Citing “the lowest rate of social mobility among rich countries,” Philip Alston, an NYU law professor and United Nations special rapporteur, argues that inequality in the U.S. has become a human rights issue. Alston, whose U.N. role focuses on the relationship between extreme poverty and civil rights, laments, “Poor people have no chance of having their voices heard. No chance of influencing public policy.” Alston says that “[i]n a rich country like the U.S.A., the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power,” and of course he’s right, but not in the way he thinks. To progressives in the mainstream of American politics, government is a benevolent tool capable of eliminating poverty, if only our politicians would dedicate themselves to that noble project.
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