Poverty - Canada & United States

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1. What factors influence rural and urban poverty in the United States and Canada today? Thanks a lot for the insight. I really need some direction and help on this one.

Correlates of Global Poverty
• Technology: One-quarter of the people in low-income countries use human or animal power to farmland.
• Population growth: Population in poor countries in Africa doubles every 40 years.
• Cultural patterns: People resist innovations, accept slavery as a way of life.
• Social stratification: Low-income countries distribute wealth very unequally.
• Gender inequality: Raising living standards means improving women's standing
• Global power relationships:
o Colonialism -the process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations
o Neocolonialism - a "new" form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations
o Multinational corporations - huge businesses that operate in many countries (http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:f96JIJT33KoJ:xnet.rrc.mb.ca/glennda/Sociology%2520ADMN417/Course%2520chapter%2520slides%2520sociology/ch09.ppt+correlates+of+poverty+in+canada&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=8).

So, what factors influence rural and urban poverty in United States and Canada?

At the individual level, such things as poor health, low levels of education, lack of job skills, alcohol and drug addictions, mental health issues, physical disabilities, to name a few. At the social level are such things as low minimum wages, few good paying jobs, high unemployment rates, government does not support farmers, government cuts in rural areas have lead to hospitals being closed, etc. Also, with the technological era, many people with low levels of education and lack the necessary skills, cannot find a job as the higher educated people get the jobs.

That is, in rural Canada, the farmers are not receiving much money for grain or stock and there are very few jobs in rural Canada. As well, many smaller communities have lost their hospitals, schools, railroad, and towns become nearly ghost towns. People live in poverty and stay, or move to urban areas where the cost of living is higher and lower paying job (minimum wage is lower than the poverty line cutoff) lead to poverty in urban areas as well. The rent in urban areas has not taps, so the landlords are charging extremely high rents in comparison to the minimum wage. In other words, a lack of affordable houses in urban areas causes poverty as well, as most of the income goes to rent. High degree of divorce leads to more single parent home (often the mother), which is another factor that influences poverty. Some end up on Social Assistance, which is $9800.00 below the poverty line cutoff in Canada.

Example 1:

See report of child poverty in Canada (http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/rc05/05NationalReportCard.pdf)

Example 2: Personal Influences and social programs provide disincentives to work

As well, it may well be that the people who are poor now may have different problems and barriers to overcome than their counterparts 30 or 40 years ago: low self esteem, low motivation, or personal and psychological problems may make exiting poverty much more difficult. To the extent that this is true, an improving labour market will be less helpful in reducing poverty than it was in the post-war period. More creative and more "custom-made" solutions to poverty are needed in this case. Finally, there is little doubt that the very structure of some of our social programs provides disincentives to work. This, combined with the other effects, may help to explain the apparent stagnation of the poverty rate in recent decades. http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=pb&id=216

Example 3: Poverty in Canada: The New Reality Facing Canadians (excerpt)
By Scott Fogden
February 20, 2003
It usually takes grim statistics to get poverty into the headlines. This winter, a number of different organizations produced reports that detail Canadian poverty levels. In November, the Canadian Council on Social Development released its figures for child poverty, followed closely by Statistics Canada's first ever tally of the number of Canadians living in shelters. The reports highlight the enduring nature of poverty, even in ...