US poverty reaches record high

Poverty is defined as a condition in which a person does not possess an amount of money necessary for a socially accepted lifestyle. This is a very subjective term,but in the US,poverty line is defined in terms of annual income.This is set at $22350 for a family of four.According to a report by the US census on September 13,there are about 15.1%Americans below poverty line.This is the highest since 1993 and in terms of pure numbers(46 million),the highest since 1959.This rise in poverty levels can be attributed to a large number of factors.Chief among them is job loss or unemployment.To counter the situation,U.S president Barack Obama,has a job plan which would cost roughly $440.Its efficacy,however is very much in the shadow of doubt.Obama plans to introduce tax cuts,which would definitely help the Americans fill their pocket a little more but it would do little to create more jobs.Moreover,if Americans go out and buy goods made in China, even the tax cut is not beneficial. Obama is proposing $50 billion in "immediate" infrastructure spending and $10 billion for a new infrastructure bank that will be dedicated to raising private capital to finance infrastructure projects around the country.While this may create few jobs,it would also add to the ever increasing foreign debt of the U.S.The U.S. national debt has increased by more than 4 trillion dollars since Barack Obama took office. It is currently increasing by more than 2 million dollars per minute.Letting this huge amount of debt to accumulate would be criminal and unfair towards the future generation.The U.S once had the greatest economy in the world,but now its poverty rate is the highest among all developed nations. As I am an Indian,i will discuss how all this impacts India.Now the scarcity of jobs has made Americans insecure and they are planning to cut down outsourcing from other countries.For example,Ohio,has banned the expenditure of public funds for foreign expenditure.The anti outsourcing lobby has proposed a bill that would punish American corporations for offshoring their telephone call centres, by making such companies ineligible for grants or guaranteed loans from the federal government.Disturbingly, the bill also seeks to give US consumers the right to ask where the call centre representative they are speaking with is located, and ask for an America-based representative instead.This is sure to negatively impact the Indian workers.The Philippines now leads India in call-centre jobs, employing 350,000 compared with India's 330,000, according to the Contact Center Association of the Philippines.This is a direct result of the current economic climate in the U.S.Now,I just hope that things ease up in the coming time.