Questions Number One Essays - Economy, Distribution Of Wealth

Questions Number One Essays - Economy, Distribution Of Wealth Questions Number One In Canada individuals fall on the poverty line children/youth being born into a family of aboriginals, female long parents, individuals that have disabilities, recent immigrants or people of colour. Other ways individuals can create pathways to poverty is through life situations such as divorce, employment insecurity, and illnesses. that are most likely to experience poverty are adults and children that have physical and mental disabilities. According to the textbook Canada distributes less than 1% of GDP towards disability benefits resulting us at 17th place out of 20 OECD nations (Poverty in Canada, pg. 390). People with disabilities often must rely on such benefits due to being disadvantaged in employment opportunities and minimum wages. Recent immigrants from countries such as Somalia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ethiopian experience poverty in Canada. According to figure 3.3 of the textbook recent immigrants have the highest child poverty rates in comparison to aboriginals, ind ividuals with disabilities and children (Poverty in Canada, pg. 69) Members from the countries listed above tend to fall below the Statistics Canada "Low Income Cut-Off" the reason for such low income is mainly the result of discrimination and racism. Table 3.3 of the textbook states 27.4 recent immigrants earn income through low/minimum wages (Poverty in Canada, pg. 78). The social determinants of health these groups face that lead them further into poverty are employment insecurity and working condition. Aboriginals, people of colour and recent immigrants have lower paying jobs resulting to low income which leads to food insecurity. According to the textbook Social Determinants of Health, mothers tend to experience higher levels of food insecurity because they rather comprise their hunger for their child (Social Determinants of Health pg. 188). Other social determinants of health that lead further into poverty is education specifically early childhood education and care. A child's early development can help initiate a plate form for factors such as income, lifestyle, education levels and status producing a successful individual. Question Number Two Canadian policies have led many to poverty due to employment gap, the low-income gap, housing being on the rise, limited universal health provisions, support for individuals with disabilities is limited and child care benefit. However, it seems like public policy makers do not want to address poverty. During the lecture presented by Dr. Dennis Raphael the power points suggested that there are two approaches of considering public policy in Canada. One is the Marxist/materialist view where the government developed policies to serve the interests of economic elites such as owners and managers of large corporations focusing on maximizing their profit. The Marxist model suggests that elected officials focus on implementing policies in the best interest of economic elites. Resulting them to control the public agenda. Canada one of the richest developed countries in the world, however our welfare state is poor compared to other nations such as Denmark or Sweden. The reason of how these policies are related to the form of the Canadian welfare state is mainly because either the consensus model where the welfare state is the result of the democratic policy making that responded to the governments through a pluralistic view with equality and justice (Poverty in Canada, pg.441). Or, the conflict model where the welfare state is through social movements of groups such as working individuals fighting for their rights of freedom. According to the textbook the reason why many Canadians are living in poverty is because Canada policies result in high poverty rates are mainly due to the political ideologies and economic elite's interests (Canada in Poverty, pg. 442). Having low uniunization rate results to greater the poverty rate because they hold influence on electing the representatives of Canada. For exam ple, Box 14.1 of chapter fourteen, majority of the workers in food banks are volunteers Question Number Three According to the textbook Social Determinants of Health the higher the income levels the better health they have and they tend to live longer than individuals in poverty or the middle class (Social Determinants of Health pg. 99). When living in poverty one is always stressed as how to how they will manage to pay their bills through their low employment income or through their benefits. Often these individuals must cut down their daily food