How'd You Get So Rich is the name of a cable TV(有线电视) program, starring comedienne Joan Rivers, that shows how some Americans got their wealth and what they have done with it. There are no programs, however, called, "How'd You Get So Poor?" Only statistics.
The latest U.S. Census Bureau(人口调查局) figures indicate the number of Americans in poverty is the highest in more than half a century. At the same time, the Census Bureau says, the income gap between the rich and poor in the United States has been widening in recent years, reaching the greatest disparity(不一致，悬殊) ever in 2009.
Economists say the recession is among the reasons for the growing ranks of the poor. Henry Freedman, director of the non-governmental National Center for Law and Economic Justice, says erosion(侵蚀) of the middle class is another.
Robert Hawkins, Associate Professor(副教授) of Social Work in New York University, says people in impoverished(穷困的) areas lack some of the fundamental opportunities enjoyed by the rich. "What we have there are people who didn’t and don’t have opportunities. So those folks can’t get an education, and so what happens? They can’t get a job."
Hawkins says those caught in poverty cannot count on(指望，依靠) networking with equally poor friends or neighbors for opportunities, because none of them have any. This, he adds, creates a vicious(残酷的) cycle of crime, teen pregnancy, chronic(慢性的，长期的) illness and early death.
And Freedman says America's growing income gap could create a two-tiered(双层的) society that loses its sense of community. "People struggling to get by(设法继续存在), struggling to survive on the one hand, susceptible to(对……易受感染的) demagoguery(煽动的言论或行为); and people on the other hand who put their resources to be separate from society, safe from society rather than participating fully in society."
Robert Hawkins says the erosion of the middle class could affect the quality of those people the middle class has traditionally produced to teach, to enforce laws, to take care of the sick, and whose services also benefit the rich.
The professor also says the wealthy have increasing political influence in America, not because they are gaining the system, but because the poor are not using it to full advantage. "If low-income people want more political power, they have got to organize, they have got to vote. That is the best and probably the only way."
Hawkins says education and health are issues that need to be addressed(对付) to help the poor over the long term. What is needed immediately, he says, is renewed spending by both rich and poor alike, because money in circulation(流通中的货币) is what helps create jobs.
The problem, Hawkins notes, is that the poor have nothing to spend, and the rich have yet to overcome fears of economic uncertainty caused by the global economic recession.