Tag: children in poverty

+NEW YORK’S ‘HEALTHY FAMILIES’ PROGRAM — GREAT FINDINGS!

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I would like to mention a commendable program to assist ‘at risk’ children in New York as described on the Prevent Child Abuse New York Blog.  According to their post on January 26, 2011

New Study Finds Healthy Families New York to be a Great Investment in Children and Their Families

A new study by the state Office of Children and Family Services and the State University of New York shows that Healthy Families New York (HFNY) has had a profound impact on the lives of children and their families; resulting in fewer incidents of child abuse, fewer low birth weight babies and greater success in school for kids whose mothers participated.

HFNY believes strongly in enhancing the healthy child development of all children in New York and the program promotes optimal child health, connecting families with medical providers for prenatal and well-baby visits and immunizations. It also helps parents to develop strong, positive relationships with their children and assesses children for developmental delays.

From the time the program began in 1995 through the end of 2009, HFNY provided 777,000 home visits to more than 25,760 families. Participants are screened to identify risk factors and stressors the family may face. Each family is offered long-term in-home services until the child is in school or Head Start.

The findings of the seven-year randomized controlled trial include the following:

  • Across the seven years, mothers who received HFNY reported many fewer incidents of serious physical abuse than mothers in a control group did.
  • At ages 2, 3, and 7, young, first-time mothers who entered the program early in pregnancy consistently reported and were repeatedly observed using lower levels of harsh parenting as compared to their counterparts in the control group.
  • From the study’s start through age seven, HFNY mothers who had substantiated child maltreatment reports prior to random assignment had markedly lower rates of involvement in confirmed CPS reports for neglect (38% vs. 57%), confirmed reports for physical abuse (3% vs. 13%), and preventive, protective, and placement services (38% vs. 60%) as compared to a subset of similar women from the control group.
  • Overall, HFNY mothers were more likely to be observed using parenting strategies that stimulated the child’s cognitive skills and to report using nonviolent discipline strategies.
  • Children in HFNY were more likely to participate in a gifted program at school, less likely to receive special education services, and less likely to report skipping school. Educational advantages were even more striking among children born to first-time mothers under age 19 who were offered HFNY in early pregnancy. These children were half as likely to repeat a grade and considerably less likely to score below average on a standardized vocabulary test.
  • In addition to impacts on parenting and children’s education, women who enrolled in HFNY at or before 30 weeks of pregnancy were about half as likely to deliver low birth weight babies. This effect was especially notable among black and Latina mothers, two groups that persistently experience high levels of poor birth outcomes.

In terms of dollars and cents, the study also found that with mothers who had histories of engaging in child abuse or neglect, Healthy Families New York generated a return of more than $3 for every dollar spent due to reduced involvement with the child welfare system and other government programs.

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Again, as note in the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina, even for all the wealth that might exist in our nation, ‘We the People’ are barred from access to all but 17% if it.  That means within our current economic paradigm, the best use possible needs to be made of the portion of our nation’s wealth that we CAN access to help especially the most needy of our nation’s infants, children and their families.

“The gap between the rich countries and the poor countries of the world is rapidly increasing as noted above; however, equally disconcerting is the fact that the gap between the rich and poor is also increasing within the United States itself.  It may surprise some to know that the United States now has the most unequal income distribution of any industrialized country.  [bold type is mine]  Alarmingly, super-rich Americans who represent the top one percent of the U.S. population control forty percent of America’s total wealth.  Meanwhile, the top twenty percent of Americans, as a group, control eighty-three percent of America’s total wealth.  This means that the overwhelming majority of Americans are competing for only the remaining seventeen percent of the wealth after the super-rich and the rich take their lion’s share.”  [posted HERE]

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+MALEVOLENT INTENT AND THE ABUSES OF THE POWER OF WEALTH

alchemynow3 Comments

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It is becoming increasingly clear to me as I read the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina., that the growing disparity in economic well-being along with all other well-being measures – especially for growing numbers of our nation’s infant-children that is happening within the boundaries of our American nation  — is directly tied to the economic conditions of all members of our species the world over.

