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| China releases US human rights record in 2002 （10） |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-03 14:04:00 |
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IV. Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness
The United States is the only superpower in the world, however, the poor, hungry and homeless have formed a "Third World" in this most developed nation, owing to the widening gap in wealth between the rich and the poor and social injustice.
In the last two years, a series of scandals of major corporate fraud were exposed in the United States, resulting in a credibility crisis and financial losses, which has deprived ordinary Americans of a sense of economic security due to the serious losses they suffered. The Labor Department of the United States reported on January 10, 2003 that between 2001 and 2002, the United States lost 1.6 million jobs. In December 2002, the country's unemployment rate was six percent； the number of jobless people stood at 8.6 million； and employers slashed payrolls by 101,000 workers （Jan. 11, 2003, Sun）.
In the United States, 60 percent of households own stock shares. As corporate fraud scandals brought down the stock market, its capitalization was slashed by 2.5 trillion US dollars, with the employees of the affected big firms and their shareholders suffering great losses. Since energy giant Enron filed for bankruptcy protection, its stock price plunged from 85 US dollars a share to less than one US dollar a share. Millions of Enron stockholders have suffered enormous losses. A large number of Enron employees lost all their pension funds, while teachers, firefighters and some government workers lost one billion US dollars in pensions.
WorldCom's filing for bankruptcy also plunged its stock share price to a few cents from 62 US dollars； 17,000 of its employees became jobless, while investors had their interests severely damaged （June 26, 2003, Sun）. （more）
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Editor: Yang Feiyang Source:Xinhua
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