双语：贫富分化导致美国人权问题日益严重

Full Text: The Growing Division Between the Rich and the Poor Leading to Increasingly Severe Human Rights Issues in the United States

贫富分化导致美国人权问题日益严重

The Growing Division Between the Rich and the Poor Leading to Increasingly Severe Human Rights Issues in the United States

中国人权研究会

The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS)

2020年7月

July 2020

美国虽然号称世界第一强国，但却非人人富足。揭开美国整体富强的面纱，看到的是贫富严重分化的冷酷现实。联合国极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员菲利普·奥尔斯顿在2018年5月发表的访美报告中指出，美国已经沦为贫富分化最严重的西方国家，约4000万美国人生活在贫困中，1850万美国人生活在极端贫困中，超过500万人的生活状态同第三世界绝对贫困人群相当。2020年新冠肺炎疫情暴发以来，美国政府应对疫情不力导致严重的人权灾难，美国社会的经济不平等进一步暴露和加剧，底层民众陷入更为艰难的生存困境。

Although the United States claims to be the greatest power in the world, it fails to make all its citizens live comfortably. Under the cover of overall prosperity in the United States, the harsh reality is the serious division between the rich and the poor in the country. In his report on his visit to the US, which was released in May 2018, Philip Alston, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, pointed out that the United States has the widest gap between the rich and the poor among all Western countries. According to the report, about 40 million US citizens live in poverty, and among them, 18.5 million live in extreme poverty. More than 5 million US citizens live in a state comparable to that of the absolutely poor in the third world. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the US government’s ineffective anti-pandemic efforts have led the American people into grave human rights disasters, which have further highlighted and exacerbated the existing social and economic inequality within US society.

一、美国贫富持续分化的基本趋势

Part 1 Basic Trends Reflecting the Continuously Widening Division Between the Rich and the Poor in the United States

收入分配两极分化。皮尤研究中心2018年7月12日公布的调查结果显示，自20世纪70年代以来，美国贫富差距呈显著扩大趋势。美国商务部数据显示，2019年5月，美国基尼系数达0.482，远超0.4的国际“警戒线”。世界社会主义网站2016年12月公布的研究数据显示，2014年，占美国人口50%的低收入人口的人均年收入为16200美元，几乎与1980年持平；而同期占人口1%的高收入者人均年收入却增长了3倍，高收入阶层平均一年的收入相当于普通工人一辈子收入的总和。《商业内幕》网站2016年8月15日披露，扣除价格因素，从1978年到2015年，美国最大的350家公司的首席执行官的薪酬增长了约940%，普通工人的薪酬则只增长了10%。《波士顿评论》网站2017年9月1日报道，在此前的40年间，美国80%中低收入人口的收入仅增长了约25%，而20%高收入人口的收入却几乎翻了一番。《商业内幕》网站2017年1月报道，德意志银行首席国际经济学家托斯坦·斯洛克以收入水平来计算美国家庭财富的报告显示，美国最富有0.1%家庭的财富相当于最底层90%家庭所拥有财富的总和。

The United States has a high level of income polarization. The survey results released by the Pew Research Center on July 12, 2018, show that the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States has expanded significantly since the 1970s. According to the data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Gini coefficient for the United States reached 0.482 in May 2019, far exceeding the internationally recognized “warning line” of 0.4. The research data published by the World Socialist Web Site in December 2016 show that in 2014, the per-capita annual income of low-income US citizens, who accounted for 50 percent of the US population, was US$16,200, which was almost flat compared with the number in the 1980s, but the per-capita annual income of the top 1 percent high-income US citizens increased threefold over the same period. The research data also show that in 2014, the per-capita annual income of the high-income group equaled an ordinary worker’s lifetime income. The Business Insider website disclosed on August 15, 2016, that after deducting price factors, from 1978 to 2015, the salaries of the CEOs of the 350 largest companies in the United States increased by about 940 percent, while the salaries of ordinary workers increased by only 10 percent. The website of Boston Review reported on September 1, 2017, that in the recent 40 years, the income of the low- and middle-income groups, which accounted for about 80 percent of the US population, had increased by only about 25 percent, while the income of the high-income group, which accounted for about 20 percent of the US population, had almost doubled. As reported by the Business Insider website in January 2017, Torsten Slok, Chief International Economist of Deutsche Bank, found out that the wealth of the top 0.1 percent US households equaled the wealth of the bottom 90 percent of the US households when calculating the wealth of US households based on income levels.