We are increasingly experiencing within America’s boundaries what appears to be a backwash of the same economic conditions that are approaching global plague proportions worldwide, and that will soon not be able to be ignored by anyone.  At the same time, the consumption patterns within the Globe’s richest First World nations continues to contribute to the major global problems Medina’s book is highlighting.

Medina next presents

Taking Water Away From the Bolivian Indians

“In January 2000, the city of Cochabamba, the third largest city in the country of Bolivia with a population of 500,000, became the scene of a crisis that attracted worldwide attention and that, to this day, serves as a quintessential example of the destructive policies of “survival of the fittest” Darwinian capitalism.  The crisis in Cochabamba was first sparked when the IMF [the International Monetary Fund ] approved a loan for Bolivia and then proceeded to pressure Bolivian government officials to privatize (to sell off) all state owned enterprises including public oil refineries and Cochabamba’s municipal water system.  In September, 1999, in closed door negotiations that involved only one bidder, Bolivia signed a forty-year contract that handed over Cochabamba’s water system to Aguas del Tunari (a company managed by International Water Limited, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Bechtel corporation).  Within a few months of taking over, without having made any appreciable investments in the system, Aguas del Tunari dramatically hiked up water rates.  As a result of these rate hikes, the water bills of the residents doubled and tripled.  This sparked almost immediate protests from the residents who united together in peaceful demonstrations and marches beginning in January of 2000.  A grassroots organization of concerned Bolivians (mostly Indians), The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (La Coordinadora), began to coordinate some of the rallies.  [see:  Timeline: Cochabamba Water Revolt” by Sheraz Sadiq]

“To understand the true dimensions of this crisis it is necessary to recognize that Bolivia is the most impoverished nation in Latin America (based on per capita GNP) and the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti.  American Indians make up between sixty and seventy percent of Bolivia’s population….  For these impoverished indigenous people, access to affordable water is a top priority.  Water and food are absolute necessities.  Steep increases in the price of either of these represent a mortal threat.  More money spent on water means that less money is available for other necessities, including food.

“Eventually, demonstrations spread from Cochabamba to La Paz and to other cities and outlying rural villages.  In April 2000, the Bolivian government declared a “state of siege.”  The “state of siege” (like martial law) allowed police to arrest and detain many people and to impose curfews and travel restrictions.  Unfortunately, the April demonstrations became violent, leaving six people dead and many injured.  On April 10, 2000, the government signed an agreement with the leader of The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life.  This agreement revoked the contract with the Bechtel corporation subsidiary and granted control of the Cochabamba municipal water system to the grassroots coalition.  It also repealed water privatization legislation as well as provisions that would have charged people for drawing water from local wells.

“It is amazing to note that, after losing its contract, Bechtel Corporation sued the nation of Bolivia for $25 million in damages and an additional $25 million in lost potential profits (money the corporation argues that it could have earned if it had been able to keep the water system).  It must be recognized here that, in 2000, Bechtel’s revenues were more than $14 billion while the entire national budget of Bolivia was merely $2.7 billion.  Oscar Olivera, the leader of The Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life stated, “With the $25 million [in damages] they are seeking, 125,000 people could have access to water.”

“Fortunately, in January 2006, Bechtel finally decided to drop its suit after being subjected to four years of sustained international pressure.  Organizations and citizens groups from throughout the world coordinated their efforts to apply pressure on Bechtel to drop its case.  The company was bombarded with emails, and concerned groups used the international media to bring attention to Bechtel’s attempts to profiteer at the expense of the poor people in Bolivia.  Oscar Olivera declared, “Multinational corporations want to turn everything into a market….  For indigenous people water is not a commodity, it is a common good.  For Bolivia this retreat by Bechtel means that the rights of the people are undeniable.””  (pages 190-192)

Shipping Toxic Waste to the Third World

“The issue of Third World toxic waste lays bare a picture of callous inhumanity and blatant cruelty that is truly shocking in its scope.  It has now been widely reported that the First World is exporting its toxic waste to impoverished developing nations.  Not only is such waste being shipped to the Third World, some corporations have actually found a way to profit from this deadly transaction.

