Poverty in the United States

The United States is blessed with many God-given advantages that have contributed to the prosperity of our nation. This includes the simple vastness of our territory, our wealth of natural resources, the fertility of large parts of our land, and our access to West, East, and South by great bodies of water.  

 We have also had long-term cultural strengths enabling us to make the most of these natural advantages. These strengths have included well-functioning governments generally successful at facilitating free enterprise under the rule of law, a hardworking populace, a long history of innovation and creativity, and a citizenry well-educated in the skills necessary to succeed in the US economy.

 Several key developments over the last 50 years have weakened our nation economically, contributed to growing income inequality, and entrenched a multigenerational underclass. Some of these developments have arisen externally, others internally.

 The globalization of the world economy has incentivized corporations to shift jobs overseas in ways most conducive to the corporate bottom line but not to US self-interest. The burden of these job losses has fallen most heavily on that portion of the population least able to compete for jobs based on higher-level intellectual skills that are most dependent on advanced education.  

 Meanwhile, at precisely the time that “book learning” has become indispensable, our K-12 education system has staggered backward in its competitiveness with that of other nations. Despite billions of dollars and hours invested in education each year, our nation is not adequately educating our population, especially the least-advantaged fifth or fourth of it. There is something quite wrong but no one seems to know how to fix it.

 As well, structural changes in the American family have robbed millions of children of the structure and stability once provided by the two-parent family. Fewer than half of American children will be raised by married parents. This dramatic rise in the numbers of children being raised by single parents, especially single mothers, has led to documented disadvantages for those children.

 The economic meltdown of 2008 has staggered the US economy for almost four full years, depressing economic growth and job gains. One result is that the economic struggles of our lower classes seem to be trickling upward to the middle class, so that even a quality college education has become no guarantee of any kind of professional opportunity. I have seen an entire four-year generation of college students stare uphill at a mountain of student debt with no significant job opportunities in sight.

 In general, government policies over the last thirty years have flattened tax rates, so that the wealthy and successful pay relatively less in taxes at precisely the time when their advantages are swelling in comparison with those below them on the income ladder. A spirit of selfishness seems to be sweeping the land. For a generation we have done little to address seriously the entrenched poverty of the lowest-fifth; now it seems we will just as blithely allow the next fifth to lose their grip on the rungs of the economic ladder and sink into poverty.

 Every sector of society has a responsibility to address both long-term structural poverty as well as the more short-term spreading of that poverty upwards to the middle class, especially in this next generation. Churches, in particular, need to get busy teaching young people sexual responsibility and the significance and permanence of marriage. Businesses need to think beyond the bottom line and find ways to keep good jobs in the United States. And legislators need to create a tax structure in which everyone contributes to the commonwealth while those most blessed contribute the most.

 The most disturbing trend is the one that will be hardest to address. We seem an especially selfish and inward-looking people. If “I’ve got mine,” I care little about whether you’ve got…much of anything. And I will use my financial and political power to be sure that the current structures of power continue to be tilted in my advantage. This selfishness is hurting us badly right now. Christians must lead the way to a more just society.