中产阶级规模持续萎缩。美联社2016年5月13日报道，美国90%城市中的中产阶级境况趋于恶化，不少美国家庭掉出中产阶级行列。盖洛普公司2016年9月20日发布的研究报告显示，将自己定位为中产阶级或中上阶级的美国人从2000年至2008年的平均61%降到了2016年的51%，这意味着2500万人的经济生活质量急剧下滑。皮尤研究中心2016年5月11日发布的报告显示，在近25%的大都市中，中产阶级不再占据多数。

The size of the middle class in the United States continues to shrink. As reported by the Associated Press on May 13, 2016, 90 percent of households from the urban middle class in the United States were faced with increasingly worse situations, and many of them fell out of the middle class. A research report published by Gallup on September 20, 2016, shows that the percentage of US citizens who categorize themselves as being middle or upper-middle class has dropped from an average of 61 percent between 2000 and 2008 to 51 percent in 2016. This means that the quality of economic life for about 25 million US citizens has plummeted drastically. A report released by the Pew Research Center on May 11, 2016, shows that the middle class no longer holds the majority in nearly 25 percent of metropolises in the United States.

贫困率居高不下。美国人口普查局2018年的统计数据显示，美国贫困人口达3810万，贫困率为11.8%。美国政策研究所2018年的报告称，美国官方公布的贫困率存在低估现象。据其估算，美国总人口的43.5%（约1.4亿人）生活拮据或收入低微。斯坦福大学贫困与不平等研究中心2017年发布的报告显示，美国南部农村的整体贫困率为20%，那里的非洲裔美国人的贫困率是33%，非洲裔妇女的贫困率高达37%。在美国西部农村，原住民的贫困率高达32%。

Poverty rates remain high in the United States. Statistics from the United States Census Bureau in 2018 show that the number of poor people in the United States reached 38.1 million, with a poverty rate of 11.8 percent. The 2018 annual report made by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) stated that there was an underestimation in the officially published US poverty rates, and it estimated that 43.5 percent of the US population (about 140 million people) live in straitened circumstances or earn a low income. According to a report released by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality in 2017, the overall poverty rate in rural areas in the southern United States is 20 percent, and the poverty rates for African Americans and for African-American women in this region are 33 percent and 37 percent, respectively. In the rural areas of the western United States, the poverty rate for Native Americans is as high as 32 percent.

二、贫富分化对人权的享有和实现产生了严重的负面影响

Part 2 The Division Between the Rich and the Poor Bringing Severe Adverse Effects on the Enjoyment and Realization of Human Rights

近半美国家庭无法维持基本生活。《今日美国报》网站2018年11月19日报道，超过500万全年从事全职工作的美国人的年收入低于1.5万美元的贫困线，其中有许多人还要供养家庭和子女。美联储2018年发布的报告显示，43%的美国家庭入不敷出，只能借债支付住房、食品、儿童护理、医疗、交通和通讯费用。40%的美国人拿不出400美元的可支配收入来支付医疗急救或汽车修理等意外开支。成千上万的年轻人因付不起学费而上不了大学，数百万人不得不背负沉重的学生债务。由于长期贫富分化和结构性歧视，美国工薪阶层抵御风险的能力大大减弱，在新冠肺炎疫情带来的经济冲击下陷入生存危机。根据美国劳工部2020年5月28日公布的数据，美国3月15日至5月23日累计首次申请失业救济人数达4080万。沃克斯新闻网2020年4月10日报道指出，那些本已是最脆弱的群体首当其冲地受到疫情带来的经济影响。“最容易遭受裁员的人正是那些薪水最低的人，例如餐饮业和零售业的低薪工人。”虽然美国政府也推出了旨在援助中小企业的“薪资保护计划”，但一些资金较充裕的大企业却利用规则漏洞趁机获得巨额贷款，而一些亟需贷款“续命”的小企业、小商铺却无法得到救助，不得不关闭或裁员。

