As far as inequality is concerned, South Africa is doing the worst amongst the BRICS. As shown by the graph below, the gini coefficient of South Africa was the highest. Comparing with India specifically; South Africa is at 0.67 in early 1990s and the gini coefficient has increased to almost 0.70, whereas India is at 0.37, leading to a 0.33 differences in the coefficient. However, while it is true that the gini coefficient of South Africa shows a higher value of inequality in India, the increase in India’s gini coefficient is more than South Africa’s. This means that inequality in India has increased more in the late 2000s since early 1990s than in South Africa, leading to people being worse off than before.
While economic growth in India has been significant, the living standards of people have yet to change as drastically. Growth in India has led to a rise in the inequality rate as discussed above. The major reason for this could be the fact that the highly productive areas, such as the tertiary sector has failed to create adequate level of employment. This is due to the low skill level of the people in India. Though India has an advantage of demographic dividend, it will yield results only when the young population has good health, necessary education and skills. Until India does not address this issue, the inequality will not decline. Another factor adding to inequality is the same to South Africa’s racial discrimination. In India a caste system prevails, that leads to inequality in income earned only due to the fact that a person is not located at the top of the caste system. A man in a lower caste may work more that a man in the higher caste but still earn less. So lack of skills and caste system hinders India from defeati...
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...27.1 million in 2006. Food line is the poverty line below which people can afford an adequate diet but would have to sacrifice food to purchase non-food items and the upper line is the poverty line marking the level at which people can purchase both adequate food and non-food items.
In terms of the lower poverty line i.e a line that is higher than the food line but lower than the upper line - 32.3% of the population, or around 16.3-million people, were living in poverty in 2011, which was a reduction from the 42.2% or 20-million people living in poverty in 2006. The effect of the global economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 was portrayed by the jump in the number of people living below food line, from 12.6 million people in 2006 to 15.8 million in 2009. However, this effect on South Africa’s poorest was alleviated by 2011, as it dropped to 10.2 million people by 2011.
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
Though the world economy as a whole has grown in recent years, a factor that is not taken into account is that the number “of the poor in the world has increased by 100 million” (Roy 3). In other words, the gap between rich and poor is widening. For India, this has startling implications. Though it is a nation that is developing in many ways, it also is a nation blessed with over one billion citizens, a population tally that continues to grow at a rapid rate. This population increase will greatly tax resources, which can create a setback in the development process. The tragedy, of course, is that the world is full of resources and wealth. In fact, Roy quotes a statistic showing that corporations, and not even just countries, represent 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world (Roy 3). For a country struggling to develop, such information is disheartening. However, there is also a more nefarious consequence of the growing disparity between rich and poor, and power and money being concentrated in the hands of multinational corporations: war is propagated in the name of resource acquisition, and corruption can reign as multinationals seek confederates in developing countries that will help companies drive through their plans, resulting in not only environmental destruction but also the subversion of democracy (Roy 3).
Another method of measuring inequality is through use of the Gini coefficient, it represents statistical dispersion of the income distribution of nations residents. The trends in Australia’s Gini coefficient are a fall from 0.329 in 2009-10 to 0.32 in 2011-12, thus illustrating a reduction in inequality due to tax cuts and increased welfare ...
What is the poverty line? Depending upon where you live, the definition of poverty can vary significantly. In the U.S., we tend to define poverty as not having enough money for life’s necessities such as food, clothing, shelter or medical needs. In other countries, poverty is much bigger than money. It is also about not having the physical means in which to better one’s life.
In America, you are considered to be in poverty if you have to grow your own food, or you have a job making minimum wage, or live on government assistance. The U.S. Census uses the same poverty thresholds throughout the U.S. without deference for geographic location, but they are updated for inflation using Consumer Price Index (Commerce). Wage increases have not kept up with the increases in the cost of living, Americans 65 and older had the largest increases in poverty under the revised formula, from 9.1 percent to 14.8 percent, mostly because of medical expenses such as increases in Medicare supplement premiums. Statistical evidence about poverty is a topic that tends to come up in discussions about economic hardship, yet the issue has all but disappeared from the legislative agenda as lawmakers focus on deficit reduction.
The most prevalent means of measuring poverty have been, and continue to be, bench marks related to money. Poverty lines are used to measure absolute and relative poverty in terms of incomes and affordability. Such measurements are relatively easy to make and quantify. However, lack of money is more a symptom of poverty rather than its cause. In most cases the poor are not without some income. What they lack is the ability to accumulate assets, which is a key ingredient to the creation of wealth and breaking the cycle of poverty (6).
People always say how they are so poor, but do they really know the meaning of being poor. People who live under the poverty line are the ones considered poor by the government. There are many people who suffer being in poverty. The Census Bureau’s articles says, “In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent. There were 46.7 million in poverty,” (“2014 Highlights”). The percentage might not seem like a lot, but those are just the ones below the poverty line. There are many people who suffer who are just above the line or going back and forth. Another 1.9 billion people live just above it and struggle to make ends meet. (Lusted) Some even live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is those who can’t even have water, food, housing, and clothing. (Lusted) As for anyone in poverty though, it decreases their lifespan as these people don’t have the money for proper healthcare and nutrition. For one person in the 48 states excluding Hawaii and Alaska, the poverty line is set at $11,770. As you add more people to the family, t...
What is inequality? “Social inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.” There is so much inequality in the world and so many different types of inequalities. Ignoring the fact that there is inequality in the world can be very dangerous. I feel like most people feel that they are being cheated and that there is some form of inequality going on. However, some people are either ignorant or uneducated and don’t understand how big the gap is between different groups in society.
Right now in the U.S. there are approximately 43.7 million people living below the poverty line. This is roughly 13.5 percent of the entire nation that can barely afford to live on a day to day basis. But why are these numbers so high? I believe there could be a number of factors that stem from economical and socioeconomical changes over the past few decades.
...an HDI of 0.36. These discrepancies in levels of development have led to an exodus of people, from less developed areas to the areas that have been benefitted by development. This situation seems to depict that predicted by the Dependency theory in which the developed countries progressed due to the exploitation of peripheral nations; the same seems to be happening in India. The states that are wealthier are exploiting the poorer states. It would be difficult to imagine India having the economic status that it now has, if it was not for the terrible working conditions and wages at which the Indians are willing to work and the massive work force available in the country. Now that India has seen economic growth the government should start taking care of its citizens by implementing policies that protect the labor rights of the workforce.
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Poverty is one of the greatest problems facing South Africa. South African families live in very unsatisfactory conditions. The South African government works hard to bring down the rate of poverty but it also seems to increase as they try.
What is apartheid? It strives from the African word, “separateness.” Apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. It goes back very far in the history of South Africa.
What is the poverty line? Well, according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, poverty is "lack of money or material possessions; poor." Two-thirds of the world's population fits this definition. I know that many times we think of being poor as not being able to buy the car we want or take the trip we can only dream about. However, being poor, living in poverty, hits a lot lower than that.
The main cause of poverty in South Africa is the lasting effects of apartheid. People didn’t get proper education and skills training during the apartheid era. As a result, most of them are unemployed because with the lack of proper education and skills, they can’t find jobs that will give them the means to a better life.