Daily Archives: May 1, 2022

Necessities during Covid-19

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During the Covid 19 virus outbreak, this left many families coping with insecurities such as food, income, and health. With many people losing their jobs due to the worldwide shutdown, this impacted the food insecurity issue. Without jobs there was not a constant income coming into families homes that they could use for necessities such as food. The impact of Covid 19 on food security has a common theme of different races being differently affected. As presented in the chart below, it depicts the food insecurities by race with a variable of whether the family had children or overall. As we can see, the black and hispanic race was much more affected by Covid 19 in relation to food security. This chart was found in a study on whether the families had thought about food in the last seven days. The black communities suffered from Covid 19 food insecurity most prominently as shown in the chart at 23%. Whereas the Asians and White race were suffering less but it also depicts how all races had been affected by food insecurities during Covid. As the United States recovers from the pandemic, society must intend to help the families in need whether that’s through governmental funding or radical changes such as access to food banks and pantries. Although food insecurities is a major suffrage of Covid, there are several other social justice issues that the American society is working toward. Charts like the one below can visually present the effects Covid has had, and there are many other charts for other social justice issues.

References:

https://econofact.org/who-does-not-have-enough-to-eat-in-america

Race Wealth Gap and Gentrification

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For this blag post I wanted to focus on something that I have previous knowledge about and that is in part to my Political Science background as a Union College student. Much of the focused in my classes has been on race segregation as well as housing political segregation among races. Gentrification, which is the forceful removal of residents out of their homes in Urban area is what I will discuss in this blog. Much of gentrification is based upon the the wage gap of race in the United States. Here is a graph depicting the wage gap between Black and White Americans..

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As you can see very clearly by this line chart, there is quite the disparity between the average wages between black and white families. Coinciding with this wage gap, is the demographic of people who live in inner city areas which is where gentrification is most prominent. It is on average that 30% of inner city populations is made up of Black citizens. While this is less than the white community, the population of African Americans in the United States is only 13%. Of black people, there is a greater percentage living in inner city, gentrified areas than there is the percentage of white people. Everything in the US’s economy works around the capitalist society that our country was built upon. African Americans make less money on average and are faced with more severe challenges in urban areas than the white urban population is facing.

 

The Superyacht Phenomenon

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The superyacht is a phenomenon that has emerged in recent times. While building large yachts became a trend in the early to mid 20th century, owning a superyacht hasn’t really been a trend up until now. As wealth disparities and class divides continues to grow, the rich grow from rich to super rich, allowing them to buy things like superyachts that they previously could not. The chart below shows the growing number of superyacht projects, and how the vast majority of these projects end up being motor style, a more commercial style accessible only to the super rich.

2020 Global Order Book

The most egregious example of this is Jeff Bezos’ custom superyacht, Y721, which he commissioned in 2018 for $500 million from the Dutch company Oceanco, and was recently completed. The specs on the superyacht illuminate the vast wealth Bezos has to throw away: “This support ship measures 246 feet in length and accommodates 45 additional crew and guests. It will also feature a helipad and meeting space and have a vast amount of storage for Bezos’s endless number of water toys, with diving and snorkeling gear, jet and water skis, waterslides, and surfboards among the bunch.”

The average superyacht costs $275 million. If we assume that out of the 619 motor superyachts were average superyachts, around $275 million each, then the cost of all those superyachts and Bezos’ would total $155,250,000,000. With that kind of money, the U.N.’s plan for Elon Musk to end world hunger could be completed almost 26 times. That cost could cover a little over 1/2 the lower estimate to end climate change, and that is only for the money spent on purchasing motor superyachts in 2020. Over 2 or even 3 years? The money would definitely cover the lowest estimate, and then some.

Just something to think about when we see reports of Leonardo DiCaprio, the U.N.’s “Messenger for Peace for Climate Change” riding around in a superyacht.

 

SOURCES:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciaadamczyk/2015/04/08/how-much-does-a-superyacht-really-cost/?sh=718973bf36bc

https://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-market-intelligence/luxury-yachts-on-order/2020-global-order-book–42403

https://www.mynewsdesk.com/us/brandessence/pressreleases/superyacht-market-statistics-2021-industry-analysis-3072167

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57079327

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.architecturaldigest.com%2Fstory%2Fbezos-mega-yacht

https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/cost-to-end-climate-change/

Fixing the Gender Gap

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For the most part, you could say that in America, equality is equally divided amongst men and women.  However, with doing some more thorough research, there are at least 2.5 billion women living in countries with at least one discriminatory law on the books.  Those laws in specific countries restrict women to make decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and child custody, along with making choices about acquiring a job or starting a business. Not only that but when it comes to abuse, 1 in 5 women have experienced physical or sexual abuse globally.  One of the bigger issues that needs to be talked about is the wage women make compared to men.  For example, even though the gender gap has improved drastically, 25% of women aged 25-34 are more likely to be impoverished compared to men globally.  In comparison to business and the environment, 73% of men hold management positions and 70% are climate negotiators.  I know in my personal experience, the people who are very passionate about the environment and climate change have been women.  I realize that women have a say in this topic, but the possibilities are endless when solving environmental issues if we have even more female voices heard.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/decomposition-of-the-gender-wage-gap-1980

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/hourly-earnings-male-vs-female

resources: https://www.un.org/en/un75/women_girls_closing_gender_gap

 

Food Insecurity in the U.S.

