Equity and Social Justice Unit 2 Test Flashcards
*Our current dominant narrative is that
somehow people live in poverty because they did something wrong → they are to blame for their mistakes → this narrative is flawed and not helpful
BIG IDEA:
poverty cannot be blamed on the poor
Poor Us - Overview
Takeaway:
- To understand poverty, we need to understand the history of poverty - where it emerged from
- People without studying history, economics and society are telling people experiencing poverty what they are doing wrong
- Industrialism creates a wider gap between the rich and the poor (increase in income inequality) → this is because of the division of labour and capital
- The example of India showed us that wheat and grain were being exported to Britain when millions of people were experiencing a famine
– In order to make more money, the whole country was left to starve
Why is it important to understand where poverty came from?
Can we really understand something if we do not understand the history behind that thing?
Describe the conditions as they exist in “hunter-gatherer” societies. Was there poverty?
There was not really poverty in a “hunter-gatherer” society because money wasn’t really a thing.
You may be hungry, but not “poor”
If you survived, “hunter-gatherer” societies were actually functioning pretty well
If you had time beyond finding food, you had time to do things we considered hobbies now
What was the Ancient Greek impression of poverty and trying to alleviate it?
Poverty is the most evil thing in society and also most definitely necessary in society
We need the constant threat of poverty to scare people into getting jobs that they might not actually want
What did religions believe about poverty and the poor?
In early Christianity, you were supposed to adopt a “poverty-ish” lifestyle to prove your faith
These people (ie. Monks and Saints), would pretend to be poor and take resources from people who were actually poor
In Buddhism, people were encouraged to essentially rob the poor by taking food from them.
These people were just playing a role and putting on a show that gave actual poor people less money
How did colonialism lead to the impoverishment of the Incans and other peoples?
Colonial powers exploited indigenous resources, such as gold, silver, and land, leading to economic and environmental devastation.
In Canada, when the Indigenous peoples’ land was colonized for pelts (beavers) and then they faced genocide Canada was not really seen as valuable once all the pelts were gone
What does the example of India show us?
Their crops were given to other countries to make more money while the people of India starved
The money the other countries make doing this is seen as more valuable than the people starving in India
How did the rise of cities lead to increasing inequality?
The Enclosure Act made it so that people could purchase land and do what they wanted with it (ie. when they die they could give it to children)
The people who can’t own land (ie, poor farmers) can’t own anything can be forced off their land because it’s been sold to someone else. They then travel to cities that cannot handle the number of people there.
An influx of people from the country who can’t farm and have no real skills in the city
Society changed too fast
Nobody had anywhere to live - cities were filled with trash, no sanitation, human filth, disease, etc
What effect does industrialism have on poverty?
Poverty was made worse by it
No minimum wage, like sweatshops
How do people get out of poverty?
By finding meaningful work that they can actually do
Teach people skills, “Don’t give water, build a well”
If to actually teach people skills instead of just doing something for them or giving them money, they benefit by having a profitable skill that they can actually make money off of
What is “trickle-down” economics and has it been successful?
No not effective
When we give tax breaks to rich people
The idea is that rich people invest in the economy and rich companies can then invest in more people
“Everyone benefits because rich people do”
Does not work because wealthy people will always keep the extra money and not invest in the economy or companies which would theoretically give them money to hire new people and benefit society at large
Marxism
Founder of the ideology of communism, Karl Marx - a German philosopher
The rich people in society are always trying to milk the poor out of as much money as possible - Social Hierarchy
Rich people will do anything to help the poor except pay them fairly - poverty is necessary
Takeaway: Poverty is created from the social hierarchy and social clas
Proletaire
working class people; those who sell their labour for wages
Bourgeoisie
not selling your time or labour - selling your assets for money
Why study Marxism today?
Incredibly influential work on poverty and equity
Adopted by nearly half of the world at one time
Had some good ideas and interesting perspectives
The idea is not to convert you but to help you understand and evaluate
Can illustrate the nature of relations that usually remain hidden
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Born to a wealthy Jewish family
Studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin
Wrote many works including: Capital, The German Ideology, The Communist Manifesto, etc.
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
Relatively Wealthy
Studied conditions of English working class
Wrote well
Combined his empirical view with Marx’s philosophical view
What do the terms Proletariat and Bourgeoisie mean?
Proletariat: workers.
Bourgeoisie: owners of means of production & most of the wealth
Define Economic Determinism.
Economics drives History
The means of production control how we for society
Those people that control the means of production, control society
SUPERSTRUCTURE - politics, religion, social customs, intellectual work - is built on the economic structure
Tribal - Feudal - Capitalism - Communism
History is one of class struggles - Bourgeoisie vs the proletariat, rich vs poor
What is the DIALECTIC?
Theory of How History Evolves
Any exploitative system creates contradictions = they will lead to inevitable change
Only a non-exploitive system can ultimately survive
Where’s the contradiction in capitalism?
How is alienation created and what are its effects?
How are workers alienated in capitalism?
Work is dehumanizing and repetitive - even work they enjoy is eventually alienating
Producing value for someone else alienates them from means of production
Religion/schooling and entertainment teach them to be obedient
Cannot develop their own humanity
Will develop Class Consciousness
What are the 10 “steps” of Communism?
- All land will be owned by the country - it cannot be sold to the wealthy or to foreign peoples or governments.
- A progressive income tax.
- No inheriting money you didn’t earn.
- If you leave the country, your wealth stays.
- The government runs the banks in trust for the people - no profit.
- The government runs the media in trust for the people - no profit.