“The “ship breaking business” is a case in point of corporate behavior that can be characterized as nothing short of criminal.  Ten shipping corporations dominate the global merchant cargo trade.  When these corporations want to dispose of an old vessel, they send it to a ship breaking yard where it is dismantled from scrap metal.  Probably the largest ship breaking yard in the world is in Bangladesh (a hunger-ravaged nation) where massive tanker ships, some as long as three football fields and as tall as twenty stories high, have been run agound in the Bay of Bengal.  Workers (cutters) use blow torches to cut ships to pieces.  From high above, gigantic plates of metal, some weighing several tons, are cut from ships and then fall dangerously to the ground.  Crews of workers then carry the plates on their shoulders as they step in unison to the rhythm of a leader’s chant.  The National Labor Committee (NLC), a U.S.-based worker rights organization, investigated the industrial atrocities at the Bengal shipyard.  An NLC article titled “Where Ships and Workers Go to Die ,” states,

“The kids usually help the cutters or remove asbestos [a known carcinogen].  They smash the asbestos with a hammer, shovel it into a plastic bag and remove it from the ship….  Dismantled ships are toxic to workers and the environment.  Each ship contains an average of 15,000 pounds of asbestos and ten to 100 tons of lead paint.  Besides asbestos and lead [which can cause kidney damage and brain impairment in children], workers are exposed to mercury, arsenic, dioxins, solvents, toxic oil residues and carcinogenic fumes from melting metal and paint.  Environmental damage to beaches, ocean and fishing villages is extensive.”

“Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, calls the Bengal ship breaking yard “hell on earth.”  Thirty thousand workers, some as young as ten years old, dismantle ships at a nonstop pace for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for the equivalent of twenty-two to thirty-six cents an hour with no sick days or holidays.  Workers live in utter squalor in stifling hot rooms without windows and without refrigerators.  Each tiny room is packed with four people who sleep on the floor with only old sheets and rags for bedding.  While doing their incredibly dangerous tasks, the workers are not given any safety gear by the ship-owners.  Baseball caps serve as hard hats, and in the absence of steel-toed shoes, young workers are seen handling heavy sheets of metal wearing only flip-flops.  Filthy bandanas serve as respiratory masks, and when using dangerous blow torches, sunglasses are used in place of safety visors.  Kernaghan states, “Last year, a 13-year old child his very first day on the job was hit in the head with a heavy piece of metal and he just died immediately.”  Kernaghan eerily adds, “the ship-owners don’t document anything, they don’t investigate the killings and the injuries, they just throw the people back into their villages and in some cases, we’ve heard that they throw the dead bodies into the water.”

“The heinous disregard for human life and the environment that is described above is the end result of an insidiously reckless capitalist order that has thrown away all moral restraint.  In a Law Review article titled, “Beyond Eco-Imperialism:  An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade,” Carmen Gonzalez, a law professor, provides a highly detailed and well-researched view of the environmental justice issues that have emerged as a result of globalization.  Her article states,

“[I]nternational trade promotes environmental degradation in developing countries and threatens the physical health, cultural integrity and economic well being of the Southern [Third World] poor….  [T]he North [First World] reaps the benefits of liberalized trade while exporting the environmental costs to the South….  [This] article…identifies the North’s resource-intensive, consumption-oriented lifestyle as the primary cause of global environmental degradation….  This lifestyle can only be maintained through the ongoing appropriation of the natural resources of the South.”

“Earlier in this chapter a section titled “Widespread Rising Poverty Amidst Incredible Concentrations of Wealth,” provided statistics that show that the people living in the wealthy developed nations (only about twenty percent of the world’s population) consume a disproportionate share of the globe’s food, resources, and goods.  Indeed, the United States has the highest consumption levels per capita in the globe with Japan and Western Europe not being far behind.  Gonzalez uses similar statistics in her article to support her thesis (as expressed in the quote above).  A group of researchers in the Center for Sustainability Studies in Xalapa, Mexico, created a concept known as the “ecological footprint” in order to study the amount of resources, “natural capital,” that a country must have (or must appropriate from others) in order to maintain its level of consumption.  The researchers discovered that “the Netherlands, United States, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Japan, and Israel were among the highest per capita importers of natural capital.”  This means that these countries, in particular, are using many more resources than they actually possess, and that the First World “is living far beyond its ecological means,” and the developing nations cannot catch up “without exceeding the limits of the global ecosystem.”  Indeed, if everyone in the world adopted and tried to maintain a Western level of consumption, then, instead of just one world, it would actually be necessary to have ten worlds to satisfy everyone’s needs.  Gonzalez contends that there is a great need for legal scholarship in the area of researching and creating international laws that address the problem of over-consumption.  [see:  Beyond Eco-Imperialism:  An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade,” Carmen Gonzalez]

