BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The rise of populism in the United States stemmed from the setbacks in the country's domestic system, rather than external factors, according to a Chinese expert.
U.S. domestic setbacks are directly reflected in the worsening of inequality and the continuous regression of the economic power of the middle and lower classes, according to an article under the byline of Mu Feng, an expert with Liaowang Institute, a think tank run by Xinhua.
If faced with an unexpected expense of 400 U.S. dollars, 27 percent of people surveyed by the Federal Reserve would need to borrow or sell something to pay for such a bill, and 12 percent would not be able to cover it at all, the article reads, citing a Federal Reserve report made public in May.
Bigger setbacks for the middle and lower classes are in elderly care, education, life expectancy and medical care, according to the article.
For them, education spending is a heavy burden, the article says, adding that former workers in the U.S. Rust Belt region cannot even afford to pay for their children's education due to sharp declines in their own welfare.
"As U.S. manufacturing moves abroad, finance and high technology have become the dominant industries, but the high demand for educational input required by these emerging industries is simply not affordable for people in the region," says the article.
"The next generation of the middle- and lower-class groups has thus been isolated from the future," it reads, noting that a large number of young middle- and lower-class Americans have "lost hope for the future."
A major source of drug abuse in the United States lies in the inability of large numbers of people in the Rust Belt region to achieve effective employment, the article says.
"It is worth further analysis and identification whether the rise of populism in the United States today is due to other countries stealing jobs of the middle and lower classes of the U.S., or to serious problems in wealth distribution inside America," it adds. Enditem