Economic and Social Justice

Monday, April 13th

SWBAT identify key elements in describing socio-economic inequalities

Do Now: Read the following information and answer the questions that follow:Take, for example, a t-shirt that sells for $20.00 in the United States. The Salvadoran workers producing the shirt were paid $ .56 an hour. On average, a worker is able to sew approximately 4.7 shirts per hour.

Would you be willing to pay more for a shirt if that meant that workers in another country were getting higher wages? How much more? Do you think most people in the United States would be willing to do so? Why or why not?

Can you imagine…

A country that is the richest in the world with the highest Gross National Product, but where one out of four children is born into “official poverty,” where one out of four of these “officially poor” children lives in a family where one or more parents work full time, year round, and where the “official poverty” line is set well below the actual cost of minimally adequate housing, health care, food, and other necessities.

Can you imagine…

A country that builds schools to educate all its children, but only provides resources for its preschool Head Start Program to enable 40% of the most needy 3-4 year olds to be ready to learn when they enter the school at 6 years, and where its children rank 21st among the 26 industrialized nations in eighth grade math scores.

Can you imagine…

A country that protects over 90% of its children from the diseases of measles, polio, and DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) through immunization, but where almost 70 million people, including 11 million children (through 18 years) have inadequate or no health insurance, and where the infant mortality rate (number of deaths per 1000 prior to 1 year) for black children (15.1) is twice that for whites (7.6).

Can you imagine…

A country that grows enough food to feed all its people and millions more around the world, but where over 30 million (over 10%) are hungry and more than 50% of the food stamp recipients are children and the number of people using food banks and emergency food shelves has increased substantially in recent years.

Can you imagine…

A country that is first in the world in defense spending and in military exports, but last among the 26 industrialized nations in protecting its children against violence and where 1 in 680 is likely to be killed by gunfire before 20 years, a rate twelve times greater than the other industrialized nations, and where over three million children are reported to be abused and neglected yearly.

Can you imagine…

A country that has laws to ensure the right of all workers to organize and join labor unions and strike to achieve their goals, but where workers, such as farm and textile workers, have often been harassed and intimidated when they try to exercise these rights.

Can you imagine…

A country that claims that “justice is blind” and strives to ensure that everyone is fairly treated in its legal system, but where African-Americans, who comprise 14% of the population, make up 52% of those executed and over 40% of those under death sentence.

Can you imagine…

A country that has passed laws protecting its children from unfair, inhumane labor practices, but whose government has done little to block the importation of merchandise produced by exploited child labor and whose citizens purchase billions of dollars of products from elsewhere in the world that are manufactured in factories where children are abused and exploited.

Can you imagine…

A country that strives to provide social security for its senior citizens and has poverty rates for those over 65 years that are lower than for the population as a whole, but where the poverty for females over 65 years is double that for males over 65 years and where the percentage of African- Americans and Latinos over 65 years in poverty is over 2.5 times that for whites over 65 years.

Can you imagine…

A country that thinks of itself as a “land of opportunity” for all, but where 40% of Hispanic and African-American children and only 16% of white children are “officially poor,” where full-time work at minimum wage pays below the official poverty line for a family of two and where two out of three workers who earn the minimum wage are women, where living standards are falling for younger generations despite the fact that many young households have two wage earners, fewer children, and better education than their parents.

Can you imagine…

A country that has a government department charged with the task of developing policies and programs to ensure that all are sheltered, but where approximately 3/4 million are homeless on any given day and between 1.2 and 2 million people during any year and where approximately 20% of those seeking emergency shelter fail to secure it due to lack of resources.

CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT THIS COUNTRY IS THE USA?

2014 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES & THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Persons in Family/household Poverty Guideline1 $11,6702 $15,7303 $19,7904 $23,8 505 $27,910

Based on NY’s minimum wage of $8/hour, an individual will make approximately $16,640

As of the last Census in 2010, 15% of the United States lives in poverty.

What is the responsibility of the government to ensure that everyone achieves these human rights as fully as possible?

 Are there some conditions, such as inadequate nutrition of children, that the government should address and other conditions, such as homelessness of adults that it shouldn’t? What actions might the government take?

Who besides government should assume responsibilities for addressing human rights problems?

Tuesday, April 14th

SWBAT identify and describe the poverty rates of New York

Do Now: Based on the 2010 Census, what percentage of Americans live in poverty?

