STORY: Tilted America: 1% VS. 99%
DATELINE: June 22, 2023
LENGTH: 00:04:42
LOCATION: Beijing
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. STANDUP 1 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): GULRU GEZER, Former Turkish diplomat and foreign policy analyst
3. STANDUP 2 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
4. STANDUP 3 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): DANIELLE CALVA, U.S. citizen in Indonesia
6. STANDUP 4 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
7. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ANNA MALINDOG-UY, Vice President of Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute
8. SOUNDBITE 4 (English): STEPHEN NDEGWA, International relations lecturer, United States International University (USIU-Africa)
9. SOUNDBITE 5 (English): ANNA MALINDOG-UY, Vice president of Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute
10. STANDUP 5 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
11. STANDUP 6 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
12. SOUNDBITE 6 (English): STEPHEN NDEGWA, International relations lecturer, United States International University (USIU-Africa)
13. SOUNDBITE 7 (English): JOTI BRAR, Vice-chair of Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
14. SOUNDBITE 8 (English): X.N. IRAKI, Professor of economics lecturer, University of Nairobi

STORYLINE:

STANDUP 1 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"The very rich in the United States become richer. Enshrining and preaching social equality, the country sees a huge gap between the rich and the poor. An article in The Guardian says 'In the year 2022, three multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American society -- 160 million Americans.' And the gap is ever widening."

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): GULRU GEZER, Former Turkish diplomat and foreign policy analyst
"Economic equality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to unfortunately widen."

Statistics show that 45% of all new income goes to the top 1%.

Meanwhile, working families are trapped in poverty, becoming a "permanent underclass" of the country.

STANDUP 2 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"Over the last 50 years, the poverty rate in the U.S. has barely budged: Around 11% of the U.S. population was considered poor in 2019 compared to 12% in 1970."

The New York Times says while U.S. residents' savings have run down, necessities like car repair, food and housing become sharply more expensive.

STANDUP 3 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"That means many poor Americans are struggling with basic human rights to housing, health care, education and even life and survival."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): DANIELLE CALVA, U.S. citizen in Indonesia
"If you live in a poor neighborhood (in the United States), your education is not as good as if you live in a rich neighborhood, just because of the way the education system is funded. So that also makes it more difficult for students or when they graduate to have access to higher education, the jobs."

STANDUP 4 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"The human rights situation of the poor in the world's most powerful country has drawn criticism from the world."

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ANNA MALINDOG-UY, Vice President of Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute
"On the economic front, many Americans are economically struggling. In terms of distribution of wealth, I think it's very apparent that in American society, the gap is really widening."

SOUNDBITE 4 (English): STEPHEN NDEGWA, International relations lecturer, United States International University (USIU-Africa)
"In fact, the poor people in America are worse off than the poor people in many third-world countries."

In the United States, the racial wealth gap has been persistent and extreme.

A recent long-term study, co-released by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Bonn, found that the racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and White Americans, with a white-to-black per capita wealth ratio of 6 to 1.

SOUNDBITE 5 (English): ANNA MALINDOG-UY, Vice president of Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute
"I think, to inequality, because the non-whites have less, they have less opportunity in terms of economic opportunities like the jobs, education, and all of these, even social and basic services that are supposed to be afforded to all nationals or to all citizens of America, but because of the racial ethnicity, they are not being provided with in terms of being equal to the whites or to the American whites."

STANDUP 5 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"'The American dream,' which tells that everyone is blessed with the opportunity for individual prosperity and success regardless of social class, has become a daydream for many people."

According to The Guardian, the federal minimum wage of 7.25 U.S. dollars an hour has not been raised since 2009 and has lost over 27 percent of its purchasing power since 14 years ago.

STANDUP 6 (English): ZHANG LI, Xinhua correspondent
"Why has the minimum wage not risen for more than a decade when 1% of the population enjoys increasingly huge wealth? Here are some opinions."

SOUNDBITE 6 (English): STEPHEN NDEGWA, International relations lecturer, United States International University (USIU-Africa)
"The Western model of democracy has brought capitalism, what you can say is toxic capitalism, where only a few people are able to have the largest share of the economy."

SOUNDBITE 7 (English): JOTI BRAR, Vice-chair of Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
"Because we know the system of capitalism, the monopoly capitalism, which is also the system of imperialism, doesn't operate according to human logic. The system of imperialism operates according to the logic of maximum profit and the suffering of humanity and the despoliation of the planet is of secondary or even minimal or even no importance when it comes to that logic."

SOUNDBITE 8 (English): X.N. IRAKI, Professor of economics lecturer, University of Nairobi
"And the nature of capitalism is that the more you have, the more you get."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beijing.
(XHTV)