Nearly half of US households are unable to maintain an adequate standard of living. As reported by the website of USA Today on November 19, 2018, more than 5 million US citizens who worked full-time throughout the year earned an annual income below the US$15,000 poverty line, and many of them still had to support their families and children. According to a report released by the Federal Reserve in 2018, 43 percent of US households were unable to make ends meet and could only rely on loans to pay for housing, food, child care, medical care, transportation, and communication; 40 percent of US citizens did not have US$400 disposable income to cover accidental expenses such as medical emergencies or car repairs; hundreds of thousands of young people could not afford to go to college or university, and millions of people had to take on the heavy student debts. Given the long-existing structural discrimination and polarization between the rich and the poor, the US working class’s ability to resist risks has been greatly diminished. According to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, which were released on May 28, 2020, the total number of US people who filed their initial claim for unemployment benefits between March 15 and May 23 reached 40.8 million. Vox News pointed out on April 10 that it was the most vulnerable groups that bore the brunt of the economic impact brought by the recent pandemic. According to the report, during the pandemic, the people who are most vulnerable amid layoffs are those who earn the lowest salaries, such as low-wage workers in the catering and retail industries. When the US government launched the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), which was intended to help small- and medium-sized enterprises, some large companies with sufficient funds took advantage of the rule loopholes to acquire huge loans, but small businesses and small shops that urgently needed loans to sustain themselves could only announce closures or layoffs, since they could not get the help.

低收入群体面临饥饿威胁。在经济已经高度发达的美国，很多公民却依然面临饥饿威胁。根据美国农业部2015年发布的数据，大约20%的儿童生活在食品保障不足的家庭。英国《卫报》网站2015年11月26日报道，2008年至2014年间，美国每年至少有4810万人口被划为“食物无保障者”，其中包括19.2%有孩子的家庭，这意味着他们的均衡饮食难以保障。《今日美国报》网站2014年8月17日报道，过高的贫困率导致约14%的美国人依赖食物赈济。在依赖食物赈济的人口中，65%的家庭至少有一个不满18岁的孩子或超过60岁的老人，79%的人购买廉价的不卫生的食物以养活其家庭。饥饿和营养不良使美国每年多花1600亿美元来治疗慢性病。据美国疾病预防与控制中心2015年的估计，每年有4800万人会患上食源性疾病，其中12.8万人需要住院治疗，3000人因此丧命。福布斯新闻网2020年5月7日报道，调查显示，大量美国儿童在新冠肺炎疫情中面临饥饿问题。截至2020年4月底，五分之一以上的美国家庭面临食品危机；在拥有12岁以下儿童的美国家庭中，面临食品危机的比例高达五分之二。

Low-income groups are faced with the threat of hunger in the United States, even when this country’s economy is already highly developed. According to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2015, about 20 percent of children live in food-insufficient households in the United States. As reported by the website of the British newspaper The Guardian on November 26, 2015, between 2008 and 2014, at least 48.1 million US households were classified as “food-insecure” each year, and 19.2 percent of these “food-insecure” households had children who could hardly have healthy balanced diets. On August 17, 2014, the website of USA Today reported that excessively high poverty rates have led to about 14 percent of US citizens relying on food aid. Among the households that rely on food aid, 65 percent of them have at least one child under the age of 18 or an elderly person over the age of 60, and 79 percent of them buy cheap and unhygienic food to support their families. Hunger and malnutrition cost the United States more than US$160 billion a year to treat chronic diseases. According to estimates made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2015, 48 million US citizens would develop food-borne illnesses each year, of which 128,000 would need hospitalization and 3,000 would die as a result of such diseases. Forbes News reported on May 7, 2020, that a survey showed that a large number of American children were facing hunger during the pandemic. According to the survey, as of the end of this April, more than one-fifth of American households had been facing food crises, and as many as two-fifths of American households with children under 12 years of age had been facing such crises.