Read the following quotation by Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the UN Human Rights Commission which created the UDHR, to participants: Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In places, close to home— so close and so small that cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal jus - tice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these right have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the large world.Eleanor Roosevelt, The Great Question ( N Y: United Nations, 1958).

What is economic inequality?

When you walk around almost any city or town you can see different sized houses, different types of cars, and different activities occurring. These differences can be indicators of economic inequality, which is the difference between individuals or populations in terms of their wealth, assets, or income. Although most frequently you see differences in economic levels around your town, economic inequality can also be applied on a larger scale to the nations of the world.

Based on economics, the world has been divided into two types of countries. The two categories are based mainly on per capita income, which is the average income per person. The per capita income is calculated by taking the total national income for a country and dividing it by the number of people that live in the country. For example, if a small country has a total national income of $800,000 and a population of 20 people, then the per capita income is $40,000.

Developed Nations

The first economic category is developed nations, which can generally be categorized as countries that are more industrialized and have higher per capita income levels. To be considered a developed nation, a country generally has a per capita income around or above $12,000. Also, most developed countries have an average per capita income of approximately $38,000.

As of 2010, the list of developed nations included the United States, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Singapore, Taiwan, Israel, countries of Western Europe, and some Arab states. In 2012, the combined populations of these countries accounted for around 1.3 billion people. The populations of developed countries are generally more stable and it is estimated that they will grow at a steady rate of around 7% over the next 40 years.

In addition to having high per capita income and stable population growth rates, developed nations are also characterized by their use of resources. In developed countries, people consume large amounts of natural resources per person and are estimated to consume almost 88% of the world's resources.

Developing Nations

The second economic category is developing nations, which is a broad term that includes countries that are less industrialized and have lower per capita income levels. Developing nations can be divided further into moderately developed or less developed countries.

Moderately developed countries have an approximate per capita income of between $1,000 and $12,000. The average per capita income for moderately developed countries is around $4,000. As of 2012, the list of moderately developed nations is very long and accounts for around 4.9 billion people. Some of the most recognizable countries that are considered moderately developed include Mexico, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Thailand, Fiji, and Ecuador. In addition to these specific countries, many others from Central America, South America, northern and southern Africa, southeastern Asia, Eastern Europe, the former U.S.S.R., and many Arab states, are all considered moderately developed countries.

Less developed countries are the second type of developing nations. They are characterized by having the lowest income, with a general per capita income of approximately less than $1,000. In many of these countries the average per capita income is even lower, at around $500. The countries listed as less developed are found in eastern, western, and central Africa, India, and other countries in southern Asia. In 2012, there were around 0.8 billion people who lived in these countries and survived on very little income.

Overall, in 2012, developing nations accounted for a total of 5.7 billion people. Even though the income range is quite large, there are still nearly 3 billion people that live on less than $2 a day. Can you image living on less than $2 a day? That would be a very hard task for most of us to do. In addition to low income levels, developing countries are also characterized as having high population growth rates. It is estimated that these countries are going to increase by 44% over the next 40 years. By 2050, it is predicted that over 86% of the human population will live in developing countries.

2013 Highlights (U.S. Census Bureau)

In 2013, the official poverty rate was 14.5 percent, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This was the first decrease in the poverty rate since 2006.

In 2013, there were 45.3 million people in poverty. For the third consecutive year, the number of people in poverty at the national level was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate.

The 2013 poverty rate was 2.0 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession.

The poverty rate for children under 18 fell from 21.8 percent in 2012 to 19.9 percent in 2013. 1

The poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 13.6 percent, while the rate for people aged 65 and older was 9.5 percent. Neither of these poverty rates were statistically different from their 2012 estimates.

Both the poverty rate and the number in poverty decreased for Hispanics in 2013.

New York’s poverty rate (New York StateCommunity Action Association, March 2013)

New York’s poverty rate has climbed to 15.1% according to the American Community Survey.

While New York has the 25th highest poverty rate in the United States, in actual number of individuals living in poverty, New York ranks fourth.

Females, people of color and children continue to be at higher risk of poverty. 37.6% of female-headed households with children live in poverty in New York State. Median income for a male with a high school diploma exceeds that of a female with

a high school diploma an average of $10,000, with nearly double that difference in some counties.

Poverty disproportionately impacts people of color— 25.8% of Latinos and 23.0% of African Americans live in poverty compared to 10.9% of White New Yorkers.

Child poverty rates in upstate cities continue to climb - approximately half of children living in Buffalo (46.6%), Rochester (50.4%) and Syracuse (49.0) live below the poverty line.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/the-great-gatsby-curve-2/