Kevin Prieto
Introduction
The focus of my research was to find articles that portrayed inequality in the US. Inequality is all around us so as a whole I tried to link this issue with my groups overall topic of welfare. Far too many people in this country do not have any form of health care and Inequality is a huge factor in that. When you’re in poverty, living day to day you don’t have extra money to spend if you happen to get sick. You either pull through and make it or die. Not only is this reality completely unfair it’s just not the way this country was intended to be like. Are goal is to bring awareness of this important issue. My first article talks about African American inequality in the US. It also points out the ways in which inequality has worked throughout the US. Article 2 is a comprehensive Analysis of sex and race inequalities in unemployment Insurance benefits. Article 3 looks at methods of monitoring socioeconomic health disparities in the US. Article 4 is looking at the gender/poverty gap and what we can learn from other countries. Lastly 5 is about the black/white mortality gap in the 1960 and 2000.
“The New African American Inequality”
By: Michael Katz, Mark Stern, and Jamie Fader
Source: Journal of American History: June 2005 Vol. 92 Issue 1 pg. 75-108
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true%26db=aph%26AN=19324140%26site=ehost-live
The authors of this article discuss a different type of inequality that faces the African American of today. At the beginning 20th century African Americans across the board, faced discrimination in jobs, education and every day living. With Affirmative action and the social movements against discrimination African Americans gained betters jobs, guarantees of food, shelter, medical care and education. Black poverty was on the decline. The authors point out however that in spite of these changes that there is a general sense that racism is alive and well in the United States. There continues to be evidence of this in police racial profiling, more blacks living in poverty than whites, more blacks filling our prisons as just a few examples. This article had 5 goals ranging from looking at inequality throughout history and how it has worked in the United States to looking at the interesting shift in gender inequality between black men and women. Black women have made huge gains above black men in the areas of employment and education in the last half of the 20th century. The article discusses how education has aided the upward mobility of many blacks but also how the way our educational system is structured has also left many blacks behind in their ability to have access to it. The authors have broken down their research into looking at five different areas. They included:
“1. Participation: the share of African Americans who worked for pay
2. Distribution: the kinds of jobs they held
3. Rewards: the relative income they received
4. Differentiation: the variation among them on scales of occupation and earnings
5. Geography: where they lived”
The article was very interesting as it examines black men and how they have not been as fortunate as black women in terms of jobs and earning potential. Black men were hit much harder by the declining wages and weak labor market that has hit many American workers. The authors point out that the new African American inequality has left them divided among themselves. Too many are living in poverty and those who do have good jobs are often working for government agencies that are subject to political decisions and economic trends that may leave them unemployed. There is still 3 times the number of blacks living in poverty as whites and more whites finish college and hold property than blacks. Inequality may look a bit different than it did in the early 1900’s but is still lives on.
“A Comprehensive Analysis of Sex and Race Inequities in Unemployment Insurance Benefits”
By: Melissa Latimer, West Virginia University
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, December 2003, Vol XXX, Number 4
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true%26db=aph%26AN=12596424%26site=ehost-live
This study was conducted in West Virginia with the purpose of looking at the welfare system, and more specifically at Unemployment Compensation in a rural area of the country. Most of the research in this area has been conducted in urban areas and rural America has a different picture for us. The poverty rates in rural areas are substantially higher than urban areas. The study examines the factors of sex and race that result in inequities in unemployment insurance benefits. The type of job one holds determines ones chances of advancement, benefits, and income earning potential. The jobs available to workers today are shifting and the U.S. is losing the high-wage manufacturing jobs that have supported its workers in the past. There is a shift to increasing numbers of minimum wage, no benefits, service jobs. As a result more and more workers are losing their earning potential and the option to collect unemployment benefits should they lose their job. Women and people of color are the hardest hit by this shift. Latimer suggests that if one wants to look at how well the welfare system and specifically the unemployment insurance program is working it would make sense to look at it in a rural area where the most vulnerable workers can be found needing assistance. This article looks at the history of the unemployment benefits insurance and factors like minimum earnings and work time requirements that often determine one not eligible for benefits. Latimer states that 12% of the work force is employed in jobs not covered by unemployment compensation. The majority of those jobs are held my women, people of color and rural workers.
She also stated that she found that in the state of West Virginia only about 35% of the unemployed workers received unemployment insurance benefits. These individuals when faced with a loss of a job are left to depend on limited social assistance programs like food stamps, Medicaid and public housing. Women and people of color are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to their chances of getting unemployment insurance benefits.
