America's wealthiest Congressman Darrell Issa has ignited a fierce debate by saying the poor in the United States are "somewhat the envy of the world" compared to the poor of India and other countries because of opportunities the American poor get.
The US lawmaker's remarks came in course of an interview on CNN Money where he was asked whether as the wealthiest Congressman in the country he feels personally responsible to address income inequality in the United States
"Absolutely," replied Issa, whose $355 million fortune is built on a car alarm business. "America is the richest country on Earth because we've been able to put capital together and we've been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world."
He then brought India into the picture, saying, "If you go to India or you go to any number of other Third World countries, you have two problems: You have greater inequality of income and wealth. You also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have not to the have. The quality of public education, the availability of the access. So, I think American is a good example, Can we do better? I think we can."
The show's host Cristina Alesci then said, "I don't think the comparison really is the one we want to make. We don't want to compare ourselves to India. We want to set the bar pretty high."
Issa: "Why shouldn't we? You do have to compare yourself with the rest of the world. We compete with the rest of the world. If we're going to have people produce automobiles, they have to compete with the rest of the world. Can we be better, smarter and produce cars in Georgia that can compete with Japan? Yes. Can we produce certain things in spite of our high cost of labor? Absolutely. But we're in the global economy and it's extremely important that we be able to amass capital, have a trained workforce and quite frankly, if we want to get paid more we have to be able to produce somehow better than many of those countries including India."
The exchange ignited a firestorm of debate on social media, fuelled in part by Issa's own status as the wealthiest lawmaker.
"If Poor People was an Olympic Sport, our poor Americans would bring home the Gold!" sniggered one reader on a social media website while another remarked, "I'd rather be poor in America than in Sudan. But I'd also rather be poor in Belgium than in America."
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The US lawmaker's remarks came in course of an interview on CNN Money where he was asked whether as the wealthiest Congressman in the country he feels personally responsible to address income inequality in the United States
"Absolutely," replied Issa, whose $355 million fortune is built on a car alarm business. "America is the richest country on Earth because we've been able to put capital together and we've been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world."
He then brought India into the picture, saying, "If you go to India or you go to any number of other Third World countries, you have two problems: You have greater inequality of income and wealth. You also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have not to the have. The quality of public education, the availability of the access. So, I think American is a good example, Can we do better? I think we can."
The show's host Cristina Alesci then said, "I don't think the comparison really is the one we want to make. We don't want to compare ourselves to India. We want to set the bar pretty high."
Issa: "Why shouldn't we? You do have to compare yourself with the rest of the world. We compete with the rest of the world. If we're going to have people produce automobiles, they have to compete with the rest of the world. Can we be better, smarter and produce cars in Georgia that can compete with Japan? Yes. Can we produce certain things in spite of our high cost of labor? Absolutely. But we're in the global economy and it's extremely important that we be able to amass capital, have a trained workforce and quite frankly, if we want to get paid more we have to be able to produce somehow better than many of those countries including India."
The exchange ignited a firestorm of debate on social media, fuelled in part by Issa's own status as the wealthiest lawmaker.
"If Poor People was an Olympic Sport, our poor Americans would bring home the Gold!" sniggered one reader on a social media website while another remarked, "I'd rather be poor in America than in Sudan. But I'd also rather be poor in Belgium than in America."
READ MORE FROM HERE:
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