6 ms·

Statement on Visit to the USA by Professor Philip Alston

103 points by Caveman_Coder 9y ago

GuiA 9y ago
The whole report is a great read, which completely lines up with my experience living in various places in the US (particularly California + Louisiana) as a European - but this example near the beginning particularly stands out to me because, living in an area in San Francisco with a very visible homeless population, I witness it on a near daily basis: "I witnessed a San Francisco police officer telling a group of homeless people to move on but having no answer when asked where they could move to" As I said, I witness this extremely regularly just outside of my apartment. It ranges from a patrol car stopping for a few minutes to just give a talk to the homeless people that amounts to "hey, we're the police, we are letting you know we're here and we've got our eye on you... we know you can't magically stop being homeless but please stop looking so homeless", all the way to 4-5 cars + a firetruck/ambulance on standby while the officers make the homeless people take down camp, pat them down, etc. with sometimes a city sanitation pickup truck taking away all of their possessions as garbage (it seems that many homeless people are hoarders). I'm not sure what's going on "behind the scenes" here. Is it an irate neighbor that calls the police complaining about the homeless people and asking them to do something about it, which they then do their best to? Or is interacting with the homeless population an actual, documented part of their job? If so, is it tracked? What are the outcomes they hope for? What I observe is that when they make the homeless people leave, they'll typically be back a few days/weeks later, so clearly this is only shuffling the problem around, rather than actually solving it in any meaningful way. My hunch is that this is all essentially theater - the police/fire department know they can't do anything, but have instructions from above to do "something" about it, so they just end up doing what they can, even if it is utterly pointless and ineffective. But at least the irate neighbor is satisfied that there are no more homeless people outside their window for now. It's all very sad.
- alexandercrohde 9y ago
  It was my understanding that SF in particular is an incredibly rich county and that there are adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. Is this not the case?
  - IntronExon 9y ago
    Shelters are notoriously nasty places, and a bed alone is not what these people need. Many, if not most are seriously mentally ill, and need a level of care that isn’t available to people without serious money. Since the 1980’s mental health has been shafted in the US, with predictable results for homelessness and mass violence. Remember that the Us is a country in which a sitting congresswomen and bystanders can be gunned down by a paranoid schizophrenic who was known to authorities, and nothing changes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner
    - mschuster91 9y ago
      > in which a sitting congresswomen That's a part of the problem right there: Gabrielle Giffords is a woman, not a man - unlike the other 78% of Congress. As usual with politics, as long as you're not a white, able-bodied male with money, no one will care what happens to you. There will be a couple of rallies, maybe a week or so of media headlines and that's it. Oh and maybe anniversaries of the event. Sounds cruel but I have the feeling that it will need a rich white powerful politician's kid to die or be maimed in a mass shooting to have any effect on gun control. And even then, I wouldn't bet my money on actual change happening. As for mental health, no idea how more funding for that can ever be passed. Unlike with a person with a wound it's difficult to "see" mental health issues (or, the healing process), and a culture in which mental health issues are regarded as "weaknesses" that must be ignored/covered-over than be helped doesn't help eithr.
      - totalZero 9y ago
        Ever hear of Steve Scalise? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise
  - carapace 9y ago
    SF spends about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on homelessness.[1] There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless.[2] [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisco-state-of-emergency-homelessness-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisc...
- manicdee 9y ago
  The implicit, undocumented, de facto aim of moving homeless on to somewhere else is to have them die quietly out of the public eye. A better way to solve the “homeless problem” is to give people homes, counselling, and access to work. This is because homelessness is usually a result of losing a job and thus a house and thus one’s self esteem (and in some cases, one’s mind).
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    Worked in Utah. TL;DR Housing the homeless is cheaper than the chronic costs of not housing the homeless. "Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness By 91 Percent; Here's How" https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chroni...
    - book_mentioned 9y ago
      Disputed counterpoint: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13894796#13895345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13894796#13895345
  - cycrutchfield 9y ago
    No, they aim to move homeless so that whatever camp they create is not their de facto home. SF spends a mind boggling amount of money on supporting the homeless population and trying to get them back on their feet. Unfortunately this compassion is rewarded by many more homeless people moving to SF to take advantage of the amenities.
