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Social Problems
Poverty and Economic Inequality in Canada
Today’s Headlines:London Free Press, Nov. 11, 2008
“Ending child poverty in London major goal of youth agenda”
Plan to spend $1 million to benefit children's services is endorsed by city's community and protective services committee
According to Jane Fitzgerald, executive director of the Children's Aid Society of London and Middlesex:
"The burden of suffering we see is enormous. London's children and youth, the citizens of tomorrow, are counting on all of you."
For more, see http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/11/11/7368931-sun.html
More Local News…
“Hamper demand expected to rise “ 10 – 14% increase in demand for Christmas
hampers With the economic downturn, more people are
depending on hampers to celebrate Christmas Some who are applying for hampers this year
were helping to give them out last year Watch the LFP video at:
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/11/11/7368936-sun.html
Relative vs. Absolute Poverty
Relative: the standard of living for those living in poverty is lower than the general living standards of the rest of the social group
Absolute: those living in poverty do not have the basic necessities for survival (food, shelter, medication, etc.)
How Do We Measure Poverty in Canada? “Whether we define poverty in terms of a given level
of income compared to the average (an income line) or in terms of the cost of a basket of goods and services compared to the average, we still have to settle on how great a distance we want to exist between ‘the poor’ and others who live in the same society,” observes the Canadian Council on Social Development. “It is really a matter of values how great a distance we are prepared to accept between ‘the poor’ and the rest of society.” Excerpt from http://
action.web.ca/home/cpj/attach/A_measure_of_poverty.pdf
Stats Canada Measures: Relative vs. Absolute LICO (low income cutoff line): based on % of
income spent on food, shelter and clothing Varies by family size and geographic location A relative measure
LIM (low income measures) : 50% of the median adjusted income Relative measure
MBM (Market Basket Measure): the income needed to purchase an imaginary basket of goods and services at market prices Absolute measure
Measures at the Population Level
HDI (Human Development Index): a combination of life expectancy at birth, literacy and GDP/capita Canada 5th out of 177 countries
HDI - HPI-2 (a variant of the HDI to measure poverty in developed countries that includes the concept of relative deprivation) By this measure, Canada is 9th because of
unequal distribution of wealth within the country
Debates About What Measures to Use
Choice of measure for poverty reflects… A. Values
Social justice principles (for example, how poverty is defined by Citizens for Social Justice See A measure of poverty in Canada at http://
action.web.ca/home/cpj/attach/A_measure_of_poverty.pdf
Or economic values (i.e. the Fraser Institute) See Poverty in Canada by Sarlo at
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/Commerce.Web/product_files/PovertyinCanada2006.pdf
B. Outcomes:
http://action.web.ca/home/cpj/attach/A_measure_of_poverty.pdf
C. Custom Market Basket Measure defines necessities as
“whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without.”
1996 Gallup poll tried to determine what “custom” would define as a poverty line by asking “What is the minimum weekly amount of income required for a family of four, consisting of two adults and two children?”
Calculated $29,637 At same time, Stats Canada LICO was $32,238 in
1996 while the Fraser Institute Christopher Sarlo’s poverty line was $19,517.
Who is Poor in Canada? Approx. 16% of single elderly below poverty line Women and children: esp. in single-parent families
CCSD (2005) found that 1 in 8 (almost 1 million) children in Canada living in poverty
According to Tepperman et al., poverty more prevalent in: Urban areas, esp. Quebec 3 out of 5 poverty stricken neighbourhoods in Toronto and
Montreal Non-white visible minority immigrant communities (studies
show earn 28-31% less than Canadian born) Aboriginal communities (median income 61% of national
average in 2001)
Some Current Statistics…
Stats show poverty declining in Canada…but, now with the current economic downturn?
Using LICO, in 2004, 11.2% of Canadians 684,000 families (CCSD, 2004) 50% of single mothers and their children depended on
Food Banks (CCSD) 3.6 million Canadians live in poverty (2004) Almost 1.7 million Canadians (5%) on welfare in 2005
(CCSD) For more, see CCSD Fact Sheet at
http://www.ccsd.ca/factsheets/economic_security/poverty/index.htm
The Feminization of Poverty
Women make 71.6% of male income Younger women (15-24) 63% employed vs.
74% of men 14.5 % of families are lone parent families
who make lower income, on average 45.4% of female-headed lone parent families are
living in poverty
The Working Poor
Majority of Canadian families are double income families to make ends meet
Working poor include families with jobs in the secondary sector as unskilled labour or jobs that offer only seasonal employment or lay-offs
Also those who are involuntary part-time Many lack benefits For the working poor, impossible to make ends meet
at wages that varied from $6.50-$8.50/hour in 2006
A Citizens for Public Justice Report States:
The principle of social justice is defined as “the right of all persons and communities to full participation in the life and decision making of Canada, and to adequate access to the resources necessary for a full life, including access to adequate education, health care, housing and child care, and our communal duty to use such resources responsibly.” Greg deGroot-Maggetti A Measure of Poverty in Canada (2002)
http://action.web.ca/home/cpj/attach/A_measure_of_poverty.pdf
Video: Lives in the Balance Salt+Light Television Productions (2006)
Next week:
Social problems related to poverty Possible solutions Please read: Solving Poverty: Four Cornerstones of a
Workable National Strategy For Canada (2007) at
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/HS4-31-2007E.pdf
Thinking about poverty: Individual exercise
1. Locate yourself within the class hierarchy (based upon such indictors as parents’ occupation, family income, education level, lineage, etc.)
2. Now think about how your position within the
socioeconomic hierarchy has provided you with specific advantages (or disadvantages).