无家可归者生存状况恶劣。英国《卫报》网站2017年2月24日报道，美国每年都有数百万人因交不起房租而被赶出住房。路透社网站2015年11月20日报道，由于大部分地区保障性住房供应不足及经济复苏乏力，美国有超过56.5万人无家可归，其中四分之一的人是儿童。洛杉矶、西雅图、波特兰和夏威夷州近年来都曾因无家可归者增多而宣布进入紧急状态。英国《卫报》网站2017年12月6日报道，纽约的无家可归者比2016年增长了4.1%。无家可归者的生存状况极为恶劣。许多无家可归者急需医疗救助并患有精神疾病。露宿街头的无家可归者普遍面临着暴力泛滥、缺乏如厕和洗澡场所等问题。新冠肺炎疫情期间，流落街头的无家可归者遭到严厉驱逐，被迫住进临时收容所隔离。路透社网站2020年4月23日报道，美国各地的无家可归收容所因人员拥挤而难以保持社交距离，使得病毒极易传播。《纽约时报》网站4月13日报道称，无家可归者收容所成为纽约市疫情的“定时炸弹”，超过1.7万人住在为单身成年人准备的集中收容所中，睡在床上几乎可以手碰手。《自然》杂志网站5月7日报道，研究人员开始对美国无家可归者进行病毒检测时发现，那里的情况已经失控。《洛杉矶时报》网站5月14日报道，研究显示美国的无家可归者数量受疫情影响可能一年内激增高达45%，导致公共卫生危机进一步加剧。

The homeless are living in poor conditions in the United States. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on February 24, 2017, that millions of people in the United States were driven out of their homes every year because they could not afford to pay the rent. Reuters website reported on November 20, 2015, that due to inadequate supply of affordable housing and weak economic recovery in most regions, more than 565,000 people were homeless in the United States, a quarter of whom were children. Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, and Hawaii have all declared a state of emergency in recent years due to an increasing number of the homeless. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on December 6, 2017, that the number of homeless in New York City increased by 4.1 percent in 2016. The living conditions of the homeless are extremely poor, and many of these homeless people urgently need medical assistance or suffer from mental illness. Homeless people who live on the streets face problems such as widespread violence and lack of toilets and bathing facilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the homeless people living on the streets have been relocated and forced to live in temporary shelters for isolation. The website of Reuters reported on April 23 that in the crowded shelters offered by the US government, it was impossible for the homeless staying there to practice social distancing, which made it easier for the virus to spread. The website of the New York Times pointed out on April 13 that the shelters for the homeless became a delayed-action bomb of a virus outbreak in New York City, as more than 17,000 people lived and slept almost side by side in those centralized shelters. The website of Nature magazine reported on May 7 that when researchers began conducting virus testing on homeless people in the United States, they found that the situation there had gotten out of control. The website of the Los Angeles Times reported on May 14 that research showed that due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of homeless people in the United States might surge by as much as 45 percent within a year, further exacerbating the public health crisis.

贫困压力导致民众健康状况下降。联合国极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员菲利普·奥尔斯顿在其访美报告中指出，美国与同等发展水平国家之间的“健康差距”继续拉大，其国民预期寿命更短，更容易得病身亡。法新社2015年10月14日报道，生活在纽约市布鲁克林区布朗斯维尔街区的居民中，76%是非洲裔，近40%的人生活在贫困线以下，新感染艾滋病毒的比率是全市的2倍多，人均预期寿命比曼哈顿金融区的居民少11岁。《医学报刊》网站2017年6月13日报道，美国有1570万人酗酒，770万人滥用违禁药物。美国哥伦比亚广播公司网站2017年6月6日报道，过量用药成为当今五十岁以下美国人死亡的首要原因。美国疾病预防与控制中心2017年12月发布的报告显示，2016年美国有超过63600人因药物过量而死亡。

The poverty-induced stress makes the US people suffer from deterioration in their overall health. Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, pointed out in his report on his visit to the United States that the “health gap” between the United States and countries with the same level of development continues to widen, as the US citizens have shorter life expectancy and are more likely to die of illness. A report on the residents living in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, which was made by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on October 14, 2015, showed that 76 percent of the residents were African Americans and nearly 40 percent of the residents lived below the poverty line and that these residents are more than twice as likely to become HIV-infected and their average life expectancy is 11 years shorter than that of the residents living in the Financial District, Manhattan. The Medical News website reported on June 13, 2017, that 15.7 million people in the United States are alcoholics and 7.7 million abuse illegal drugs. The CBS website reported on June 6, 2017, that overdose had become the leading cause of death among US citizens under the age of 50. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2017 showed that more than 63,600 people in the United States died from a drug overdose in 2016.

