by Hannah Penfield

Created on: June 14, 2009   Last Updated: June 17, 2009

It can be universally agreed that global poverty is an issue. No one can deny poverty in places like India and sub-Saharan Africa is unacceptably high.
But what about the United States?

The U.S. is consistently called the richest nation in the world. While that may be true, many Americans live well below the poverty line. As a nation of Donald Trumps and Bill Gates', the U.S. should be doing more to help Americans struggling to get by. If the US helps its own people first, it will be more capable to help others later.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 12.5 percent of all Americans are living in poverty. That may not be very large in comparison to, say, the World Bank's estimation that 42 of all Indians live in poverty. However, once you break down the numbers, it becomes more shocking.

The overall poverty rate may be low, but it is not representative. 26.6 percent of people living in single-parent households live below the poverty line. In addition, 25.5 percent of all blacks and 21.5 percent of all Hispanics are impoverished. 18 percent of all minors live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census figures.

Now that we've broken down the numbers demographically, let's break them down geographically. When people think of America, they tend to think of nice suburban areas resembling Loudon Country, Va., and San Mateo County, Calif., with poverty rates of three percent and six percent, respectively. Few think of Issaquena County, Miss., with 34.7 percent of its population impoverished. Nor do they think of East Carroll Parish, La., where a staggering 36 percent live under the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. India's 42 percent does not seem too far removed now.

Lastly, we should compare ourselves to other developed countries. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the U.S. not only has the highest probability at birth of not reaching age 60 (11.8 percent) among developed nations, but we also have the highest percentage of people living on less than half the median income, 17 percent. Plus, at 20 percent, we have the fourth highest illiteracy rate among the 18 developed nations.

We need to help other countries overcome poverty, yes. However, we would be more effective at helping others if we ourselves didn't have people living at levels comparable to third-world countries. We can't help others if we can't help ourselves.

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