“Painting a Truer Picture of US Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Health Inequalities: The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project:”
By: Nancy Kreiger, Ph.D, JarvisChen, ScD, Pamela Waterman, MPH, David Rehkopf, MPH, and S.V.Subramanian, Ph.D
American Journal of Public Health, February, 2005 Vol 95, No. 2
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2150/ehost/detail?hid=113&sid=90cdb53b-2e7e-41ee-ba8c-411ad024f706%40sessionmgr105
This research study was done by a group that felt that the public health disparities and inequalities associated with race and socioeconomic were not well documented. This group of authors has designed a method that could be used yearly to monitor the socioeconomic health disparities in the U.S. using geocoded public health data and the current census tract of poverty data for each state. In 2008 there is going to be a new method by the American Community Survey that will release annual census track data based on 5 year averages. This will allow national, state and local communities to track the inequality and health implications more easily and could improve accountability in the area of improving the social disparities in health we now see. This group felt that there is not adequate data on the socioeconomic inequalities in health and how that contributes to racial and ethnic disparities in health as well. This study looked at 2 states, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the census track data for them from 1990. It looked at the health issues of childhood lead poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, TB, nonfatal weapons-related injuries and cancer incidence. Some of the results included that 90% of the white population lived in areas with fewer than 5% of persons living below poverty level, while more than half the black and Hispanic population lived in census track areas with over 20% or more of the persons living below poverty level. It was also found that in all health categories except breast and colon cancer, there was an increased risk of illness with living in the poor census track areas. The study found that more than 50% of the health cases would not have occurred if the cases had lived in above poverty census track areas instead. The article points out that the research findings point to the large extent that socioeconomic deprivation can adversely impact a population’s health from birth to death.
“The Gender-Poverty Gap: What We Can Learn From Other Countries”
By: Lynne M. Casper, Sara S. McLanahan, and Irwin Garfinkel
American Sociological Review, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Aug. 1994), pp 594-605
JStor
Link: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1224%2528199408%252959%253A4%253C594%253ATGGWWC%253E2.0.CO%253B2-I
The authors in this article have looked at 8 industrialized countries to examine gender differences in poverty. The purpose of this article was to provide information about gender inequality and how this information might be used to improve welfare state policy. It has been long agreed that American women are more likely to be poor than American men. In the article it states that in the United States women are 30% more likely to be poor than men or have a 1.30 gender-poverty gap ratio. One might assume that this is the case in other industrialized countries as well. This article points out that this is not the case. We learn that poverty is a family characteristic that will depend on the total income of the family and the ratio of dependents to earners. In looking at these factors the authors examined 6 demographic characteristics in all 8 countries. They included age, education, employment status, marital status, parental status and single parenthood. Gender differences in employment and parental status explain most of the gender-poverty ratio in the U.S. and you would think in other countries as well. It turns out that one has to also look at the political and religious differences of a country too. For example in Italy, family is everything and most people are married and have 2 parents providing care and support for children. Religion has an impact in keeping this countries ratio at close to 1. It was interesting to learn that the United States has the highest poverty rates of any of the countries in the study. In Italy and the Netherlands the poverty rate is equal for men and women and in Sweden the rate of poverty is higher for men than women. The authors suggest if women in the U.S. could gain the same employment status as men that the gender-poverty gap would be reduced by 70%. Other suggestions for improving the poverty ratio were to encourage men and women to marry and stay married and lastly to provide a generous welfare system like that found in the Netherlands to provide an income floor where no citizen would have to live below.
Article: What If We Were Equal? A Comparison Of The Black-White Mortality Gap In
1960 And 2000.
Authors: Satcher, David1Fryer Jr., George E.2McCann, Jessica3Troutman, Adewale4Woolf, Steven H.5Rust, George6 GRust@msm.edu
Source: Health Affairs; Mar/Apr2005, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p459-464, 6p
Link:
http://library.cocc.edu:2150/ehost/detail?hid=107&sid=e1a4ed9d-b0a0-4a49-a060-786433420f5d%40sessionmgr104
This article talks about the black/white mortality rates from 1960 to 2000. The article says that around 83,000 African American deaths each year could be prevented by closing the mortality gap. There have been a lot of improvements in decreasing the black/white gap in civil rights, housing and education but it still needs to come a lot further. The majority of these excess deaths come from health disparities. There are still a huge amount of people in this country without health coverage and many of these people happen to be black. What can be done to make people more aware of these excessive deaths among African Americans? If everyone was offered the same opportunities for health coverage some 80,000 people could be saved. Poverty and inequality is killing innocent people by the thousands. The article makes the point that people in poverty just don’t have the means necessary to survive.
Conclusion
Health coverage is just one of those things that everyone should have access too. We all deserve the right for treatment when we get sick. Everything in this society is based on money and power. People need to be judged by the quality of their heart and the good they attempt to leave in this world not by how much money is in their pockets. People are worth saving. Are you worth saving?