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The issue of food insecurity is one that is very prevalent in the United States.  Food insecurity, according to the USDA, can be defined in different ranges; either low food security or very low food insecurity. Low food security is when the quality or variety of one’s diet is undesirable, with not much, if any, reduced food intake.  Very low food security is different from low food security in that reports of reduced food intake are made as well as the issues that are seen in low food security.  Food is something that those who have never faced food insecurity often take for granted, however, for people who have faced it, it is a major issue, while affecting different groups of people in the United States disproportionately.  As seen in the graph below, 10.5 percent of U.S. households in 2020 were food insecure and, of these households, 6.6% had low food security and 3.9% had very low food security.

However, as I mentioned before, different households were more likely to have experienced food insecurity than others in the United States.  For instance, as seen in the graph below, rates of food insecurity were much higher in Black (21.7%)  and Hispanic (17.2%) households, showing how food insecurities disproportionately affect people of different races in the U.S.  Households helmed by a single woman with children were also much more likely to become food insecure, with 27.7% of them being food insecure.

Nutrition is a major factor into one’s health and those who are food insecure are less likely to have the nutrition one needs to live happy, healthy lives.  Until food insecurity for everyone is solved in the United States without the disparities in different groups as seen above, food security and insecurity will remain a major contributing factor to health problems for many in the U.S.

 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/key-statistics-graphics/

Social problems of a greater magnitude

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The social problems described in my classmates’ posts ranging from but not limited to food insecurity, US incarceration rates, and unequal access to education may be a symptom of an arguably widening and bigger issue in the US not unrelated to sustainability and social justice topics. According to a Pew Research study published in February ’22, since 2007 earnings for middling workers in the US have remained stagnant while in that same time frame the wealth of upper-income families has exploded by about $200,000 give or take measured in 2018 median dollars. Simply put income inequality in the US is widening and one hedge fund worker and now author Kathy O’Neil in her book Weapons of Math Destruction argues that as we progress into the information age technology can produce some potential negative externalities for low-income people one of them being an over-policing of low-income neighborhoods. This tendency increases the initial chance of people living in these communities ending up in jail for first-time offenses, but she also adds that the recidivism rate, that is the tendency to go back, increases too. Additionally, these are the same communities that often face food insecurity, unstable employment, and unequal access to education at least from a statistical standpoint and perhaps sometimes a very real standpoint in the aggregate. I think from this standpoint we can ask ourselves what types of opportunities does technology offer us middle-class folk that we can use to increase the overall value of our society from top to bottom(monetary, agriculturally, etc.), and what necessary but difficult changes must we adopt to prevent divisive ideologies from distracting from the main focus of our society’s goal to survive and thrive.

Housing Disparities Reveal Racial Discrimination

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Safe and affordable housing is a primary concern to almost every single person living in the United States.  However, there are many disparities in the current housing system in the United States that reveal deeper levels of racism and discrimination.  As the graphs below show, the financial status and net worth of different races are shown.  The important thing to understand is that while financial status is the here and now, net worth is even more important since that becomes generational wealth for the future.  Nationally, black households only earned 61 cents per $1 of white households.  This disparity significantly affects the ability to afford housing and this form of racism persists over generations.  A black family is 16 times more likely than white families to experience 3 generations of poverty.  Even when both races make similar poverty-level wages, white households have an average net worth of $18,000 in savings while black families have either no savings or negative.  These racial disparities all play into housing issues.  When the recession hit in 2008, black and hispanic families that were approved for loans were 2.4 times more likely to receive a subprime(loans for people deemed to have difficulty paying back a loan) than white families.  Income and net worth are massive factors pertaining to housing and the differences between races in these areas emphasize racial discrimination that heavily affects non-white households’ ability to own a home and secure money for themselves and future generations.

Works Cited:

https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/understanding-and-addressing-racial-and-ethnic-disparities-in-housing/

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/

 

 

The impact of food insecurities

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Social justice is fairness as it manifests in society. That includes fairness in healthcare, employment, housing, and more. Whilst some societies focus on maximizing social justice one of the major areas that they are lacking is the availability of food. “Food insecurities” as it is defined refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level. This article, Feeding America states that   “Hunger + Health explores the impact of food insecurity as a social determinant of health and its effect on individual and population health outcomes” This demonstrates that the availability of food impacts individuals in an unfair way, all of which include race, socioeconomic positions, along with the area that you live in. These factors contribute to the issue of how a lack of food can negatively impact a person’s life. Another article by Feeding America elaborates on the effects of hunger. Food insecurities can have a devastating effect on a child’s development. These effects include chronic illnesses such as  asthma,  anemia, and other behavioral problems. These  Behavioral problems include hyperactivity, anxiety, and aggression in school-age children. This is detrimental to both their mental and physical state and it is exemplary of the consequence of facing food insecurities,  economic challenges, and hunger.  This may contribute to secondary effects such as academic achievement and future economic prosperity. The Gw Hatchet publication has put out an article investigating the proportionality of food insecurities between white and non-white students on a college campus. With that being said, the data below demonstrates the correlation between race and food insecurities. “About half or more of nonwhite individuals face food insecurities while only 31 percent of white individuals face food insecirities. “ This evidence brings emphasis to racial and socioeconomic disparities that globally occur and create a disproportional availability of resources in low class communities compared to middle and high class communities.

References: