Lecture Notes, SOC 2020

Global Inequality and Population

We have spent most of the semester exploring the nature and extent of a variety of social
problems in this country. Now we must consider that the same problemsto greater and lesser
extentexist everywhere in the world and to some degree the more serious the problems abroad
the more likely it is that they will impact on our lives here. Take, for example, population
growth globally. At first thought we can askso what? Why does poverty in Russia or hunger
in Africa or child labor in Asia affect us here in our country? Social problems are global in their
reach and often in their causes and their consequences.
Poverty in Russia means that people who contract diseases that are more or less contained in our
country cannot deal with them properly. In some cases (and for an increasing number of
diseases) the rapid reproduction of virus and bacteria cells results in the survival and then
domination of drug resistant strains. Infections may take days or even longer to turn into fully
developed symptoms, and in that time given the increased global mobility the drug resistant
strains can make their way to our country and at best result in much higher public health costs, at
worst create serious health problems in this country. In this example, poverty in Russian affects
health problems in the US, as well as in other countries. The German sociologist, Ulrich Beck
calls this the world risk society, because risks are globalized.
Take another example of global interconnections of social problems: our desire for fresh
fruits and vegetables in winter has been met by changing the structure of agriculture in the
developing world. To feed our habit, small farmers land is expropriated by large landowners in
Latin America. These farms grow fruits and vegetables, using a cocktail of pesticides, some of
which are banned here in the US. Transformation of agriculture deprives indigenous families of
land for subsistence, leading to poverty and hunger. As a result, these families work for low
wages and exposed to pesticides, which in turn affects their health. In the US, we consume this
produce, and the pesticides can affect our health in the future.
Similarly, hunger in Africa creates social and political unrest, first in local areas, then in
regions, and in some cases it turns into major civil and military conflict that threatens regional
and even global security. This process takes time to develop, but by the time it is a serious
problem the solution is expensive, and as we have seen for the past 50 years can lead to costly
and significant involvements by our countrys militarydraining our own resources. Child labor
in Asia has been blamed for creatingalong with intense poverty and population growthan
environment of low cost labor. This has been true for a long time, but only in the past 30-50
years have transportation advances meant that large amount of material can be transmitted long
distances at a low cost. In addition, our economy has experienced significant changes in the way
we work and the skills needed. The consequence, generally labeled as globalization, has been a
significant change in where work is performed and has arguably resulted in large numbers of
unemployed in this country and other advanced industrial nations. Jobs in the US have gone to
China and India most recently, but in some industries they have gone to the Philippines, Mexico,
Malaysia and other low cost regions of the world (we should be mindful that this is little more
than the extension of the pattern of jobs leaving the old industrial regions of the Northeast for the
low cost areas of the South and later the Southwest of this country).

The Globe Trotting Sneaker or the Slaves to Fashion

Hourly Wages in Athletic Footwear (1980s)
China ($0.10-0.14)
Indonesia ($0.16-0.20)
Thailand ($0.65-0.74)
South Korea ($2.02-2.27)
US ($7.38-7.94)
A $70.00 Pair of Nike Pegasus (labor intensive production)
Materials $9.18
Labor $1.66 (45-50 employees work on one pair of shoes)
Administration and overhead $2.82
Subcontractors profit $1.19
Nike profit $22.95
Retail mark-up $32.20
Most of the cost of the shoe goes to the profit and very little to pay for labor
The incredible and rapid global transformation, in part, has been driven by both the
population changes and technological advances as described in the text. Without question
technological advances have brought about many positive changes in our lives. But it is also
behind the ability to control production around the world from one central officeand the
factory of old, with management in one building beside the factory next store has resulted in the
global factory of today. Recall the example of Wal-mart, contracts with companies in China to
produce goods at lost cost (new international division of labor).
This new technology has brought us to the world, and the world to us. When there is anything of
interest happening we see images of it almost immediately as people capture the mass
demonstrations in Tibet with the same camera phone technology, whose image is immediately
broadcast via Youtube to a world hungry for information. Fashion, culture, art and everything
else that constitutes culture is now global.
And so are the desires and expectations of more and more of the world as they become
acutely aware of all that they do not have, all that they are denied because of their poverty and
the squalor of their existence. For some the lure is from the country to the city (and even when
the lure is not there, changes in the country drive many people off the landmuch as early
technology converted agriculture in Europe and North American and drove workers to the cities)
in search of a better life and greater economic opportunities. For others the lure attracts workers
from India and Sri Lanka to jobs in Dubai, and Filipinos to North Africans to France and Italy,
Latin Americans to the USby whatever means possible. All are in search of a better life. But
for some the response is outrage, for example, at the unjust political processes at home and
abroad that seem to keep populations poor and deny people simple things like clean water,