因贫失去医疗保险者无力支付医疗费用。盖洛普公司2018年11月1日至11日进行的年度健康与医疗调查显示，46%的受访者担心没有足够的钱来支付医疗费用。美国城市研究所2018年的一份研究报告显示，得克萨斯州65岁以下没有医疗保险的居民人数多达470万，比例高达19%。美国家庭联盟的消费者权益保护组织2012年6月20日发布报告称，2010年，美国有26100名年龄在25到64岁之间的劳动人口由于缺乏医疗保险而丧命，比2000年增加31%。这意味着美国平均每天有72人、每小时有3人因为缺乏医疗保险而失去生命。英国《卫报》网站2017年11月13日报道，由于面临失去医疗保险的风险，越来越多的美国人无法退出工作岗位，被迫陷入经济学家所说的“职业锁定”状态。《大西洋月刊》网站2020年4月报道，美国低收入人群患病后，“通常会延迟去看医生，不是因为他们不想康复，而是因为根本没有钱”。面对新冠肺炎疫情，美国有数千万人没有医疗保险，而新冠肺炎重症监护费用却高达数万美元。“生存还是毁灭”，并不只是文学作品中的生命哲学，也是美国底层民众面临的现实抉择。

US citizens who have lost their medical insurance due to poverty cannot afford medical expenses. Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare survey, conducted between November 1 and 11, 2018, showed that 46 percent of respondents were concerned that they did not have enough money to pay for medical care. A research study by the Urban Institute in the United States in 2018 showed that Texas had as many as 4.7 million residents under the age of 65 who did not have medical insurance, accounting for 19 percent of its population. The consumer protection organization of Families USA released a report on June 20, 2012, saying that in 2010, 26,100 workers aged between 25 to 64 in the United States lost their lives due to lack of medical insurance, a 31-percent increase over 2000. This meant that in the United States, due to lack of medical insurance, an average of 72 people lost their lives every day and an average of three lives were lost every hour. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on November 13, 2017, that being afraid of losing health insurance, more and more US citizens could not quit their jobs and were forced into a state that was referred by the economists as “job lock”. The website of The Atlantic Monthly reported in April 2020 that low-income people in the United States would usually delay seeing a doctor when they became ill, not because they did not want to recover, but because they had no money at all. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of people in the United States are not covered by medical insurance, when intensive care for novel coronavirus pneumonia costs as high as tens of thousands of dollars in the country. “To be or not to be” is not just a philosophical proposition of some literary work, but a realistic choice that the people at the bottom of US society have to make.

贫富分化导致人均预期寿命下降、自杀率上升。据美国国家健康统计中心2016年12月8日发布的数据，美国人的预期寿命出现总体下降，男性从2014年的76.5岁下降到76.3岁，女性则从81.3岁下降到81.2岁，总体人均预期寿命从78.9岁下降到78.8岁。与此同时，美国自杀率持续升高。据美国疾病预防与控制中心2014年发布的数据，2013年美国共有41149人自杀，比1999年增长约41%。在美国，每13分钟就有一人自杀。自杀成为导致死亡的第十大原因，是凶杀案的两倍以上。美国疾病预防与控制中心发布的《2015年致命伤害统计报告》显示，美国有980万成年人声称有自杀的想法，其中270万人有自杀计划，140万人采取了非致命的自杀尝试。

The division between the rich and the poor has led to a decline in the average life expectancy and increasing suicide rates in the United States. According to the data released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the United States on December 8, 2016, the life expectancy of US citizens showed a general downward trend compared to the numbers of 2014, with US men’s life expectancy falling from 76.5 years in 2014 to 76.3 years; US women’s life expectancy falling from 81.3 to 81.2 years; all US citizens’ life expectancy falling from 78.9 to 78.8. In the meantime, the US suicide rates continued increasing. According to the data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2014, there were 41,149 suicides in the United States in 2013, an increase of about 41 percent over 1999. There is a suicide in the United States every 13 minutes, and suicide has become the 10th leading cause of death in the country, causing over twice as many human deaths than by homicide. According to the CDC’s Fatal Injury Report 2015, in the United States, there were 9.8 million adults claiming suicidal thoughts, and among them, 2.7 million had suicide plans, and 1.4 million made nonfatal suicide attempts.

