Lecture 9 Global Stratification 1

Changing Terminology Old terminology ▫First world–Industrial rich countries ▫Second world–Less industrial socialist countries ▫Third world–Non-industrial poor countries 2

Changing Terminology New terminology ▫High-income–Nations with the highest standard of living ▫Middle-income–Somewhat poorer nations with economic development typical for the world ▫Low-income–Nations with lowest productivity and extensive poverty The extent of global inequality is much greater than these comparisons suggest ▫Well-off people in rich countries live “worlds apart” from poorest in low-income countries 3

High-Income Countries First to develop during industrial revolution two centuries ago Enjoy 80% of the world’s income More income means control of world’s financial markets Control of financial markets means control of other countries ▫Examples: United States, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, etc. 4

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Distribution of Income and Wealth in the United States, 2010 Income, and especially wealth, are divided unequally in U.S. society. Sources: Income data from U.S. Census Bureau (2011); wealth data based on Keister (2000), Bucks et al. (2009), Wolff (2010), and author estimates. 5

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Distribution of Global Income and Wealth Sources: Author calculations based on Davies et al. (2009) and Milanovic (2009, 2011). 6

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Economic Development in Global Perspective Source: Data from United Nations Development Programme (2011). 7

Middle-Income Countries About 55% of the population lives in or near urban areas and have industrial jobs About 45% live in rural areas & engage in agricultural activities -- a general lack of ▫Access to schools, medical care, & safe water Examples: Eastern European countries, Latin America, and some African countries 8

Low-Income Countries Mostly poor, rural economies Agrarian, with some industry Life expectancy is very short Hunger, disease, & unsafe housing shape the lives of the world’s poorest people Examples: Africa, and much of Asia 9

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Relative Share of Income and Population by Level of Economic Development Source: Based on Population Reference Bureau (2011) and United Nations Development Programme (2011). 10

The Severity of Poverty Poverty in poor countries is more severe than it is in rich countries The United Nations found that: ▫Norway had the highest “quality of life” rating, followed by Australia and Canada  The United States ranked 6th ▫Niger had the lowest 11

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The Severity of Poverty Relative poverty ▫People lack resources that others take for granted ▫This sort of poverty exists in every society, rich or poor Absolute poverty ▫A life-threatening lack of resources ▫One-third or more of the people in low-income countries experience poverty at this level 13

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Odds of Surviving to the Age of Sixty-Five in Global Perspective Source: United Nations (2009). 14

Extent of Poverty Is poverty life-threatening? ▫In some African & Asian countries, half of annual deaths are children under age of 10 Every 10 minutes, 100 people die of hunger, about 25,000 people a day 1.4 billion people suffer from chronic hunger in the world 15

Poverty and Children Poverty and children ▫100 million children in poor countries forced to work the streets (e.g., beg, steal, sell sex) ▫100 million children are orphaned or have left their families and live on the streets ▫Many girls, with little or no access to medical assistance, become pregnant ▫50 million street children are found in Latin American cities ▫In Darfur (Sudan), impoverished children are forced to join armed groups, provide  Physical labor without pay, and work as sex slaves 16

Women, Slavery, and Poverty Women ▫In all societies, a woman’s work is unrecognized, undervalued, and underpaid ▫Sweatshop workers are mostly women ▫70% of the world’s 1.4 billion people living near absolute poverty are women Slavery ▫Chattel slavery–One person owns another. ▫Child slavery–A more common form of captivity ▫Debt bondage–Employers hold workers to pay debts ▫Servile forms of marriage–Women married against their will or forced into prostitution ▫Human Trafficking – third largest source of profit to organized crime (Read Page 233) 17

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Percentage of Births Attended by Skilled Health Staff In the United States, most women give birth with the help of medical professionals, but this is usually not the case in low- income nations. Source: World Bank (2010). 18

Human Trafficking The movement of men, women, and children from one place to another ▫For the purpose of performing forced labor People lured to a new country & promise of a job, then forced to become prostitutes ▫Or farm laborers or people adopt foreign children & force them to work in sweatshops 19

Explanations of Global Poverty Technology ▫¼ of the people in low-income countries use human or animal power to farm land Population growth ▫Population for poor countries in Africa doubles every 25 years Cultural patterns ▫People resist innovations; accept slavery as a way of life Social stratification ▫Low-income countries distribute wealth very unequally 20

Correlates of Global Poverty Gender inequality ▫Raising living standards means improving women’s standing Global power relationships ▫Colonialism  Some nations enrich themselves through political & economic control of other nations ▫Neocolonialism  “New” form of global power relationships involves not direct political control but economic exploitation  By multinational corporations ▫Multinational corporation  A huge business that operates in many countries 21

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The World’s Increasing Economic Inequality Source: United Nations Development Programme (2010). 22

Sources Macionis, John J Society: The Basics (Twelfth Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson 23