The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
December 18, 2017

U.N. Investigator: U.S. Becoming "World Champion of Extreme Inequality"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The tax bill's impending passage came as a top U.N. monitor issued a
scathing report on poverty in the United States, saying the Trump
administration and Republicans are turning the U.S. into the "world
champion of extreme inequality." Philip Alston, the U.N. special
rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned the tax bill will
transfer vast amounts of wealth to the richest earners while making life
harder for the 41 million Americans living in poverty.

Philip Alston: "I think the 'American dream' is moving fairly rapidly
towards the 'American illusion,' because social mobility in this country
is now extremely low, by any Western standards. If you are born in
poverty, guess where you're going to end up. In poverty."



.