“Gonzalez further asserts that, for many years, the U.S. environmental movement has been perceived to be a middle class, White, suburban phenomenon that has been primarily interested in the protection of endangered species, wilderness areas, and parks, but it has not shown sufficient interesting environmental justice issues related to racism, poverty, and societal antidemocratic processes and policies.  She cites a variety of studies that show that “poor people and racial and ethnic minorities suffer disproportionately high levels of exposure to toxic substances while whites residing in more pristine suburban neighborhoods reap the benefits of environmental protection.”  This unjust dynamic within the United States shows up in the choice of location for hazardous waste facilities and also in the selective enforcement of laws and standards pertaining to water and air pollution, as well as waste disposal.

“Similar to the dynamic described above, Gonzalez maintains that, when it comes to the international arena, environmentalists from the Northern wealthy nations have been mainly concerned with protecting global natural areas.  As such, they have been slow to recognize that socioeconomic justice issues are a direct cause of global pollution and resource depletion.  In contrast, environmentalists from the poor Southern nations are increasingly asserting that international environmental degradation is directly linked to justice issues related to international inequality and to the struggle for democracy, self-determination, economic sufficiency, and cultural rights.  Along these lines, the Southern environmentalists contend that the primary causes of international pollution and resource depletion are the excessive consumption patterns of wealthy nations as well as “the world economic order” that “has institutionalized Southern poverty, which places additional stress on the environment. [see source link above, page 988]”  Along these lines, Gonzalez states,

“Indeed, one prominent Southern environmentalist has argued that the South is bearing a disproportionate share of the environmental consequences of globalization, and has described this phenomenon as environmental apartheid….  The allegations of Southern environmentalists have been supported by studies commissioned by the United Nations Development Program, [specifically related to] the export of hazardous wastes and deforestation.  [see source link above, page 989]”

“Gonzalez points out that there is a need for the development of international human rights laws that “link the environmental struggle with the struggle for social justice.”

“Unfortunately, the hazardous waste trade is flourishing.  Illegal shipments destined from the United States to other nations (Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and others) have continued to be intercepted.  Even recycling efforts that seem innocent on the surface can actually be deadly in Third World environments where there are not appropriate safeguards.  A prime example of this is the shipment of used car batteries to poor countries in order to recover and recycle the lead.  Lead is extremely hazardous and typically causes all forms of problems for the poor.  Along similar lines, the Bangladesh ship breaking yard described above is extremely toxic to the people and to the environment, and yet the ship-owners would likely try to defend it as a good venture that recovers and recycles scrap metal.  Gonzalez sates, “Environmentalists have rightfully denounced: such practices “as ‘toxic colonialism’.  [see source link above, page 993]”  (Medina’s book pages 192-196)

Next post:  Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic

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See recent posts:

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

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+MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS — ECONOMIC VAMPIRES WORLDWIDE

alchemynow1 Comment

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Why does abuse continue?  Because it can.  Well, here I go – forward HO!  What is THIS about the United States of America that I am frightened to know?  More from the book, America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina., who states the following about:

Multinational Corporations

“A cursory review of the literature pertaining to global capitalism quickly reveals that multinational corporations are at the epicenter of many of the problems that we are currently experiencing both in the United States and throughout the world.  Possibly because of this, the Baha’I writings envisage that corporations (trusts) will no longer exist in the future:  “No more trusts will remain in the future.  The question of the trusts will be wiped away entirely.”  [The Secret of Divine Civilization, page 24]  Many multinational corporations, as they currently exist, are manifestations of a Cartesian-Newtonian value system that places the maximization of profits ahead of all other goals – often to the exclusion of even ethical and moral considerations.  Along these lines, history professor Howard Zinn, author of the highly acclaimed A People’s History of the United States, notes that the prevailing unscrupulous activities of multinational corporations are built upon a long history of corporate abuse in the Third World:

