Chapter 9 Global Inequality

1. Chapter 9Global Inequality “A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just, nor stable.” — President Bush

2. Quotes • “Almost half the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day, yet even this statistic fails to capture the humiliation, powerlessness and brutal hardship that is the daily lot of the world’s poor.” Koffi Anan, UN Secretary General • “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” James Wolfenson, The Other Crisis, World Bank, October 1998

3. Global Inequality: Differences between Countries • Global Inequality – The systematic differences in wealth and power that exist between countries • Indicators of Economic Development – • GDP – A country’s yearly output of goods and services per person • Three economic classes as determined by the World Bank -- low, middle, and high. (macro national level)

4. Global Inequality: Differences between Countries • High Income Countries • GDP of $9,266 per person • Generally those first to industrialize • Account for only 15% of the world’s population • Lay claim to 79% of the world’s annual output of wealth

5. Global Inequality: Differences between Countries • Middle-Income Countries • GDP of $756 - $9,265 per person • Most began to industrialize late in the 20th century. • Includes 45% of the world’s population • Only accounts for 18% of the annual output of wealth

6. Global Inequality: Differences between Countries • Low Income Countries • GDP under $755 per person • Mostly agricultural economies that have only recently began to industrialize • Accounts for 37% of the world’s population • Produces only 3% of the annual output of wealth

7. Global Inequality: Differences between Countries • The Rich get Richer, the Poor get Poorer • From 1988 to 1999, average GDP rose 28% in low-income countries and 51% in high-income countries, widening the gap. • Average person in high-income country earned $25,730, compared to $410 in a low-income country. • 1.5 Billion People, ¼ of the world’s population lives in poverty.

8. Global Inequality: Why it Matters to You • Rapid globalization of capitalist economy could produce: • Positive Outlook • Large, global corporations with workers everywhere competing at a global wage • Leveling out of average income • Durkhiem

9. Global Inequality • Negative Outlook • Polarization between those who benefit from global economy and those who don’t • Could fuel conflict between ethnic groups and even nations • Marx • Postcolonialism studies • Critical Race studies

10. Global Inequality: Why it Matters to You • The Technology Gap • Gap continues to widen between technologically enabled countries and those without technology

11. Global Inequality: Why it Matters to You • What can be done ? • Cost of eradicating lethal infectious disease in poor countries would be only $10 billion a year -- less than $15 from each person living in a high-income country. • The Singer Solution to World Poverty By   PETER   SINGER 15% of income By his calculation, $200 in donations would help a sickly 2-year-old transform into a healthy 6-year-old — offering safe passage through childhood's most dangerous years.

12. Global Inequality: Why it Matters to You • Increased funding from high-income countries for scientific and technological research • World Bank provides $60 million per year to poor countries for research; major pharmaceutical company Merck spends $2.1 billion alone.

13. Story of Stuff • What we can do • Marxists explanation of the world

14. Global Inequality: Life In Rich and Poor Countries • Health • High-income countries are generally more healthy then low-income countries. • Low-income countries often have little or no health care facilities. • Poor countries have little sanitation, polluted water and run a higher risk of catching infectious diseases.

15. Global Inequality: Life In Rich and Poor Countries • Health • Every year 10.9 million children under the age of five die; 60 percent of those deaths are a result of hunger. • Every year another 17 million children are born with low birth weight stemming from the inadequate nutrition of their mothers (United Nations World Food Programme [UN WFP] 2004). Infants are 11 times more likely to die at birth in low-income countries then in high-income countries. • Children often die from illnesses readily treated in wealthier countries.

16. Infant Mortality Rates • United States is ranked 185 out of 226 • Taiwan, Cuba, Slovenia, Japan, Czech Republic

17. Global Inequality: Life In Rich and Poor Countries • During the past 30 years improvements have been made in most of the middle-income and some of the low-income countries. • Throughout the world, infant mortality has been cut in half and the average life expectancy has increased by ten years or more.

18. Global Inequality: Life In Rich and Poor Countries • Hunger, Malnutrition and Famine -More than three-quarters of all malnourished children under the age of five in the world’s low- and middle-income countries live in countries that actually produce a food surplus. -Most hunger and famine are the result of natural and social forces. -Their malnutrition isn’t directly related to their countries wealth.

19. Slide 19 Life in Rich & Poor Countries: A Comparison • People in high-income countries are far healthier, having a higher level of education & literacy than their counterparts in low-income countries. • Main sources: Hunger, malnutrition & famine • Of the world’s hungry, 200 million are children under five years of age. • In 1997, each person in low-income countries consumed on average only a tenth as much energy as did his or her counterparts in high-income countries.