- vkou 9y ago
  It's because of this. [1] A large contingent of the public wants to not have any homeless, but isn't willing to fund getting homeless people off the streets. (Yes, San Francisco may be mismanaging their homeless budget, but not every city is.) So, since they aren't willing to do anything constructive, but are willing to complain, they call the police. Since it's almost impossible to be homeless and not be breaking one law or another, the police show up, move them somewhere else, and the cycle repeats. [1] https://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/citizen-do-not-be-two-faced/ https://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/citizen-do-n...
ultimoo 9y ago
Philip Alston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Alston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Alston
protomyth 9y ago
US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world This is a common stat thrown around, but there is a non-obvious caveat. How this is counted differs between countries (even different in different EU countries). Wikipedia has a pretty good summary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality
- sjg007 9y ago
  It's not reporting: "the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States' relatively low international ranking. Rather, the report concluded that primary reason for the United States’ higher infant mortality rate when compared with Europe was the United States’ much higher percentage of preterm births.[72]" from the wikipedia article you cite. The question is why does America have a higher "percentage" of preterm births. I'll give you one reason, lack of affordable health care.
  - hnburnsy 9y ago
    Doesn't this explain why? "A non-viable live birth in the US could be registered as a stillbirth in similarly developed nations like Japan, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, and France – thereby reducing the infant death count. Neonatal intensive care is also more likely to be applied in the US to marginally viable infants..."
    - sjg007 9y ago
      "the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States' relatively low international ranking." and "Many countries, including the United States, Sweden and Germany, count an infant exhibiting any sign of life as alive, no matter the month of gestation or the size, but according to United States some other countries differ in these practices."
  - protomyth 9y ago
    “the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation” Notice they haven’t gone through the trouble of normalizing the criteria and doing a proper count. ‘Unlikely’ is an opinion unchecked by data. I’m getting a bit sick of the trend on HN of down voting facts that conflict with people’s world view. Prove it makes no difference or acknowledge that is a deceptive statistic to use. Along those lines, where is your data on why the US has more pre-term births? Perhaps the US has less abortions when things are going to be tough? Speculation and poor comparisons don’t enlighten on solve problems.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dominotw 9y ago
> often make their profits purely from speculation rather than contributing to the overall wealth of the American community. Wondering what some of these speculations are. Stock markets?
- tmnvix 9y ago
  Property is a big one.
downandout 9y ago
"The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans....It is against this background that my report is presented." It's interesting that he is a law professor (not an economics professor) and yet he stated this as if it were incontrovertible fact, with no facts to back up his prediction, and then went on to base much of the rest of his report on it. That statement may turn out to be true, and it may turn out to be false, but it is certainly not settled fact. It renders this entire report meaningless, as it is based on nothing more than speculation on the part of a clearly biased author about what the outcome of recent tax policy changes will be.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  In what way is it controversial that the major beneficiaries of the tax reform will the richest parts of society? I thought that's pretty obvious.
  - rayiner 9y ago
    It’s a very biased framing. Even with the changes, our tax system is more progressive than say France or Germany.
    - maxxxxx 9y ago
      "As noted in the World Inequality Report 2018, in both Europe and the US the top 1% of adults earned around 10% of national income in 1980. In Europe that has risen today to 12%, but in the US it has reached 20%." The tax reform will shift even more income to the top 1%. How is that biased framing?
      - dominotw 9y ago
        So I am looking up GINI. European countries have similar and sometimes higher( france, germany) GINI than USA. Over the years seems to have stayed constant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...
arturmakly 9y ago
video talk : https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJkLD_s9pYaYteD-3LxQd2fIGakaf3_Fq https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJkLD_s9pYaYteD-3LxQd2f...
Zelphyr 9y ago
Apologies for going off topic but what the hell did the developers of that do to the keys? If you scroll down and then use the down arrow you're taken to the top of the page and, paradoxically, one of the nav items opens. Can't use Command-Left Arrow to go back in the history. Just does nothing. Did they do that on purpose? Who thought that was a good idea? One I hope doesn't spread.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > If you scroll down and then use the down arrow you're taken to the top of the page and, paradoxically, one of the nav items opens I can't reproduce this one, but cmd+r and then using the arrows does not work - only after clicking with the mouse once in the text. The HTML output of that page is an utter, utter mess including MS Office comments revealing part of their internal infrastructure and workflow (look for www-edit.in.ohchr.org in the source). Jeez.
