Something is very rotten in the heart of the American Dream. In 2025, when the total net worth of the 10 richest Americans is $1.774 trillion, the working class of the largest metropolis in the U.S. faces the consequences of capitalist barbarism.
A new report by a research group at Columbia University and Robin Hood, an anti-poverty group, reveals a brutal reality: One in four New Yorkers lives in extreme poverty. This means that the city's poverty rate is nearly double the national average.
Unsurprisingly, the crisis of capitalism is hitting the poorest harder than anyone else. The report, a roughly 13-year-study that surveys a representative sample of more about 3,000 households in New York City, shows that poverty in New York has increased by 7 per cent in just two years.
420,000 children live in poverty – a figure equivalent to 26% of all children in the city.
Poverty rates among Black, Latino and Asian residents were about twice as high as the rate for white residents, confirming that class oppression under capitalism is always reinforced by racist structures.
Many cannot afford medical care, food and housing, which is a direct consequence of the state withdrawing pandemic support and social benefits.
420,000 children live in poverty – a figure equivalent to 26% of all children in the city.
Poverty rates among Black, Latino and Asian residents were about twice as high as the rate for white residents, confirming that class oppression under capitalism is always reinforced by racist structures.
Many cannot afford medical care, food and housing, which is a direct consequence of the state withdrawing pandemic support and social benefits.
As Swedish comrades point out, this situation isn't accidental, but a logical consequence of capitalism. The state is nothing more than an apparatus for capital’s exercise of power The social misery we see in New York is the same reality as in Detroit, Paris, London and Berlin – wherever capitalism rules.
Poverty, homelessness and hunger are not a law of nature – they are a systemic problem that can only be solved through the organization and struggle of the working class!