20. Health in Low-Income Countries • Inadequate health facilities. • No proper sanitation drink polluted water  greater chance for contracting infectious diseases • Malnourishment, hunger, and starvation  physical weakness  susceptibility to diseases Ex: weakened health  high rate of AIDS in Africa • People are most likely to die in infancy. • Children die from illnesses treatable in high-income countries.

21. Slide 21 Theories of Global Inequality • Market-oriented theory—free market, less government intervention • Dependency theory—the exploitation of the wealthy countries & the multinational corporations on the poor countries • World-system theory--core, semiperiphery & periphery countries. • State-centered development theory—active role of government

22. Theories of Global Inequality • Market-Oriented Theories • Modernized theory • These theories assume that the best possible economic consequences will result if individuals are free, uninhibited by any form of government constraint to make their own economic decisions. Unrestricted capitalism, if allowed to develop fully, is said to be the avenue to economic growth.

23. Theories of Global Inequality • How can low-income countries break out of poverty? • Traditional Stage • Take off to economic growth • Drive to Technological Maturity • High Mass Consumption • Neoliberalism, argues that free-market forces, achieved by minimizing governmental restrictions on business, provide the only route to growth.

24. Problems • Tend to blame countries/population for their poverty • Assimilationist

25. Theories of Global Inequality • Dependency Theory • Argue that the poverty of low-income counties stems from their exploitation by wealthy countries and the multinational corporations that are based in wealthy countries. • Started under colonialism • The Foundations of Third World Poverty- Ibister

26. Problems • Unable to explain success stories

27. Global Inequality: Theories of Global Inequality • World Systems Theory • Argues that the world capitalist economic system is not merely a collection of independent countries engaged in diplomatic and economic relations with one another but rather must be understood as a single unit instead of as individual countries. (macro approach)

28. Global Inequality: Theories of Global Inequality • A world market for goods and labor • The division of population into different economic classes, particularly capitalists and workers • An international system of formal and informal political relations among the most powerful countries, whose competition with one another helps shape the world economy

29. Global Inequality: Theories of Global Inequality • The carving up of the world into 3 unequal economic zones exploiting the poorer ones. • Core • Peripheral countries • Semi peripheral countries

30. World-systems theory-Problems • Emphasizes business decisions over other factors (government, workers) • Macro approach • Grand theory

31. Global Inequality: Theories of Global Inequality • State-Centered Theory • Argue that appropriate government policies do not interfere with economic development but rather can play a key role in bringing it about. • i.e. social services programs

32. Author’s Favorite? • Interesting that they point out no problems with this theory. • Why do people follow the state’s model? Government repression. • Most theories are better if used in conjunction with other theories. • Multinational corporations • Other ideas?

33. Globalization & Global Economic Inequality • What will be the future direction of the impact of rapid globalization on global inequality?

34. Zero Population Growth • Overpopulation threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources. • http://www.populationconnection.org/About_Us/policies.html

35. Sierra Club • Sierra Club Population Policies • Population and the Environment • The "population explosion" has severely disturbed the ecological relationships between human beings and the environment. It has caused an increasing scarcity of wilderness and wildlife and has impaired the beauty of whole regions, as well as reducing the standards and the quality of living. In recognition of the growing magnitude of this conservation issue, the Sierra Club supports a greatly increased program of education on the need for population control.

36. Problem • Continued population growth is foremost among the factors aggravating deforestation, wildlife extinction, climate change and other critical environmental and social problems. It also erodes democratic government, multiplies urban problems, consumes agricultural land, increases volumes of waste, heightens competition for scarce resources and threatens the aspirations of the poor for a better life.

37. Solution • The only acceptable solution to the population problem is through expanding educational, advocacy and service efforts that lower birth rates. Rather than support a larger population at a poorer level, we believe it is preferable to support a smaller population at adequate standards of living.

38. Consumption • Because the United States is the chief consumer of the world's resources, slowing its population growth is disproportionately important for protecting the global environment. Because the United States has a major influence on international political, economic and military affairs, reshaping its policies is important for the success of international efforts to slow population growth.

39. On the other hand……

40. Issue • Those predicting an overpopulation disaster were right about one thing – the world’s population increased substantially over the last 40 years. In 1970, world population was about 3.7 billion. By the year 2000, world population will top 6 billion – an increase of 62 percent.

41. Issues • Although the total world population continues to increase, the rate that the world’s population is growing began declining in the 1970s. • 1960-1970-22 • 1990-2000-15.6

42. Issues • Blaming the victim • Many programs target periphery countries and women specifically. (forced sterilization programs)

43. Solutions • Over the last 40 years food production increased much faster than population. • Changing technology can change our need for “natural resources” (less copper needed to construct electrical equipment) • Reduced consumption, lifestyle changes • Women’s reproductive rights • Fight poverty