rayiner 9y ago
> 2. My visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and extreme poverty. The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans Really hard to take this seriously. I don’t think anyone in the US needs a tax cut right now, so I oppose the tax reform. But the fact is that before the Trump tax cuts, US corporate tax rates were higher both in theory and in practice than in Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the-u-s-have-the-highest-corporate-tax-rate-in-the-world https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the... Our taxes are also far more progressive than Germany, France, and Sweden: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/americas-taxes-are-the-most-progressive-in-the-world-its-government-is-among-the-least/?utm_term=.a05b599f3342 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/ameri.... Trump’s tax plan won’t change that: the cuts in the top rates are very small and even most people in the top 1% won’t be able to take advantage of things like pass through treatment.
- wsxcde 9y ago
  Could you explain how the statement "before the Trump tax cuts, US corporate tax rates were higher both in theory and in practice than in Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the..." https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the... rebuts the professor's claim that the tax cuts will "greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality"?
  - rayiner 9y ago
    It’s more the “bid to become the most unequal society” framing of the point. That makes it seem like the US is doing something different than everyone else. The entire OECD has been cutting corporate tax rates massively over the past few decades: https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/corporate-tax-cuts-and-tax-revenues https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/corporate-tax-cuts-and-....
- timster3001 9y ago
davidcollantes 9y ago
Interesting, and sad to read. Our America has many problems, many of which shouldn't exist on a nation as rich as ours. What amazes me is, did he gather all that, first hand, within two weeks?!
mc32 9y ago
I don't doubt the gist of most of the report. We could do much better with the money we spend on Health... but this sounds odd: "Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA" Given that a few years ago it was unheard of disease by most professionals.
- dominotw 9y ago
  Not sure what point he is tyring to make with that > 424 symptomatic Zika virus disease cases reported* > 414 cases in travelers returning from affected areas > 4 cases acquired through presumed local mosquito-borne transmission in Florida (N=2) and Texas (N=2) > 6 cases acquired through sexual transmission There were ~10 cases were people got infected by zika while in united states. How is spending more money on public health going to prevent people getting infected while overseas. https://www.cdc.gov/zika/reporting/2017-case-counts.html https://www.cdc.gov/zika/reporting/2017-case-counts.html
gwright 9y ago
That report starts out with the ridiculous statement that "40 million people continue to live in poverty" in the US. If you spend just five or ten minutes trying to understand where that number comes from you can only include that Mr. Alston is either unimaginably incompetent in understanding poverty statistics or he is being massively disingenuous in his reporting. A little googling will show that the 40 million number is based on cash income that doesn't excludes massive amounts of government assistance (housing assistance, food stamps, and so on). It is an absolute useless statistic to use as a primary statement about "poverty" in the US. Here is a good take down of this misleading report: http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2018/1/30/completely-taken-in-by-the-poverty-fraud http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2018/1/30/completely-tak...
- shkkmo 9y ago
  A little googling will show that "there is no international consensus on guidelines for measuring poverty". I agree that "40 million people continue to live in poverty" is a claim that needs an accompanying definition of poverty and and description of the measurement methodology to really convey information. However that number is the Official US estimate of its own poverty rate. I agree that our methodology of measure poverty in the US is laughable and needs improvement, but you can't blame Mr. Alston for that. Your assertion that this claim is "ridiculous" and that Mr. Alston is "unimaginably incompetent" or "massively disingenuous" for using the US's own measurement of poverty is thus clearly beyond hyperbole and more than a little ridiculous and quite disingenuous itself.
  - gwright 9y ago
    So you agree that the statistic is meaningless without context and yet you are OK with that being the lead in the report?
    - shkkmo 9y ago
      I would have preferred to see context provided with the statistic (as it should be with every statistic). I don't think that usage of that statistic without context is meaningless given that it is the official US estimate of poverty. I certainly don't think the usage of that statistic without context warrants anything close to the vitriolic language that you used.

