The United States is the most developed nation in the world today, with its economy growing for the ninth consecutive year. But the American working class suffers from infringements on their economic and social rights.

A vast chasm exists between the rich and the poor in the United States. The British weekly magazine, the Economist, said in an October 3, 1998, article that the income of the richest families, accounting for one-fifth of the total American families, made up a half of the total income of American families. Meanwhile the earnings of the poorest families, about one-fifth of the total, earned a mere 4 per cent of the overall figure.

A September 1999 report by the US Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that the income of the 2.7 million richest Americans was equal to that of the 100 million poorest. Another report released last month by the US Economic Policy Institute and the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities said that in the late 1990s, the average annual income of the richest one-fifth families stood at US$137,500, 10 times that of the poorest one-fifth, which was about US$13,000. The disparity in the US capital of Washington ranks first in the country, with a 27-fold difference between the incomes of the rich and the poor. In 46 states, the income gap between the richest one-fifth and the poorest one-fifth of families in the United States is larger than it was 20 years ago. In the past 10 years, the average annual income for the richest one-fifth of families has increased by 15 per cent, while for the poorest one-fifth the increase is less than 1 per cent. In fact, the average annual income after taxes for the poorest families has decreased in the past 20 years, since the minimum wage and medium income have not increased or dropped in the past two decades.

According to a local report by the Washington Post on August 30, 1999, the gap between the average salaries of senior managers and ordinary staff in American companies grew to as much as 419:1 in 1998 from the 1980 proportion of 42:1. In 1998, chief executive officers of big companies boasted an average yearly income of US$10.6 million, six times that of the 1990 figure of US$1.8 million.

American workers have experienced serious infringements of their rights while on the job. The Chicago Tribune reported on September 6, 1999, that in the past 20 years, almost all American workers have experienced a declining wage to a certain degree, while their working hours have increased.

The International Labour Organization issued a report on September 6, 1999, indicating that American workers have the longest working hours among all the industrialized nations, with an individual worker's yearly work time extended by 83 hours, or almost 4 per cent, compared with 1980.

The International Federation of Free Trade Unions said in a July 1999 report that the United States had been engaged in a "large-scale, sustained and surprising" infringement on the rights of labourers, including the infringement on the rights of trade unions and using children and prisoners as cheap labour.

Some 40 per cent, or almost 7 million of the country's public servants were deprived of the right to participate in labour negotiations with their employers, and at the same time, more than 2 million government employees have been banned from staging strikes or bargaining over work hours or salary.

The rights of employees working for private businesses have not been protected, while laws governing private companies' unlawful activities are often weak or ineffective. Only one of seven core labour standards of the International Labour Organization has been ratified by the United States, which is "one of the worst ratification records in the world," reported by Reuters on July 14, 1999.

The United States is the only major industrial power that has not adopted a compulsory medical insurance system. According to a report by the US Department of Commerce, 43.45 million Americans, or 16.1 per cent of the total population, live without medical insurance; 11.2 million, or 31.6 per cent of poor Americans have no medical insurance; and 30 per cent of New York residents do not have medical insurance for part of a year.

The poor population in the country has increased, rather than declined. Currently, the United States is adopting an austere economic policy to reduce spending, regardless of the effect this has on ordinary citizens, posing a threat to the living conditions of tens of millions of Americans. A US Department of Commerce report disclosed that 35.8 million Americans live in extreme poverty, a figure which accounts for 13.3 per cent of the total population. In other words, one out of every 6.5 Americans is poor.

A survey published last April said that the United States has 60 million poverty-stricken people, which represents 22.5 per cent of the total population. A Columbia University report in 1999 noted that 29 per cent of New York residents live under the poverty line, while the income of 5 per cent of New Yorkers is only one-fifth of the sum set for the poverty line. And 17 per cent of New Yorkers often cannot afford to pay their bills on time, according to a report released by the Efe news agency on March 3, 1999.

The number of Americans who suffer from hunger and homelessness has been increasing. A report issued by the American Conference of Mayors in December said the number of urban homeless and hungry in urgent need of food and shelter is higher than at any time in recent history. In 1999, the number of people who applied for urgent food aid was the largest ever and 18 per cent more than the figure of 1998.

According to another report issued on January 20, 2000, and picked up by Reuters, more than 30 million Americans live in families that are short of food, 7.2 per cent of American families cannot secure their daily needs, and children in 15.2 per cent of American families are starving. In 1999, the number of people in big cities who applied for temporary housing went up by 12 per cent. In San Francisco, nearly 14,000 were homeless and at least 169 people died of exposure, drug addiction, illness and violence in the streets.

A 1994 study made in New York after a series of incidents involving vagrants being killed showed that 80 per cent of these homeless had become the target of violent crimes.

According to an AFP story on December 16, 1999, a survey published last December found that among the homeless questioned, 66 per cent were suffering from chronic illness, one-third of them were parents, one-fourth were children, one-third were veterans, and 49 per cent were mental patients in need of treatment.