Introduction
The focus of my research was to find articles that portrayed inequality in the US. Inequality is all around us so as a whole I tried to link this issue with my groups overall topic of welfare. Far too many people in this country do not have any form of health care and Inequality is a huge factor in that. When you’re in poverty, living day to day you don’t have extra money to spend if you happen to get sick. You either pull through and make it or die. Not only is this reality completely unfair it’s just not the way this country was intended to be like. Are goal is to bring awareness of this important issue. My first article talks about African American inequality in the US. It also points out the ways in which inequality has worked throughout the US. Article 2 is a comprehensive Analysis of sex and race inequalities in unemployment Insurance benefits. Article 3 looks at methods of monitoring socioeconomic health disparities in the US. Article 4 is looking at the gender/poverty gap and what we can learn from other countries. Lastly 5 is about the black/white mortality gap in the 1960 and 2000.
“The New African American Inequality”
By: Michael Katz, Mark Stern, and Jamie Fader
Source: Journal of American History: June 2005 Vol. 92 Issue 1 pg. 75-108
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true%26db=aph%26AN=19324140%26site=ehost-live
The authors of this article discuss a different type of inequality that faces the African American of today. At the beginning 20th century African Americans across the board, faced discrimination in jobs, education and every day living. With Affirmative action and the social movements against discrimination African Americans gained betters jobs, guarantees of food, shelter, medical care and education. Black poverty was on the decline. The authors point out however that in spite of these changes that there is a general sense that racism is alive and well in the United States. There continues to be evidence of this in police racial profiling, more blacks living in poverty than whites, more blacks filling our prisons as just a few examples. This article had 5 goals ranging from looking at inequality throughout history and how it has worked in the United States to looking at the interesting shift in gender inequality between black men and women. Black women have made huge gains above black men in the areas of employment and education in the last half of the 20th century. The article discusses how education has aided the upward mobility of many blacks but also how the way our educational system is structured has also left many blacks behind in their ability to have access to it. The authors have broken down their research into looking at five different areas. They included:
“1. Participation: the share of African Americans who worked for pay
2. Distribution: the kinds of jobs they held
3. Rewards: the relative income they received
4. Differentiation: the variation among them on scales of occupation and earnings
5. Geography: where they lived”
The article was very interesting as it examines black men and how they have not been as fortunate as black women in terms of jobs and earning potential. Black men were hit much harder by the declining wages and weak labor market that has hit many American workers. The authors point out that the new African American inequality has left them divided among themselves. Too many are living in poverty and those who do have good jobs are often working for government agencies that are subject to political decisions and economic trends that may leave them unemployed. There is still 3 times the number of blacks living in poverty as whites and more whites finish college and hold property than blacks. Inequality may look a bit different than it did in the early 1900’s but is still lives on.
“A Comprehensive Analysis of Sex and Race Inequities in Unemployment Insurance Benefits”
By: Melissa Latimer, West Virginia University
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, December 2003, Vol XXX, Number 4
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true%26db=aph%26AN=12596424%26site=ehost-live
This study was conducted in West Virginia with the purpose of looking at the welfare system, and more specifically at Unemployment Compensation in a rural area of the country. Most of the research in this area has been conducted in urban areas and rural America has a different picture for us. The poverty rates in rural areas are substantially higher than urban areas. The study examines the factors of sex and race that result in inequities in unemployment insurance benefits. The type of job one holds determines ones chances of advancement, benefits, and income earning potential. The jobs available to workers today are shifting and the U.S. is losing the high-wage manufacturing jobs that have supported its workers in the past. There is a shift to increasing numbers of minimum wage, no benefits, service jobs. As a result more and more workers are losing their earning potential and the option to collect unemployment benefits should they lose their job. Women and people of color are the hardest hit by this shift. Latimer suggests that if one wants to look at how well the welfare system and specifically the unemployment insurance program is working it would make sense to look at it in a rural area where the most vulnerable workers can be found needing assistance. This article looks at the history of the unemployment benefits insurance and factors like minimum earnings and work time requirements that often determine one not eligible for benefits. Latimer states that 12% of the work force is employed in jobs not covered by unemployment compensation. The majority of those jobs are held my women, people of color and rural workers.
She also stated that she found that in the state of West Virginia only about 35% of the unemployed workers received unemployment insurance benefits. These individuals when faced with a loss of a job are left to depend on limited social assistance programs like food stamps, Medicaid and public housing. Women and people of color are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to their chances of getting unemployment insurance benefits.