103 points by Caveman_Coder 9y ago

GuiA 9y ago

The whole report is a great read, which completely lines up with my experience living in various places in the US (particularly California + Louisiana) as a European - but this example near the beginning particularly stands out to me because, living in an area in San Francisco with a very visible homeless population, I witness it on a near daily basis: "I witnessed a San Francisco police officer telling a group of homeless people to move on but having no answer when asked where they could move to" As I said, I witness this extremely regularly just outside of my apartment. It ranges from a patrol car stopping for a few minutes to just give a talk to the homeless people that amounts to "hey, we're the police, we are letting you know we're here and we've got our eye on you... we know you can't magically stop being homeless but please stop looking so homeless", all the way to 4-5 cars + a firetruck/ambulance on standby while the officers make the homeless people take down camp, pat them down, etc. with sometimes a city sanitation pickup truck taking away all of their possessions as garbage (it seems that many homeless people are hoarders). I'm not sure what's going on "behind the scenes" here. Is it an irate neighbor that calls the police complaining about the homeless people and asking them to do something about it, which they then do their best to? Or is interacting with the homeless population an actual, documented part of their job? If so, is it tracked? What are the outcomes they hope for? What I observe is that when they make the homeless people leave, they'll typically be back a few days/weeks later, so clearly this is only shuffling the problem around, rather than actually solving it in any meaningful way. My hunch is that this is all essentially theater - the police/fire department know they can't do anything, but have instructions from above to do "something" about it, so they just end up doing what they can, even if it is utterly pointless and ineffective. But at least the irate neighbor is satisfied that there are no more homeless people outside their window for now. It's all very sad.

alexandercrohde 9y ago
It was my understanding that SF in particular is an incredibly rich county and that there are adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless. Is this not the case?
- IntronExon 9y ago
  Shelters are notoriously nasty places, and a bed alone is not what these people need. Many, if not most are seriously mentally ill, and need a level of care that isn’t available to people without serious money. Since the 1980’s mental health has been shafted in the US, with predictable results for homelessness and mass violence. Remember that the Us is a country in which a sitting congresswomen and bystanders can be gunned down by a paranoid schizophrenic who was known to authorities, and nothing changes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner
  - mschuster91 9y ago
    > in which a sitting congresswomen That's a part of the problem right there: Gabrielle Giffords is a woman, not a man - unlike the other 78% of Congress. As usual with politics, as long as you're not a white, able-bodied male with money, no one will care what happens to you. There will be a couple of rallies, maybe a week or so of media headlines and that's it. Oh and maybe anniversaries of the event. Sounds cruel but I have the feeling that it will need a rich white powerful politician's kid to die or be maimed in a mass shooting to have any effect on gun control. And even then, I wouldn't bet my money on actual change happening. As for mental health, no idea how more funding for that can ever be passed. Unlike with a person with a wound it's difficult to "see" mental health issues (or, the healing process), and a culture in which mental health issues are regarded as "weaknesses" that must be ignored/covered-over than be helped doesn't help eithr.
    - totalZero 9y ago
      Ever hear of Steve Scalise? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scalise
- carapace 9y ago
  SF spends about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on homelessness.[1] There are not adequate beds available in shelters for the homeless.[2] [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-record-241-million-on-homeless-6808319.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-spends-recor... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisco-state-of-emergency-homelessness-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/san-francisc...
manicdee 9y ago
The implicit, undocumented, de facto aim of moving homeless on to somewhere else is to have them die quietly out of the public eye. A better way to solve the “homeless problem” is to give people homes, counselling, and access to work. This is because homelessness is usually a result of losing a job and thus a house and thus one’s self esteem (and in some cases, one’s mind).
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  Worked in Utah. TL;DR Housing the homeless is cheaper than the chronic costs of not housing the homeless. "Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness By 91 Percent; Here's How" https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chroni...
  - book_mentioned 9y ago
    Disputed counterpoint: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13894796#13895345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13894796#13895345
- cycrutchfield 9y ago
  No, they aim to move homeless so that whatever camp they create is not their de facto home. SF spends a mind boggling amount of money on supporting the homeless population and trying to get them back on their feet. Unfortunately this compassion is rewarded by many more homeless people moving to SF to take advantage of the amenities.
vkou 9y ago
It's because of this. [1] A large contingent of the public wants to not have any homeless, but isn't willing to fund getting homeless people off the streets. (Yes, San Francisco may be mismanaging their homeless budget, but not every city is.) So, since they aren't willing to do anything constructive, but are willing to complain, they call the police. Since it's almost impossible to be homeless and not be breaking one law or another, the police show up, move them somewhere else, and the cycle repeats. [1] https://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/citizen-do-not-be-two-faced/ https://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/citizen-do-n...