“The relationship of these global corporations with the poorer count4ries had long been an exploiting one….  Whereas U.S. corporations in Europe between 1950 and 1965 invested $8.1 billion and made $5.5 billion in profits, In Latin America they invested $3.8 billion and made $11.2 billion in profits, and in Africa they invested $5.2 billion and made $14.3 billion in profits.”  [page 29]

“Corporations wield incredible power, and indeed, are beyond the control of any one government.  Of the world’s 100 largest economies, fifty-one are not multinational corporations while only forty-nine are nations [bold type is mine].  Currently, there is no body of national or international law to deal effectively with such corporate “states.”  Corporations are not democratic institutions, and they often make it clear that their only obligation is to deliver profits to shareholders.  In the United States, corporate lawyers have used the courts to carve out an entire body of case law including language that declares that corporations (also known as trusts) are legal persons entitled to First Amendment free speech rights and also to the protection of life, liberty, and property.  Moreover, case law grants corporations legal immunity, which means that corporate executives cannot be held fully accountable for their activities.  As such, corporations enjoy the rights of individuals without having to assume the responsibilities of individuals.  Along these lines, Noreena Herz, a Cambridge University economist and author of The Silent Takeover:  Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, contends that multinational corporations pose a grave threat to democracy itself because of their ever growing capacity to manipulate governments with legal and illegal methods.  She maintains that corporations, almost by design, do not currently serve the world’s political and social needs, but rather, mostly serve the interests of profit-motivating investors.

“In contrast to the prevailing laissez-faire [describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies] global capitalism model, the Baha’I teachings stipulate that all business enterprises should be well regulated by international codes of law that set effective, fair, and just guidelines pertaining to global wages, working conditions, environmental protections, property issues, capital-labor relationships, restrictions on the concentration of wealth, and the sharing of natural resources.  Furthermore, according to the Baha’I teachings, businesses should be democratically run with workers and owners mutually participating in the decision-making process at all levels and workers also enjoying a percentage of the profits.  All people, including the disabled, should be employed in some capacity.  Moreover, in order to avoid the harmful speculation in currencies that currently exists, Baha’is believe that there should be one uniform worldwide monetary currency.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote, “When the law3s He [Baha’u’llah] has instituted are carried out there will be no millionaires possible in the community and likewise no extremely poor.”  [The Promulgation of Universal Peace (2007), page 217]

“In their perpetual efforts to find, control, and exploit natural resources, corporations have caused much damage to the environment and have also cased much harm to indigenous communities with close ties with the land.  The Baha’i Faith recognizes that the constant struggle to seize and dominate natural resources has often resulted in major wars and conflicts between nations, groups, and enterprises.  In light of this, the Baha’i writings envisage that, in the future, all of the earth’s natural resources will be placed under public control, under the auspices of a world super-state (a world federation of nations).  According to the Baha’i writings, the world super-state will exercise full authority over the planet’s resources including oceans, forests, oil deposits, copper, silver, gold and other metals, diamonds, minerals, natural gas, coal, and so forth.  It is believed that the super-state will protect, coordinate, and organize the planet’s resources so that all peoples and countries may benefit equitably from these natural riches.”  [The World Order of Baha’u’llah (1991), page 204]  (pages 186-188)

Western-Style Development in the Third World

“An overwhelming body of evidence now shows that Western-style economic development, the kind that is promoted by multinational corporations, has led to highly destructive outcomes in the Third World.  Indeed, a common theme among critics of globalization is that the multinational corporations and the wealthy First World nations (especially the United States) have been using international financial and trade institutions – such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) – to their advantage and to the detriment of poor Third World nations.  For instance, Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics and author of Globalization and Its Discontents, contends that the IMF has consistently placed the interests of the United States and the rich industrialized countries above the interests of the impoverished developing countries.  Similarly, economist Biplab DasGupta, author of Structural Adjustment, Global Trade, and the New Political Economic Development, asserts that the global economic policies of the IMF and the WTO are harmful to poor countries and primarily reflect the interests of the wealthy countries of the Northern Hemisphere.

