Did anyone just watch Poor America on BBC1? It was a half hour show on the massive poverty in America (with a special focus on how much worse it's got under Obama).

I was shocked! They focussed on Las Vegas, and showed people who live in the drainage system under the city. They interviewed school children, some of whom go hungry in the evening, and one who said she and her mother ate a rat!

The second big shock was the section on these tent cities that are springing up on the outskirts of towns for people who can't find proper housing elsewhere. In Detroit the city's social services division were themselves referring people to the tent-city when they ran out of places to house the homeless.


Woah!? Like what happened to America?? Richest and most powerful country on the Earth.

nothing has happened in america that hasn't been there before. i grew up in one of the poorest areas bordering on one of the richest and have family all over-these areas existed before. there has always been extremes in wealth there and unfortunately this persists. poverty and working poor is common but also commonly unseen, though to say it has only been since obama is untrue and, i believe, a push to put the blame on someone when the situation existed and has gotten (perhaps)worse for plenty of other reasons!

I think the poverty is due to a massive redistribution of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the elite class, tax breaks for the rich, tax breaks for billion dollar corporations and government dollars being spent on wars instead of social programs and infrastructure.

Old fashioned greed is going to do the U.S. in if it stays its course. I'd like to see the U.S. rid itself of political lobbying, super PACs, outrageous executive salaries, corporate personhood, and a fu***d up and unfair tax framework.

Oh yea, and Obama inherited a steaming pile of mess from W (duhbya), who was without a doubt the worst president in my lifetime and can be largely blamed for the mess the U.S. is in.

The way I understand it, real wages have been falling in the US since 1977. Until that point in time americans' wages had been rising continuously since the 2nd World War at least. Let's just say things have been getting bad ( for the many) for a while. I have a very simplistic view of economics: If there are a lot of poor people, somebody happens to have all their money.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Head scratch A other armchair,TV watching world expert

I love how people blame (not saying op did, just referring to quote "especially since Obama") these huge macroeconomic issues on a president who has only been in power a term.

The problem with America is that those with money tell those without money that social welfare and equal distribution of wealth is socialism and those without money fall for it every time. I've seen in my own family people who had to declare bankruptcy due to healthcare bills and they will still swear up and down that socialized medicine and universal healthcare is evil.

I'm disappointed that BBC would be so subjective. It's a well-known and documented fact that the socio-economic factors leading to the increased poverty and homelessness and the deepening of the gap between the haves and the have-nots since 2008 is due to the policies and deficits created during the Bush Administration, and worsened by a stallwart Republican-dominated House of Representatives that prefers corporate charity over social benefits programs.

Yes the situation is a lot worse now - along with many other countries in the western world.
I don't think Obama was actually blamed - though they did say people felt let down by his administration.
Booming capitalism was blamed.

The worst part of the programme for me was seeing the 500 people sleeping in their cars on a parking lot, waiting for free health consultations the following morning.
And especially the poor guy with the hernia who was at risk from a gangrene infection.
He couldn't afford the necessary operation, so went home and that was that.

They should have shown that at the super bowl half time show, Uncle Sam is as wretched decrepit, false and worrying as Madonna any day...

Many people with huge fortunes 'withdrew' the money when Obama was elected. I actually have relatives in that category, who would rather scupper the country than Obama succeed in any of his social plans

i really don't believe that the situation has gotten worse although you could say there are more middle class people who can't live the life they had before but coming from an area where there's always been fur coats and people sleeping on the street/cars/etc. i can tell you it was actually much, much worse in the early 80's and from what i hear, late 70's.

these stories about healthcare have been around for years- and they are all true and happening still but it's not a new thing and it's not more, it's just that you hear about it more and see it more, for various reasons.

if people felt let down by obama it's because he can't be a savior and he can only be a man who has been put in charge of a country that has been running on empty for a long time. most people there are working poor and they don't even know it because they have been hustling to keep it up and have it all for so long so at this point something has to give- and unfortunately for barak it's happening while he is in charge (if i wanted to be a cynic and conspiracy theorist i could wonder if that's how he was 'allowed' to be in charge- because he could then be a scapegoat and the country could easily blame the man who looks different from the rest ) but that aside- if you want to think about shocking and horrifying, look for info on nyc or hunt's point in the bronx cerca 1970- 1980, look at buffalo new york and other out of the way once industrial cities and towns that have been steadily going down hill for decades.

it is surprising, i guess, for those who didn't realize that it's a rich country with so many people and most of them are poor, i'm not sure it's ever been different, really.