ultimoo 9y ago

Philip Alston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Alston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Alston

protomyth 9y ago

US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world This is a common stat thrown around, but there is a non-obvious caveat. How this is counted differs between countries (even different in different EU countries). Wikipedia has a pretty good summary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality

sjg007 9y ago
It's not reporting: "the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States' relatively low international ranking. Rather, the report concluded that primary reason for the United States’ higher infant mortality rate when compared with Europe was the United States’ much higher percentage of preterm births.[72]" from the wikipedia article you cite. The question is why does America have a higher "percentage" of preterm births. I'll give you one reason, lack of affordable health care.
- hnburnsy 9y ago
  Doesn't this explain why? "A non-viable live birth in the US could be registered as a stillbirth in similarly developed nations like Japan, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, and France – thereby reducing the infant death count. Neonatal intensive care is also more likely to be applied in the US to marginally viable infants..."
  - sjg007 9y ago
    "the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States' relatively low international ranking." and "Many countries, including the United States, Sweden and Germany, count an infant exhibiting any sign of life as alive, no matter the month of gestation or the size, but according to United States some other countries differ in these practices."
- protomyth 9y ago
  “the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation” Notice they haven’t gone through the trouble of normalizing the criteria and doing a proper count. ‘Unlikely’ is an opinion unchecked by data. I’m getting a bit sick of the trend on HN of down voting facts that conflict with people’s world view. Prove it makes no difference or acknowledge that is a deceptive statistic to use. Along those lines, where is your data on why the US has more pre-term births? Perhaps the US has less abortions when things are going to be tough? Speculation and poor comparisons don’t enlighten on solve problems.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dominotw 9y ago

> often make their profits purely from speculation rather than contributing to the overall wealth of the American community. Wondering what some of these speculations are. Stock markets?

tmnvix 9y ago
Property is a big one.

downandout 9y ago

"The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans....It is against this background that my report is presented." It's interesting that he is a law professor (not an economics professor) and yet he stated this as if it were incontrovertible fact, with no facts to back up his prediction, and then went on to base much of the rest of his report on it. That statement may turn out to be true, and it may turn out to be false, but it is certainly not settled fact. It renders this entire report meaningless, as it is based on nothing more than speculation on the part of a clearly biased author about what the outcome of recent tax policy changes will be.

maxxxxx 9y ago
In what way is it controversial that the major beneficiaries of the tax reform will the richest parts of society? I thought that's pretty obvious.
- rayiner 9y ago
  It’s a very biased framing. Even with the changes, our tax system is more progressive than say France or Germany.
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    "As noted in the World Inequality Report 2018, in both Europe and the US the top 1% of adults earned around 10% of national income in 1980. In Europe that has risen today to 12%, but in the US it has reached 20%." The tax reform will shift even more income to the top 1%. How is that biased framing?
    - dominotw 9y ago
      So I am looking up GINI. European countries have similar and sometimes higher( france, germany) GINI than USA. Over the years seems to have stayed constant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...

arturmakly 9y ago

video talk : https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJkLD_s9pYaYteD-3LxQd2fIGakaf3_Fq https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJkLD_s9pYaYteD-3LxQd2f...

