· Who you think is poor, both in the United States and globally.
According to this session, there are four theories to define who is poor. Lack of money and through that leverage of human capital, cultural shortcomings, economic processes and politics and structural and institutional factors. The human capital includes knowledge, skills and education. Apparently people with less than a High School have a population of 23% that is living in poverty in the United States. People with a High School Degree have a 10% and bachelors degree have a 3% poverty rate.
Also African Americans are poor due to discrimination and racism which prevents them from moving up. On the contrary, Lewis argued that the poor are poor due to their own faults through behavioral faults.
Also females tend to have a higher rate of poverty due to their lack of resources as well as majority of the time them being the head of household. In Sweden, women have a poverty rate of around 7% as compared to the U.S. which is 28%, even after Sweden having more percentage of children in a single family, that is a huge difference!
· Why you believe people are poor in the United States and globally.
There are many causes to poverty. Some of them which I learned in this session are:
Lower Education, language barriers, drug abuse, family structure and conditions, immigration status and political conditions. Like I had stated before, these are both helplessness and self-defeating ways of poverty.
There is also a big emphasis on class inequality causing poverty according to Karl Marx.
· How well you think poverty is being addressed currently in the United States and globally.
In Sweden, women have a higher rate of pay than women in the United States. Great government programs as well.
· What you personally think should be done about poverty in United States and globally (e.g., policies, programs you would suggest).
After reading this session, I have to disagree on a lot of solutions that were pointed out. When it mentions the reason for poverty among African Americans is a lot due to racism, I totally disagree. We live in a globalized world. Even though racism does exist in certain parts of society, in my opinion it does not affect ones poverty rate. Same thing for women, they are paid equally or greater than men in the workplace if they have the same qualifications. I think instead of implementing a Marx socialist policy in our country, we need to think and imaging what it would actually do. The distribution of wealth would bring down the number of skilled labor which would lead to the collapse of the economy. No one would be motivated to go and seek higher education of the wealth is distributed equally.
Instead of implementing such hardcore policies, the government should re-allocate tax spending. Instead of using it towards foreign policy, war, economic bailouts, the government should in fact use it towards domestic growth. As I said before, build more educational institutions, increase the literacy rate and increase government jobs in the process.
I might have to disagree with your last paragraph. Foreign policy, war, and depleading fairtax are not just "hard core policies" that the government is implementing, but they are issues that need to be acted and focused on. But, with Obama in power- you would think these "domestic growth" issues would be fixed.
ReplyDeleteWhile racism does not play a role in how we interact with people today, the effects of racism on previous generations can still hinder African Americans today. African Americans may have the same opportunity to get a job or get accepted into a school, but they may not have the same ability to succeed in the job or to pay for school or have the same family support because of the effect that racism had on their parents or grandparents.
ReplyDeleteRoxanne, I am all for the fair-tax since it makes the most sense. With Obama in power, these issues are going in the opposite direction from being fixed. He is turning American into a socialist country and pretty much destroying the middle class to help the low income class. As far as war goes, I do believe we should intervene where injustice is being done, but not at the expense on Americans.
ReplyDeleteKline, there are definitely effects left over from slavery and racism, but from personal experience being from another country altogether, I can tell you that I have not had any issues with racism at any jobs I have had. I personally think it truly matters how a person carries them-self and is willing to respect the work and authority and also sacrifice a little in the process then you can move ahead in life and work.