and that's been a lot of course because of the drought i'm so i think you've got actually global warming trends have affected some of that and it's really obviously in the middle east where you have colliding factors i think robust employment begets robust economies and therefore of course robust stability instability if you think about many years ago in the sixty's those instability in northern ireland why the economy was disastrous now the northern irish economy is strong and that keeps stability so

i would think anywhere where there's abject poverty and that will be places in the middle east so you a strong mark to work for which thank you for coming in your leader malcolm but absolutely any time. one might ask where is the the definitively wealthiest place in the united states well r.t. correspondent trudy charges looked and went there for the special report beverly hills nine zero two one zero used to be america's most recognizable zip code but that's all changing now america's richest code is based on an island word so exclusive you need an invitation to get there in a recent analysis of iris data bloomberg found the wealthiest of codes in america and the number one spot may shock you. it's called fisher island zip code three three one zero nine once privately owned by william vanderbilt the second the island is located just off the coast of miami and is now

a haven for the world's richest only accessible by boat or helicopter the two hundred sixteen acre manmade island has a mix of condos and private homes not to mention a vast array of amenities you come to fish island and you literally can stay here for three months without having to leave the island so we have about eighteen amenities from the arena to seven restaurants to eighteen tennis courts four different surfaces on tennis courts a great golf club we have an amazing. as you have seen and the beautiful beach club environment so we have private beaches we have a private school so this is an ideal environment obviously for families who want to come here who want to raise their children there are about five hundred residents ranging from royalty to professional athletes to business executives and while only about twenty percent of them reside on the island full time. if the island's

exclusivities that attracts people from all over the world we have about thirty seven different nationalities and fishes. we have about fifty percent u.s. twenty five is from thousand america we have a lot of russian. course. that you can truly call home and it has pretty much all the ingredients that. reflect that if you want whose income bracket the average income for fisher island members was a whopping two want to half a million dollars in two thousand and fifteen that's one million dollars more than the second place spot held by zip code nine four zero two seven in silicon valley meanwhile new york represents a quarter of the top one percent of households nationwide and california accounts for eighty five percent of the riches of codes in the west but while neighborhoods in the new york tri state area and california make up the majority of the top

riches the codes in america the favorable tax structures in florida and wyoming are drawing the wealthy to according to the report since two thousand and ten the average income in most wilson road wyoming has increased more than seventy five percent making it the fourteenth which is the code in the country and then of course the south is home to the richest code in all of america fisher island now in order to live on fisher island and you do have to pay a membership fee of a quarter million dollars and nothing including the annual fee that comes after that but you don't have to be a millionaire to enjoy this luxurious place they do have a hotel on the property and they welcome everyone from around the world. sure island turn it each other. while wealth inequality may be seen by some as a regional thing it's actually a nationwide issue even in some places you may not expect our to correspondent dan

cohen gives us a closer look at wealth inequality in the district of columbia. the united states is. long portrayed itself as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for all peoples but with scenes of homelessness and despair like this popping up all over the country it's an increasingly difficult claim to make income inequality in the united states is at its highest since one thousand nine hundred twenty eight just before the great depression the top one percent now owns a staggering forty percent of the country's wealth the poorest sip codes in the united states are in rural areas of pennsylvania oregon ohio and arizona they all have an average income under fifteen thousand dollars per year while income inequality is visible across the united states its most extreme in the nation's capital washington d.c. the median annual income of black residents of the district is thirty seven

thousand eight hundred ninety one dollars just thirty percent of the median white income at one hundred twenty seven thousand three hundred sixty nine dollars in the streets of the district it's obvious that there are huge amounts of wealth just across the anacostia river in the southeastern part of the district the disparity is glaring and twenty fifteen mayor muriel bals are unveiled her plan to address income inequality and poverty with her pathway to the middle class program community activist skyla pondexter more lives in public housing in ward eight the poorest in the district she says bowzer is program has been a fig leaf for giveaways to private developers and corporations i believe that this income gap in this is all that the way out she was doing it back just phasing us out i believe she thinks happy to pay for it just get rid of all the income tax and think about all of this and get the most of us by the law going to japan south the state or have innocently say gentrification has devastated d.c.'s

african-american population in one thousand nine hundred ninety one after. in americans accounted for seventy one percent of washington's population struggling to cope with the increasing cost of living and lack of employment opportunities in twenty six to the percentage of african-americans in the district fell below fifty percent but moore says local investment can benefit the community if you give people the resources and help them wrap around then we can really start to close this gap and that wipes out we all need to bring in people who get money we can be to people get money you got to bring in a trader joe's going out bring in a whole foods with expensive housing and corporate chains like starbucks under construction and mayor bows are likely to win reelection later this year the same policies that led to such inequality are likely to persist reporting for boom bust dan cohen r t.

that's it for this time we appreciate you joining us on what's an incredibly important issue you catch boom bust on direct t.v. channel three twenty one dish network channel two eighty or streaming twenty four seven on pluto t.v. the t.v. after channel one thirty two or as always check us out at you tube dot com pleasure boom bust artie seal later. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat and where i would sleep. but i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london. oh you look. for you like you don't. you know the snow will still

give out food for the homeless. but you don't really feel like a human being in that. and then. the guy just came over to me saw me and gave me a change of this book. kind of financial survival job it was all about money laundering first to visit this confession to three different. oh good this is a good start well we have our three banks all set up here maybe something in europe

something in america something overseas in the cayman islands or do we do all these banks are complicit in the tough talk or says we just have to give him a call and say hey i'm ready to do some serious money laundering ok let's see how we did always get out a nice laundry watch for max and for stacy beautiful jewelry him how about. luxury automobile again for max you know what money laundering is highly illegal. much keyser of course. when lawmakers manufacture consent to steam to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the financial merry go round listen to the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. i mean real news is.

my son doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse we started going after the users in the prison population sewer we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill. then the war on drugs was a mistake there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. certain sins for minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in wave and say by day as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easy. more

than one and a half million people have signed an online petition calling for legal measures against the french state over its failure to act on climate change. generous rights groups react with indifference to the naming and shaming. spreading disinformation. and russian town after the children of local officials. organized only for kids with severe illnesses.