“Third World debt has become a major driving force in international relations.  During the 1970s and 1980s, First World banks found that it was profitable to lend money to Third World governments.  Indeed, such banks have managed to collect exorbitant interest on the longterm debt.  As it has become evident that some countries might default on their loans, the IMF (ultimately funded by public taxpayers) has stepped in to save the private banks by assuming some of the Third World debt.  The IMF and the World Bank, however, have increasingly pressured impoverished nations to enact economic austerity measures or face penalties.  These measures are formally known as structural adjustment programs, and they typically require countries to:  devalue their currency, which results in a dramatic reduction in the purchasing power of the poor; sell state-run enterprises to private parties (usually corporations); sell state-owned communally held lands to private parties (usually wealthy landowners or agribusiness corporations); severely cut state spending on social programs such as education, health care, and food subsidies for the poor; radically reduce the employment of civil servants in the government sector, which results in massive government layoffs; remove subsidies and price supports for small farmers who consequently can no longer compete with agribusiness corporations; stop producing food crops (such as corn and beans) for the hungry local population and start producing cash crops (like coffee, cotton, and tobacco) for export and sale to wealthy countries; deregulate economic activity (repeal minimum wage laws, gut environmental protection laws, etc.); and other changes.  The measures described above have had the overall effect of transferring wealth and power from the public sphere (governments and the people) to private entities (rich elites and multinational corporations).  [see:  “Michel Chossudovsky:  The Globalization of Poverty:  Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms,”]

“Loans have done almost nothing to alleviate the distress of Third World populations.  To the contrary, they have done much to increase this distress while at the same time augmenting the coffers of multinational corporations and First World banks.  Amazingly, poor countries now spend over twenty-five dollars on debt repayment for every one dollar in aid that they receive from wealthy nations.  Dennis Brutus, a professor of Africana Studies and the University of Pittsburgh, states,

“One of the central mechanisms by which this recolonization [of Africa]…is carried out is the loan system through structural adjustment programs….  [M]any of the countries that received loans…have not seen their economies improve.  Quite the opposite.  Some are in a far worse economic position and more indebted than they were prior to taking the loans…more bankrupt…more impoverished….  It is hardly imaginable that anyone could knowingly devise such a ruthless, heartless system that is entirely devoted to increasing profit and largely indifferent to its human cost.  This, however, is the system that is shaping life in Africa today, and it is the system that we must challenge.”  [see source HERE]

Next post:

Taking Water Away From the Bolivian Indians

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See recent posts::

+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

+FINDING MY COURAGE TO TAKE A LOOK AT ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA’

+ONGOING TRAUMAS: AMERICA’S BIG MONEY PERPETRATORS

+WHERE THE BAD PEOPLE HIDE: ‘AMERICA FAR WORSE THAN A BULLY’

+CRITICISM NOT ALLOWED IN A BLACK-AND-WHITE WORLD

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+HERE’S A TAKE ON THE RICH RICH RICH RICH AND THE POOR POOR POOR POOR

alchemynowLeave a comment

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To help myself gain a more balanced and informed perspective on the topic of the imbalance of resources within America and the world, I am reading America’s Sacred Calling: Building a New Spiritual Reality (2010) by John Fitzgerald Medina.  In his writing about materialism and capitalism, Medina states:

Widespread Rising Poverty Amidst Incredible Concentrations of Wealth

“As we take a closer look at the world’s current socioeconomic situation, especially as it pertains to hunger and poverty, we get a clear view of the workings of a cruel economic machine.  For any person of moral conscience, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that we live on a planet in which staggering numbers of people are literally dying of hunger.  About one billion people on the globe are at or near starvation.  Almost half of the world’s children live in a state of debilitating poverty and malnutrition.  If our real world could be reduced to a hypothetical village containing only one hundred people, then the following would be true:  sixty people in the village would always be hungry (twenty-six of these being severely undernourished); sixteen people would go to bed hungry at least some of the time [my note:  currently among American children 22.5 of a ‘100 children’ would fit this category] while only twenty-four people within the village would always have enough to eat.  This reveals the true callous nature of the prevailing global order in which only twenty-four percent of the Earth’s people have enough to eat.  It must be emphasized here, that if food was properly distributed and shared, there would be plenty for everyone on the planet.  Food is readily available; however, many of the world’s poor cannot pay the market price, and thus, sometimes even huge surpluses of food are allowed to rot away.