Republicans again, and corporate capitalism are to blame, and still are, for this. Obama tried to fix the health care crisis in the US but the health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the Republicans in Congress blocked his efforts. The spin machine started calling it Obamacare and hauled out the evils of socialized medicine to scare people with terms like "death panels", and insinuations that traditional doctor-patient confidentiality would then become a matter of public record under a socialized medical scheme.

So instead of fixing the problem they just put a band-aid on it. And for this I do blame Obama for not having cajones and for selling real reform down the river to the corporations before any real negotiations could even begin.

No question America is headed in the wrong direction. How is it that someone who makes millions pays lower tax percentage than a waitress or a janitor? The super-rich in the US have NEVER had it better than over the past decade. Bush Era tax cuts are a HUGE reason for this. Unless the US changes the tax system so that it is more even, the gap will widen and things will get far worse. Mitt Romney only paid 13% income tax last year. As a teacher last year I paid 25%. You tell me how that is fair. One BIG reason I am no longer a resident!!

Agreed.

But don't non-residents still pay US tax? Or have you fully expatriated, citizenship et al?

I'm not an Obama supporter but I agree that he's getting a disproportionate amount of blame...This is perhaps the biggest problem in the US, the conveniently subtle way government has been manipulated into the red vs blue argument - all to distract you from the malignant corruption in DC, regardless of party...Barack is a corporate whore, just as Bush was and Clinton before...It's a game show and every year it gets more & more preposterous...I was watching clips of the French election over the last few weeks and comparing it to the US and I find it amusing how artificial the US glaringly comes off...Like a B movie and a bad one at that

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been terrible but that's the shell game politicians love to play...enter a Republican and the corruption will merely continue...It's a perilous path that is untenable in the longterm as we're finally seeing come to an apparent head now...Rich getting richer, middle class disappearing & poor getting even poorer...Power consolidating into fewer & fewer hands

The worst part is that it can still get worse and with more desperate times ahead that likely will mean desperate actions from those in power in DC...This invariably degenerates into perilous consequences for the global community

Funny that these statements are coming out in election year . Wonder who's behind that...

If the report I heard on the news recently is true, it's probably a knee-jerk to Obama's intentions to tax the rich more heavily...

To be honest though, the tax rates don't look so bad in the states, if this reference is accurate http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/0....qs_osrc=FCN-6
The tax rates go up to 40% in my home country (New Zealand)

I'm not overly politically savvy or anything, but I don't think Obama's got an easy job. Despite that he and his wife seem to be taking a lot of steps in the right direction... It may be seen as kind of 'corny', but I thought Michelle going on Sesame Street to do the skit about growing your own vegetables and joining in with bunches of teenagers to do aerobics etc was really positive.

I hope the American public can see through the scare mongering.

I also hope that the tax money gets used in a way that creates jobs and opportunities for those who need them.

Puddy

Scare mongering???
And on the second point - dream on ..

I don't think the documentary directly blamed Obama, and Obama is not to blame for the awful state of the USA in terms of social reform welfare and health, decades of right-wing capitalist agendas is to blame. But Obama is responsible for wasting the window of opportunity he had to get policies instituted; the window is closed now due to the idiot right wing... Its just clear that Obama bit off more than he can chew, and he is not the Jesus character he was portrayed as... but then who is..

Unfortunately, I think it did blame Obama. You can't just blame a single politician, no matter how good of an orator they are and how much they promised. This is a problem that has been going on for years...decades, really.

It made me angry and so sad - and ashamed to be American based on the reactions of some people to these people's situations.