simple medical treatment, adequate housing and schooling, safe communities to live and
reasonable jobs to provide for ones children.
Last week we discussed urban issues, and it bears looking at the urban structure of the
developing world to understand the nature and depth of the challenge facing the world (and by
extension our society). In 1950 just under 2 billion people world-wide lived in a rural
environment, about 0.75 billion people lived in urban settings in the industrialized (more
developed) world, and just over 100 million people in the developing world lived in what was
classified as urban areas. Projections are that by 2030 the rural population will have grown to
just over 3 billion peoplewith environmental damage as they move into forest lands, clearing
the trees to create cultivatable plotsthe developed urban population will grow to about 1.2
billion people (a 50% increase for both), but the urban less-developed population will balloon to
over 4 billion people, over a 5-fold increase in a relatively short period of time (at most about 3
generations).
The economic and social (not to mention political) consequences of this growth in
countries without the social and economic infrastructure to support it will mean widespread
poverty and political tension. Mike Davis, in his book Planet of Slums (2006, Verso), outlines
the range of issues and concernsfrom housing and sanitation, to the supply of water, to the
economic drain on struggling economiesthis growth has and will continue to have on much of
the world. Even in our country today the issue of sufficient drinking water pits the demand of
farmers for irrigation water against the demand of cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las
Vegas (rising out of the dessert). Here in Michigan there is concern that the economics of bottled
water has a negative impact on the States water table and may harm the Great Lakes. And so it
goesone can only imagine the issues that rise up in countries that cant afford to deal with the
problem.
What, then, are the prospects for change, and why should we be concerned about what
happens outside of the US? First, you can get a sense of the kinds of difference in living
standards by looking at the weekly food consumption of families in a variety of countries (see
the file GLOBAL COMPARISONS OF FOOD BUDGETS in your Course Material directory).
By comparing visually and economically the range and cost of a weeks worth of food laid out in
front of a typical family we can begin to get a sense of the differences across countries as well as
an idea of what is happening in the very poorest of nations. Sadly, in many countries without
enough food for their own populations agricultural production is reserved for export crops
because a) there is not a good market for local production (people dont have money to buy the
food), and b) even with the costs of transportation cash export crops provide the land owners
with more income (recall the example of fresh fruits and vegetables). Industrial crops like cotton
and flaxseed and specialty consumer crops like macadamia nuts and cashews are exported to the
developed world, and agricultural production does little to improve the food supply in those
exporting countries.
Technology only goes so far in helping, and often makes the situation worse. Improved
farming techniques from chemical fertilizers to increase yield to better machines for planting and
harvesting require capital and end up being used for export crops. To get to the size of farm big
enough to warrant these new technologies small family farmers are driven off the land and into

the cities where they can no longer eke out even a subsistence income. We now face new
concerns about our water supply as traditional water filtering systems cannot clean out many of
the new boutique drugs that enter our ecology further threatening the availability of water
necessary for almost all human activity. Communication technologies improve the flow of
information, only to create a better understanding among the worlds poor exactly what is
happening to them and how bad their lives are in comparison.
Studying Population and Social Problems
Demography is the study of human populations, dealing with fertility, mortality, infant
mortality (# of deaths among infants under age one per 1000 live births). Note that compared to
other industrialized nations, the United States ranks relatively high on infant mortality and lower
life expectancy due to lack of access to nutritious food and basic health care for the working
poor.
Social standing of women is associated with controlling population growth:
In the developed world, higher educational attainment among women and availability of
contraceptives plus latter age at marriage, and expectation of labor force participation,
contributes to lowering of the fertility rate. Also the high cost of caring for children depresses
fertility in the developed world.
Global poverty manifests in the disparity of income between countries of the world, and is
particularly acute in Africa. The persistent poverty to some extent is a legacy of colonialism, in
which foreign countries directly controlled governments, and related to neo-colonialism, in
which multinational corporations dictate and distort development in a foreign country. High
income nations sustain their wealth at the expense of low income nations.