- Make the country as independent as possible - develop the country’s industry and farms.
- Everyone who can, must work.
- Try to make the population distribution more equitable where possible.
- Free education for all children in public schools. No child labour - a child’s job is their education.
What is Labour Value and Surplus Value?
Theory of Labour Value:
The concept is that value should be determined by the labour that goes into the item being produced. ie - a burger’s value should be determined by the value of the labour of the farmer that grew wheat, the farmer that raised the cows, the driver that shipped the products and the labour of those that sell it.
Surplus Value
Any money that is left at the end of the paying all the labour goes to the bourgeoisie in the form of “profit”. “Profit” is the difference between what it costs to produce, and what it sells for.
The hourly wage someone makes is LOWER than the value that person creates. They create more value than they are paid for. Therefore, “profit” is just the business term, for theft from the working class, who could have been paid more, but aren’t because the bourgeoisie takes money, without creating value.
Capital -
the money used to make more money → taking that made money to turn it into something else
Surplus value
any money that is left at the end of the paying all the labour goes to the owner
Labour value
the only value worth anything is the labour put into making something
Bourgeois nationalism
be patriotic to your country and do things that you would not normally do (ex. Propaganda posters - giving people a reason to do something)
Hegemony -
dominance by one group or country (creators of the “right” way of doing things) → the group defines how things function → we know our economy doesn’t work well but hegemony means we can’t think of other ways to do things → if you can not think of another better way to do something, you are in a hegemony (i.e. our economic system)
Ex. US has hegemony because Canada’s economic system needs to follow it
Commodity
anything that people find a worth in paying for and buying, which can be tangible or intangible (ex. Clothes, concert tickets, university, etc)
Commodity fetishism
connecting values to our commodities - ex. attaching a monetary value to a diamond ring
Purchasing something and being convinced that it will do what it is advertised to do
Historical materialism -
economics of a society comes first and then everything else is built on top of that (ex. Elections can not function without capitalism, religious can not function without money coming in)
The economy determines what is built and made in society
Ex. people marry for money instead of love in countries
Modes of production -
The five modes of production refers to the theory in which human history is divided into the five progressive stages of primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and socialist society.
Division of labour
- dividing up labour amongst workers to make tasks more efficient
Alienation -
- seeing people as an economic relationship, not a person → isolated individuals from the society as a whole
Proletariat -
workers of a company → people who need to sell their stuff (time) to earn money for a living
Bourgeiosie -
rich people that own the means of production (owner of Amazon)
Dictatorship of the proletariat -
forming a dictatorship over rich people → people do not want to spend their lives doing something just to have it taken away from them
Marxian Key takeaways
- Our economic system is built on exploitation. It isn’t the only system
- “Profit”= underpaying workers for what they do and taking the rest
a. $15= your pay | $100 what we sell it for = if workers were paid fully “profit” wouldn’t exist - Divide and conquer = racism, sexism, homophobia, etc… are used to divide working people and have them hating each other, but not hating the group, that’s manipulating and hurting them (the wealthy)
- Commodity fetishism keeps us buying things
- We are alienated from each other and the value of our labour
a. We like to rank (ranking people at school based on marks)
b. Because people who are ranked are in competition with each other and work harder
Guns, Germs and Steel
Takeaway: Poverty is not explained by race, culture or ethnicity
Close connecting continents Europe, Asia and Africa caused the Middle East to have so much conflict tons of people intersecting and sharing technology
Isolated continents like North and South America are isolated and lack in technological advancement they are behind geographically
An abundance of livestock (horses, ox, pigs, etc) provides a source of protein and is a source of labour
How was European society able to militarily dominate other areas of the planet?
The European Society had access to guns that no other areas had yet so they quickly won battles due to this advantage.
How did domesticated animals factor into this scenario?
The Europeans had trouble domesticating the animals while the Indigenous people of the land did it with ease.
How did the “Germs” element affect the peoples of North and South America?
The introduction of diseases by Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, had devastating effects on the indigenous populations of North and South America.
How did the early Europeans interact with the African peoples that they encountered?
European interactions with Africans involved aspects of trade, colonization, and exploitation, including the transatlantic slave trade.
What was the Zulu response to the new people in their territory?
The Zulu response to new people in their territory involved resistance and conflicts against European colonization, led by figures like Shaka.
The European interaction with the continent of Africa was to have profound effects on the people. What would some of these effects be?
European interaction with Africa had far-reaching effects, including cultural, economic, and political transformations, as well as the long-term consequences of the slave trade and resource exploitation.
Diamond’s theory, if true, would thoroughly decimate any idea of cultural superiority based on race. Society does have dominant groups and marginalized groups, however. What would explain that dominance, in Diamond’s theory?
Diamond’s theory attributes societal dominance to environmental factors, geography, and access to resources rather than inherent racial superiority, challenging notions of cultural superiority based on race. The dominance is explained through environmental advantages rather than intrinsic qualities.
“Late Stage” Capitalism
Term used to describe the absurdities and injustices that surround our current capitalist system - and try to show that they cannot continue forever.
The 2008 Crisis
The term has seen a HUGE increase since the 2008 Financial Crisis in the USA.
In the simplest terms, the financial crisis was caused by wealthy banks and corporations lobbying the government to remove rules and regulations. Then the banks gave away mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, charging very low interest rates. Many banks then SOLD the debt to other banks, who didn’t know how bad the mortgages were.
When people couldn’t pay their mortgages (because they never should have been approved in the first place), they started defaulting on their loans, causing panic in the stock market. Panic = mass selling of stocks.