“Painting a Truer Picture of US Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Health Inequalities: The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project:”
By: Nancy Kreiger, Ph.D, JarvisChen, ScD, Pamela Waterman, MPH, David Rehkopf, MPH, and S.V.Subramanian, Ph.D
American Journal of Public Health, February, 2005 Vol 95, No. 2
Link: http://library.cocc.edu:2150/ehost/detail?hid=113&sid=90cdb53b-2e7e-41ee-ba8c-411ad024f706%40sessionmgr105
This research study was done by a group that felt that the public health disparities and inequalities associated with race and socioeconomic were not well documented. This group of authors has designed a method that could be used yearly to monitor the socioeconomic health disparities in the U.S. using geocoded public health data and the current census tract of poverty data for each state. In 2008 there is going to be a new method by the American Community Survey that will release annual census track data based on 5 year averages. This will allow national, state and local communities to track the inequality and health implications more easily and could improve accountability in the area of improving the social disparities in health we now see. This group felt that there is not adequate data on the socioeconomic inequalities in health and how that contributes to racial and ethnic disparities in health as well. This study looked at 2 states, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the census track data for them from 1990. It looked at the health issues of childhood lead poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, TB, nonfatal weapons-related injuries and cancer incidence. Some of the results included that 90% of the white population lived in areas with fewer than 5% of persons living below poverty level, while more than half the black and Hispanic population lived in census track areas with over 20% or more of the persons living below poverty level. It was also found that in all health categories except breast and colon cancer, there was an increased risk of illness with living in the poor census track areas. The study found that more than 50% of the health cases would not have occurred if the cases had lived in above poverty census track areas instead. The article points out that the research findings point to the large extent that socioeconomic deprivation can adversely impact a population’s health from birth to death.
“The Gender-Poverty Gap: What We Can Learn From Other Countries”
By: Lynne M. Casper, Sara S. McLanahan, and Irwin Garfinkel
American Sociological Review, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Aug. 1994), pp 594-605
JStor
Link: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1224%2528199408%252959%253A4%253C594%253ATGGWWC%253E2.0.CO%253B2-I
The authors in this article have looked at 8 industrialized countries to examine gender differences in poverty. The purpose of this article was to provide information about gender inequality and how this information might be used to improve welfare state policy. It has been long agreed that American women are more likely to be poor than American men. In the article it states that in the United States women are 30% more likely to be poor than men or have a 1.30 gender-poverty gap ratio. One might assume that this is the case in other industrialized countries as well. This article points out that this is not the case. We learn that poverty is a family characteristic that will depend on the total income of the family and the ratio of dependents to earners. In looking at these factors the authors examined 6 demographic characteristics in all 8 countries. They included age, education, employment status, marital status, parental status and single parenthood. Gender differences in employment and parental status explain most of the gender-poverty ratio in the U.S. and you would think in other countries as well. It turns out that one has to also look at the political and religious differences of a country too. For example in Italy, family is everything and most people are married and have 2 parents providing care and support for children. Religion has an impact in keeping this countries ratio at close to 1. It was interesting to learn that the United States has the highest poverty rates of any of the countries in the study. In Italy and the Netherlands the poverty rate is equal for men and women and in Sweden the rate of poverty is higher for men than women. The authors suggest if women in the U.S. could gain the same employment status as men that the gender-poverty gap would be reduced by 70%. Other suggestions for improving the poverty ratio were to encourage men and women to marry and stay married and lastly to provide a generous welfare system like that found in the Netherlands to provide an income floor where no citizen would have to live below.
Article: What If We Were Equal? A Comparison Of The Black-White Mortality Gap In
1960 And 2000.
Authors: Satcher, David1Fryer Jr., George E.2McCann, Jessica3Troutman, Adewale4Woolf, Steven H.5Rust, George6 GRust@msm.edu
Source: Health Affairs; Mar/Apr2005, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p459-464, 6p
Link:
http://library.cocc.edu:2150/ehost/detail?hid=107&sid=e1a4ed9d-b0a0-4a49-a060-786433420f5d%40sessionmgr104
This article talks about the black/white mortality rates from 1960 to 2000. The article says that around 83,000 African American deaths each year could be prevented by closing the mortality gap. There have been a lot of improvements in decreasing the black/white gap in civil rights, housing and education but it still needs to come a lot further. The majority of these excess deaths come from health disparities. There are still a huge amount of people in this country without health coverage and many of these people happen to be black. What can be done to make people more aware of these excessive deaths among African Americans? If everyone was offered the same opportunities for health coverage some 80,000 people could be saved. Poverty and inequality is killing innocent people by the thousands. The article makes the point that people in poverty just don’t have the means necessary to survive.
Conclusion
Health coverage is just one of those things that everyone should have access too. We all deserve the right for treatment when we get sick. Everything in this society is based on money and power. People need to be judged by the quality of their heart and the good they attempt to leave in this world not by how much money is in their pockets. People are worth saving. Are you worth saving?
posted by WelfareAxiom at 2:37 PM
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