低收入人群失去平等的受教育机会。美国高等教育资源总是不成比例地向富人倾斜，导致公众对高等教育的不满不断上升。《华盛顿邮报》网站2018年10月10日报道，美国不同家庭出生的孩子智商分布基本一致，但出生于富裕家庭的孩子成功概率更高。高收入家庭的孩子即使天分较差，也比低收入家庭的聪明孩子更容易获得大学文凭。《纽约时报》的报道指出，在包括耶鲁大学、普林斯顿大学、宾夕法尼亚大学等名校在内的38所美国大学中，来自收入水平处于前1%美国家庭的学生数量多于来自收入水平处于后60%美国家庭的学生的总和。盖洛普公司2018年10月发布的一项调查结果显示，只有不到一半的美国民众对高等教育体系持有信心。联合国极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员菲利普·奥尔斯顿在2018年5月发表的访美报告中指出，美国的社会代际流动性在富裕国家中处于最低水平，“美国梦正在迅速蜕变成美国幻想”。

Low-income groups cannot enjoy equal opportunities for education in the United States. Rich people always have significant advantages in obtaining higher education resources, which leads to an increasing public dissatisfaction with the US higher education system. As reported by the website of The Washington Post on October 10, 2018, although the distribution of IQ scores has a normal shape in both the group of children born into rich families and the group born into poor families, the former group is more likely to succeed. According to the report, the less-gifted children of high-income parents are more likely to get college diplomas than better-gifted children of low-income parents. As reported by The New York Times, in 38 US universities including famous universities such as Yale University, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, the total number of students from the top 1 percent of US households is greater than the total number of students from the bottom 60 percent of US households. A survey published by Gallup in October 2018 showed that only less than half of the US population had confidence in the US higher education system. In his report published in May 2018 on his visit to the United States, Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, pointed out that among all the affluent countries in the world, the United States had the lowest intergenerational social mobility, and that the American Dream was rapidly transforming into the “American Illusion”.

贫困儿童和单身母亲生活困苦。英国广播公司2017年12月11日报道，2016年数据显示，美国约有1330万贫困儿童，占18岁以下人口的18%。美国城市研究所网站2017年5月18日报道，将近900万儿童在持续贫困的家庭中成长，占美国儿童总人口的11.8%。长期贫困的儿童成年后经济状况获得改善的可能性显著低于不贫困和较不贫困的同龄人。美国许多单身母亲及其家庭生活艰难。单身母亲指南网站2016年9月17日报道，在超过960万的单身母亲中，有23.2%是全年失业的。在被解雇或正在找工作的单身母亲中，只有22.4%能够领到失业救济金。大约有783万由单身妈妈抚养的儿童生活在贫困线以下。

Poor children and single mothers have a hard time in the United States. The BBC reported on December 11, 2017, that according to 2016 figures, there were 13.3 million poor children in the United States, accounting for 18 percent of the US population under the age of 18. The website of the Urban Institute reported on May 18, 2017, that nearly 9 million children grew up in persistently poor households, accounting for 11.8 percent of the total US child population, and in the meantime, these persistently poor children were significantly less likely to improve their economic status than their non-poor and less-poor peers after they come of age. Many single mothers and their families in the United States live a difficult life. The Single Mothers Survival Guide website reported on September 17, 2016, that among the more than 9.6 million single US mothers, 23.2 percent were unemployed throughout the year and only 22.4 percent of the single mothers who were fired or looking for jobs could receive unemployment benefits, and that about 7.83 million children raised by single mothers lived below the poverty line.