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.