3. What contrasts can you see between your position and that of the poor, particularly in reference to the ability of poor people to improve their life chances?
Thinking about poverty: Group exercise1. Form groups of 4-6. At least one group member should
have a computer. 2. Choose a “family income.” Incomes will range from a
net income of 10 million dollars, while at the other extreme, a net income below the poverty level.
3. Use online real estate sites to identify and locate appropriate housing (www.mls.ca) in London.
4. Go to www.kijiji.ca and find appropriate transportation5. Create a grocery list, and a clothing list and estimate
the cost. 6. Now, each group will experience some “problem in
living,” e.g., an illness, a car accident, etc., 7. How can your group explain how you would cope with
the problem financially?
Social Problems Related to Poverty
"Canada likes to brag that for seven years in a row the United Nations voted us 'the best country in the world in which to live.' Do all Canadians share equally in that great quality of life? No, they don't. The truth is that our country is so wealthy that it manages to mask the reality of food banks in our cities, of unacceptable housing, of young Inuit adults' very high suicide rates." (Professor Monique Begin, University of Ottawa, 2008)
Health Problems
“Social justice - or lack thereof - has a greater impact on the health of the world's population than medical treatment” according to a report “Closing the Gap in a Generation” (2008)
Report findings state that the lower the socioeconomic status, the worse the health for individuals who live in poverty
Poor children most at risk, especially for nutritional deficiencies
Other Problems
Substandard Housing Gentrification removes low-cost housing
Homelessness Limited Schooling
Poor children are less likely to graduate Crime and Punishment Political Alienation
Theories about the Causes of Poverty
Deficiency Theory: Innate Inferiority Deficiency Theory: Cultural Inferiority Structural Theories
Institutional Discrimination Political Economy of Society
Deficiency Theory: Innate Inferiority
Herbert Spencer Social Darwinism: Belief that the place of people in the
stratification is a function of their ability and effort The poor are poor because they are unfit
Arthur Jensen Advocates there is a strong possibility that blacks are less
intelligent than whites Argues that 80% of IQ is inherited and 20% attributed to
environment Richard Herrnstein
Argues that mental ability is inherited Argues that job prestige and earnings depend on mental
ability
Critique of Innate Inferiority Argument
Classic example of blaming the victim Stresses that poverty is inevitable Appeals to bigots Validates the IQ test as a legitimate measure of
intelligence Justifies unequal schooling Encourages policy makers to ignore poverty or to
attack its effects rather than its causes
Culture of Poverty Theory: Cultural Inferiority
Culture of Poverty: View that the poor are qualitatively different in values and life styles from the rest of society and that these cultural differences explain continued poverty
Critique of Culture-of-Poverty
Reasoning blames the victim In reality the poor share the dominant values
of society Also, the poor hold an alternate set of values
that are a result of adaptation to the conditions of poverty
Structural Functionalism
Some poverty is inevitable Social pathology theories: personal
deficiency Social disorganization theory: too much
change Modern functional theory: inequality is useful
Functionalism (cont.)
Social inequality serves the function of motivating people to work hard to gain resources.
For whom is it functional that professional athletes earn so much more than child care workers?
Poverty is functional for those who work in the poverty industry, e.g., government workers
Conflict and Feminist Theories
Conflict analysis: poverty can be eliminated Marxist theory: poverty and capitalism Poverty involves more than money: cultural
capital Feminist theory: poverty and patriarchy Multicultural theory: poverty, race, and
ethnicity Intersection theory: multiple disadvantage
Conflict: Political Economy of Society
Under capitalism, the distribution of goods and services is determined by private profit rather than by collective need
This promotes poverty by: Employees pay their workers the least possible A labor surplus is maintained to keep wages low Investment decisions are made without regard for impact
on employees
Conflict: Social Structure
How society is organized creates poverty and makes certain kinds of people especially vulnerable to being poor
Institutional Discrimination: When the social arrangements and accepted ways of doing things in society disadvantage minority groups
Conflict and Feminist (cont.)
Conflict Wage squeeze: steady downward
pressure on pay of lower class workers Downsizing and new technologies create a
reserve army of the unemployed Executive pay has risen greatly If poverty cannot be eliminated, it could be
reduced
Conflict and Feminist (cont.)
Feminist Focus in on the gendered character of
stratification and poverty Feminization of poverty and
intersectionality: people experience oppression in more than one aspect of their lives, causing increased oppression
Symbolic Interactionist Theory
How is the problem defined? Typical definitions include:
Blaming the victim: saying the problem resides in the person with the problem
Culture of poverty: the poor have different values and beliefs than middle and upper classes
Cultural capital: social assets, like values, beliefs and competencies in language, that are required for success
Tend to ignore structural factors like stratification, sexism and racism.
Politics and Poverty
Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions:
Conservatives: Personal Responsibility Liberals: Societal Responsibility The Radical Left: Change the System
SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF POVERTY
More and better jobs Improving welfare Distributing the wealth more equally Organizing the poor
Dealing with Poverty Government funding of programs like
Employment Insurance (now running a surplus) and Social Assistance
Government and private support for shelters and food banks
Welfare state: a nation in which government intervenes in the welfare of its citizens through various policies, programs, standards, and regulations
Can Inequality Be Reduced?
Proposals for structural solutions: Create jobs with liveable wages Incentives for low-income people to
build assets Tax benefits to low-income workers Economic assistance to low-income
people to deal with problems Invest in low-income communities
Solving Poverty (2007)
Outlines “four cornerstones” needed to fight poverty in Canada: 1. National poverty strategy 2. Coordinated action plan and budget 3. Government accountability structure in
consultation with stakeholders 4. Set of agreed poverty indicators to measure
progress.