Zelphyr 9y ago

Apologies for going off topic but what the hell did the developers of that do to the keys? If you scroll down and then use the down arrow you're taken to the top of the page and, paradoxically, one of the nav items opens. Can't use Command-Left Arrow to go back in the history. Just does nothing. Did they do that on purpose? Who thought that was a good idea? One I hope doesn't spread.

mschuster91 9y ago
> If you scroll down and then use the down arrow you're taken to the top of the page and, paradoxically, one of the nav items opens I can't reproduce this one, but cmd+r and then using the arrows does not work - only after clicking with the mouse once in the text. The HTML output of that page is an utter, utter mess including MS Office comments revealing part of their internal infrastructure and workflow (look for www-edit.in.ohchr.org in the source). Jeez.

rayiner 9y ago

> 2. My visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and extreme poverty. The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans Really hard to take this seriously. I don’t think anyone in the US needs a tax cut right now, so I oppose the tax reform. But the fact is that before the Trump tax cuts, US corporate tax rates were higher both in theory and in practice than in Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the-u-s-have-the-highest-corporate-tax-rate-in-the-world https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the... Our taxes are also far more progressive than Germany, France, and Sweden: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/americas-taxes-are-the-most-progressive-in-the-world-its-government-is-among-the-least/?utm_term=.a05b599f3342 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/ameri.... Trump’s tax plan won’t change that: the cuts in the top rates are very small and even most people in the top 1% won’t be able to take advantage of things like pass through treatment.

wsxcde 9y ago
Could you explain how the statement "before the Trump tax cuts, US corporate tax rates were higher both in theory and in practice than in Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the..." https://www.npr.org/2017/08/07/541797699/fact-check-does-the... rebuts the professor's claim that the tax cuts will "greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality"?
- rayiner 9y ago
  It’s more the “bid to become the most unequal society” framing of the point. That makes it seem like the US is doing something different than everyone else. The entire OECD has been cutting corporate tax rates massively over the past few decades: https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/corporate-tax-cuts-and-tax-revenues https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/corporate-tax-cuts-and-....
timster3001 9y ago

davidcollantes 9y ago

Interesting, and sad to read. Our America has many problems, many of which shouldn't exist on a nation as rich as ours. What amazes me is, did he gather all that, first hand, within two weeks?!

mc32 9y ago

I don't doubt the gist of most of the report. We could do much better with the money we spend on Health... but this sounds odd: "Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA" Given that a few years ago it was unheard of disease by most professionals.

dominotw 9y ago
Not sure what point he is tyring to make with that > 424 symptomatic Zika virus disease cases reported* > 414 cases in travelers returning from affected areas > 4 cases acquired through presumed local mosquito-borne transmission in Florida (N=2) and Texas (N=2) > 6 cases acquired through sexual transmission There were ~10 cases were people got infected by zika while in united states. How is spending more money on public health going to prevent people getting infected while overseas. https://www.cdc.gov/zika/reporting/2017-case-counts.html https://www.cdc.gov/zika/reporting/2017-case-counts.html

gwright 9y ago

That report starts out with the ridiculous statement that "40 million people continue to live in poverty" in the US. If you spend just five or ten minutes trying to understand where that number comes from you can only include that Mr. Alston is either unimaginably incompetent in understanding poverty statistics or he is being massively disingenuous in his reporting. A little googling will show that the 40 million number is based on cash income that doesn't excludes massive amounts of government assistance (housing assistance, food stamps, and so on). It is an absolute useless statistic to use as a primary statement about "poverty" in the US. Here is a good take down of this misleading report: http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2018/1/30/completely-taken-in-by-the-poverty-fraud http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2018/1/30/completely-tak...

shkkmo 9y ago
A little googling will show that "there is no international consensus on guidelines for measuring poverty". I agree that "40 million people continue to live in poverty" is a claim that needs an accompanying definition of poverty and and description of the measurement methodology to really convey information. However that number is the Official US estimate of its own poverty rate. I agree that our methodology of measure poverty in the US is laughable and needs improvement, but you can't blame Mr. Alston for that. Your assertion that this claim is "ridiculous" and that Mr. Alston is "unimaginably incompetent" or "massively disingenuous" for using the US's own measurement of poverty is thus clearly beyond hyperbole and more than a little ridiculous and quite disingenuous itself.
- gwright 9y ago
  So you agree that the statistic is meaningless without context and yet you are OK with that being the lead in the report?
  - shkkmo 9y ago
    I would have preferred to see context provided with the statistic (as it should be with every statistic). I don't think that usage of that statistic without context is meaningless given that it is the official US estimate of poverty. I certainly don't think the usage of that statistic without context warrants anything close to the vitriolic language that you used.