Poverty rates in the western world, while appearing to be different, are at a higher level than one imagines. 12.7% was the rate of poverty in the USA before the Covid Pandemic hit the Economy.
Poverty levels are defined, in my opinion, in very country specific fashion, different from what it appears to the eye. but social services in the majority of the rich countries soften the blow of poverty, such as the excellent medical care in France as against the shoddy, chaotic medical care in the USA, leading to many personal bankruptcies.
But still, USA does a good job of supporting its population, but one has to be aware of what is available as there are plethora of available help.
It is nice to report the two good news items that came out of USA in the last couple of days. In fact, lots of good news have come out of the USA this year, especially after the new administration came into office in January 2021.
Poverty level actually has dropped from the Pre Pandemic levels to an incredible 11.4 %. This has been attributed to the three stimulus checks issued to all USA citizens and legal residents.
What that says to me, is that there is a proportion of people who would need help from the government whatever is the situation.
There has been suggestions by the economists long before the pandemic that a certain proportion of the people be given a stipend to spend the way they want to.
These thoughts came to my mind when my good friend Jose recounted of an experience of his this morning. He had gone to a cuban restaurant in the neighbourhood, and there were two young women seated in a table not too far away from him. He saw a robot arriving at their table, with two plates, and when the young women removed the plates, the robot turned around and went back to the kitchen.
What Jose had witnessed is SKILLS GAP CREATION.. In a highly immigrant society such as Miami's, we are used to spanish speaking recent immigrants serving our rice and beans at one of the hundreds of latin restaurants. If robots replaced them before they could acquire a skill that is marketable, they would descend into poverty. What the stimulus package of the government did was to provide that cushion so that they did not have to descend into poverty but maintain dignity and move on with their lives.
Nearly 1/3 of the immigrants arriving at the southern border of the USA requesting asylum and there is a high level of lack of education especially among women. The jobs they could have done, may be usurped by a robot.
I am for an universal basic income, that the government would guarantee a minimum income, this would benefit the less fortunate in our societies and would not affect those who are skillfully employed. They can survive while they learn an appropriate skill to survive in their new environment.
I strongly support the education of girls and women all over the world, regardless of the objections on cultural and religious grounds. Once girls are educated, the society as a whole stand to gain and certainly their contribution to their societies are immense.
The second piece of good news today from the USA was that the economy grew by 6.5% which is its pre-pandemic level. It is contradictory in that there is a high rate of unemployment and high rate of job vacancies .
this is also a manifestation of the Skills Gap. The covid isolation and innovations revealed that rapid advancements in technology would make many of the traditional jobs obsolete, at least in the western world.
Iranians are trying to cross the English channel, Afghanis and Iraqis and Syrians and now the Lebanese desperately want to get into Europe, along with a large swathe of sub Saharian Africa.
Do they realize what is waiting for them on the other side of the fence?
In many of the cities in the western world, even middle class people would not be able to live comfortably: prices of houses, taxes, utilities, insurance etc etc add up to thousands of dollars.
I love the Monocle list of most livable cities and jealously imagine to be moving to one of them..
2021 Livable cities by Monocle
Copenhagen
Zurich
Helsinki
Stockholm
Tokyo
Vienna
Lisbon
Auckland
Taipei
Sydney
Seoul
Vancouver
Munich
Berlin
Amsterdam
Madrid
Melbourne
Kyoto
Brisbane
Los Angeles
I am happy to say my hometown, Melbourne, is on the list. Apart from Taipei, i have visited all the others, and enjoyed their unique characteristics. There is not a single city in that list that I do not like.
Back to the Robot serving arroz y frijoles in Miami.
It is tragically crushing of emotions to think of what Yuval Noah Harari has called the Useles Class (he was not disparaging).
In my field of Medical care, I see the technological innovation supplanting the human qualities of medical care, turning it into yet another business transaction. In this transaction, gone would be more jobs.
Israel has innovations in the medical sectors which would create an enormous amount of human waste in potentials. Currently when you enter a doctor's office in private practice (something I am not in favour), the majority of the people working there has nothing to do with the health of the patient: a good friend of mine who is a cardiologist has 4 people in his office, one of whom is a scribe who writes down the electronic health records and another one in charge of billing, one is a secretary and another is a receptionist.
Contrast this with a visit I had with a cardiologist in Paris. There was no secretary, no billing clerk, no receptionist and of course no scribe! An appointment was made on line or on the phone, you came at the appointed time, there were no double booking or patients waiting, you went to see the doctor and you chatted the allotted time, paid him in cash (the government stipulates that a consultant cardiologist can only charge 75 euros for a consult, that included a cardiograph and also an echocardiogram). You can imagine with the help of technology how many people would become redundant.
USA is a very rich country and it is growing economically and under this president it has become gentle once again. A minimum wage guarantee might become the norm in the future.
So we have to do our best to reduce the useless class, start with education of girls and women, increase literacy and access to technology. and it is good to live in your own country..
Poverty rates in the USA were reduced even in these difficult times because of the generous stimulus checks from the Government.