“Additionally, about one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water and half of the world’s people have no access to sanitation (sewage, flushing toilets, etc.).  This lack of clean water and sanitation leads to health problems and to the easy spread of disease.  It also results in a waste of time and energy because the poor spend several hours each day collecting water from distant areas.  (pages 174-175)”

“The apparent cruelty of the existing global order is especially demonstrated by the fact that the people living in the wealthy developed nations (only about twenty percent of the Earth’s population) consume a disproportionate share of the world’s resources and goods each year, including about seventy percent of the world’s energy, about seventy-five percent of its metals, about eighty-five percent of its timber, and about eighty-six percent of its goods.  The United States has the highest consumption levels per capita in the globe.  Along these lines, on August 28, 2000, an article in the San Diego Union Tribune reported that Americans alone spend “$1.9 billion more a day on imported clothes and cars and gadgets than the entire rest of the world spends on its goods and services.” [bold type is mine]  Similarly, eighty-five percent of the Earth’s water is used by a mere twelve percent of the world’s people who live in the wealthy developed nations.

“In addition to consuming a disproportionate share of the Earth’s food, resources, and goods, the rich countries of the globe are claiming an ever-increasing ratio of the world’s wealth.  In 1950, the income gap between the people living in the wealthy developed nations and the people living in the poorest nations was thirty-five to one.  By 1997, in less than fifty years during the worldwide expansion of capitalism, this income gap increased to seventy-four to one.   In contrast to this situation, Baha’u’llah exhorts all peoples to “Be generous in prosperity….Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy.”

“The gap between the rich countries and the poor countries of the world is rapidly increasing as noted above; however, equally disconcerting is the fact that the gap between the rich and poor is also increasing within the United States itself.  It may surprise some to know that the United States now has the most unequal income distribution of any industrialized country.  [bold type is mine]  Alarmingly, super-rich Americans who represent the top one percent of the U.S. population control forty percent of America’s total wealth.  Meanwhile, the top twenty percent of Americans, as a group, control eighty-three percent of America’s total wealth.  This means that the overwhelming majority of Americans are competing for only the remaining seventeen percent of the wealth after the super-rich and the rich take their lion’s share.

“Over the past four decades, in the face of major government deregulation, corporate downsizing, and the dissolution of trade unions, American workers have experienced a significant erosion of protections, benefits, income, and freedoms.  Additionally, over this period of time, American multinational corporations have made a massive transfer of capital, factories, and labs to Third World countries with the weakest workplace safety and environmental laws, the toughest anti-union laws, and the lowest wages and taxes.  Not surprisingly, as shown by the statistics above, wealth has been upwardly distributed – indeed, approximately ninety percent of the increase in U.S. income over about the past twenty-five years has gone to the rich people at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid (the top twenty percent of Americans).

“As a result of all of this, rising numbers of Americans are joining the ranks of what has been termed the “working poor.”  This is a reference to the millions of Americans who are working year-round, full-time, for poverty-level wages (based on government guidelines).  Some have to live in their cars or have to work two full-time jobs just to pay the rent and to buy enough food for their children.  Some experience constant pain because they cannot afford medical treatment and are unable to miss any work because they lack sick leave.  The reality is that the U.S. economy is not producing enough living-wage jobs to accommodate all Americans.  Sadly, in the United States, about one in three children under the age of twelve are hungry or at risk of hunger.  All of this once again demonstrates the grim dehumanized nature of this system.”  (pages 176-178)”

