USA Flashcards
(25 cards)
What percentage does the United States spend on foreign aid?
0.17%
What percentage are developed countries supposed to spend on aid?
0.7%
What is the GDP of the US in 2017
$19.4 Trillion
What percentage of the world’s defence spending is made by the US?
36%
Which country has overtaken the US in terms of purchasing power and GNI?
China, then India
How much did the US place on tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018?
$250 billion
Push factors
Many legal immigrants move to US because of push factors and pull factors
push factors - political or religious persecution in their home country, War
people are allowed to stay in the USA becuase their country is undemocratic and they fear they will be killed for their opposing views.
Pull factors
Better wages, moving to be reunited with other family members who already live there.
Religous freedom
How many legal immigrants did the US accept in 2020?
Normally accepts around 1,000,000 legal immigrants each year.
2020 figure fell to 707,632
How many illegal immigrants were there in the US today?
10.5 million
Which group made up 47% of all illegal immigrants in 2017?
Mexicans
What has happened to numbers of illegal immigrants arriving since Joe Biden became President?
rose by 1.35 milliom
USAs GINI coefficient
A measure of income inequality
0,39 which is seen as dangerously high and compares poorly with other countries.
Income/wealth distribution in USA
Wealth is not shared fairly enough in USA.
one quarter of Americans earn less than $10 per hour whilst the US minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour and has not went up even with increasing inflation.
USA Welfare system Programmes to reduce social and economic inequalitys
Welfare to Work, TANF, No child left behind, Patient protection and affordable care act 2010 (obamacare)
Welfare to Work
To tackle problem of unemployement and to raise incomes. Under this strategy the poor are expected to work their way out of poverty.
Operated by the Federal and State Governments
Welfare support such as medicaid health insurance, child care, SNAP, is worth up to $2853 per child.
However is only available to those actively seeking employment or who have taken up employment.
Supporters of welfare to work
Supporters claim that more people have been encouraged into work and this has increased the income of the poorest.
also reduced the cost of the welfare budget
50 million Americans will claim $445bn in welfare payments in 2018.
Opponents of Welfare to work
Opponents claim that it has forced many people out to work for very low wages and that it has not reduced inequality or poverty levels in the USA. BUT SIMPLY HAS CREATED A WORKING POOR.
Unemployment Rates USA
Blacks and Hispanics are worse off than Asians and Whites.
Feb 2020 - 5.8% of blacks and 4.4 of Hispanics were unemployed compared to 3.1% of whites and 2.5% of Asians.
787,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in 2020
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Main policy to reduce child poverty
Federal financed but State run
Aimed at getting as many single parents back to work as possible.
like welfare to work TANF payments are linked to finding or looking for work. And are only available for a maximum of five years of a persons life.
Success of TANF
Since TANF was introduced in 1996 the child poverty rate among single parents has fallen.
Number of children living in poverty in the United States decreased from 44.9 percent in 2010 to 31.2 percent in 2016.
Negatives of TANF
Overall less families today recieve TANF as eligibilty rules have tightened
only 23% of families in poverty receive TANF.
Affordable Care and patient protection act 2012 (Obamacare)
This law required all Americans to take out insurance but provided government support for Americans earning up to $88,000 per year who could not afford insurance.
This law also provided medicaid to more of the poorest Americans
Success of Obamacare
Obamacare resulted in numbers of Americans without health insurance falling from around 48 million in 2012 to around 28.5 million.
however in recent years trump has removed the individual mandate which requires Americans to have health insurance by law in order to reduce costs for Americans and the US government.