Survival of the Fittest Class Consciousness

“Interestingly, in spite of the gross maldistribution of wealth in the United States, many Americans do not protest because they still feel fortunate in comparison to the vast numbers of people in the Third World who live on the brink of real starvation.  As such, the maldistribution of wealth (a salient feature of capitalism) results in a pyramid-shaped hierarchy that stratifies people into socioeconomic classes ranging from the American super-rich elites at the top of the pyramid down to the lowliest peasant classes in the Third World.  The rich upper classes use their wealth strategically to promote and to protect their economic and political interests often at the expense of the middle and lower classes.  Through the use of gifts, grants, and contributions to government officials, churches, universities, foundations, think tanks, and a variety of other organizations, the elites exert tremendous influence on all aspects of society including governmental, business, religious, legal, educational, media, law enforcement, and military institutions.  Indeed, the scandalous amount of money that the American upper classes spend on political campaigns to maintain their power is truly an affront to democracy.  The corrupting influence of money, however, is not the only thing that maintains the unjust status quo.  The system is also kept in order because capitalist ideology itself fosters a “survival of the fittest” mentality in which individuals perceive each other as competitors in a struggle for survival (Social Darwinism).  This promulgates the faulty belief that the best people rise to the top and that the lower classes are inferior and possibly even morally and/or intellectually deficient.  Thus class prejudices play a major role in maintaining the system.

“Interestingly, many lower and middle class Americans often willingly support such an iniquitous [characterized by iniquity] economic model because they subscribe to the capitalist inspired notion that someday they too can climb to the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy.  However, the current deep economic recession involving major job losses, the collapse of the housing market, and the massive loss of personal investments and savings has caused some Americans to realize that they are indeed vulnerable to the iniquities of the free market system.  Moreover, with banks and credit card companies being increasingly tight on loans and credit, the recession has stoked serious concerns among average Americans who have become accustomed to living counterfeit “middle class” lifestyles based on staggering levels of debt.  Meanwhile, due to the high surplus of desperate unemployed Americans, companies now have the capability to fire well-paid employees and to easily replace them with “cheaper” workers.  The current job market situation in the United States is radically different in comparison to the job marked of the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s when U.S. industrial firms were manufacturing about half of all the world’s products.  As noted above, over the past few decades, the U.S. economy has lost huge numbers of well-paid manufacturing jobs due to capitalist “free trade” policies that have allowed American multinational corporations to simply close entire factories and ship them off to the Third World where they can easily exploit entire populations.

“Additionally, many American families in the past could make an adequate living on only one income.  This is no longer the case.  In today’s families, both parents typically have to work to make ends meet [my note:  author makes no mention of single parenthood]  In light of all of this, many Americans are starting to realize that they are potentially only a few paychecks away from poverty and potentially even homelessness.  Thus, increasing numbers of Americans are coming to the painful recognition that the so-called American dream of never-ending upward mobility is coming to an abrupt end.  Of course, for some Americans, the thought of upward mobility has always been nothing more than a fleeting fantasy, especially for inner-city minorities living in blighted urban centers with high unemployment rates, eroded tax bases, and a lack of social infrastructure (poor medical care, substandard housing, and indeed, even a lack of grocery stores).  (pages 178-179)”

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The author’s next section:

The Extremes of Wealth and Poverty as an Impediment to Peace and Spiritual Growth

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+PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS REPORT ON AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN RECESSION TIMES

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This report appears with a link included in my previous post, down near the bottom.  It is TOO IMPORTANT to overlook.  The information included at this link is critical to ALL OF OUR WELL-BEING!

Effect of State Budget Cuts:  America’s Kids Pay the Price
This is a report NACCRRA released In January 2010 with Every Child Matters and Voices for America’s Children. To read a copy of the report, click on the title above.

“At least 42 states have cut public health, programs for children with disabilities, K-12 and early education, and higher education.”

Children During the Recession

“American children will be required to pay a substantial price in lost opportunities to address a problem they did nothing to create.”

—About one in four children under

18 is living in poverty; 21.3

percent of children under 6 live

in poverty

—Over half (53.3 percent) of

children growing up alone with

their mother are living in poverty

—More than one in five children

(22.5 percent) live in families

who are food insecure – meaning

they struggle against hunger and

report not having enough to eat

—Nearly 10 percent of children

lack health insurance—over

7 million children

—Only one out of every seven

eligible children receives child

care assistance and the care

that children have access to is of

dubious quality

Read what this report recommends to help improve conditions within our nation that are so negatively impacting our children.

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