Global StratificationChapter 12

An OverviewThe Extent of PovertyModernization TheoryDependency Theory

High-Income Countries

• About three-fourths of the people in high-income countries live in or near cities. Production in rich nations is capital-intensive; that is, it is based on factories, big machinery, and advanced technology.

Middle-Income Countries

• Two-thirds of people live in cities, and industrial jobs are common. The remaining one-third of the people live in rural areas, where most are poor and lack access to schools, medical care, adequate housing, and even safe drinking water.

Low-Income Countries

• Low-income countries, where most people are very poor, are largely agrarian societies with some industry. Most of the sixty nations are in African and southern Asia. Low-income countries cover 28 percent of the planet’s land. Population density is high although it is greatest in Asian countries than in central African nations.

Severity of Poverty

• Poverty in poor countries is more severe than it is in rich countries.

Relative versus Absolute Poverty

• People living in rich countries generally focus on relative poverty, some people lack resources that others take for granted. Relative poverty cuts across every society, rich or poor.

• Absolute poverty, a lack of resources that is life threatening. Human beings in absolute poverty lack the nutrition necessary for health and long-term survival.

Extent of Poverty

• Poverty in poor countries is more extensive than it is in rich nations such as the United States.

• The typical adult in a rich nation, such as the U.S. consumes about 35,000 calories a day, an excess that contributes to obesity and related health problems. The typical adult in a low-income country not only does more physical labor but also consumes just 2,000 calories a day. The result is undernourishment: too little food or not enough of the right kinds of food.

Poverty and Children

• Organizations combating child poverty estimate that at least 100 million city children in poor countries beg, steal, sell sex, or work for drug gangs to provide income for their families.

• About 100 million of the world’s children leave their families altogether, sleeping and living on the streets as best they can.

Poverty and Women

• In rich societies, the work women do typically is unrecognized, undervalued, and underpaid. Women in poor countries work in sweatshops and factories that make much of the clothing and other products that is consumed in rich countries. Families depend on women’s income while at the same time, tradition bars many women from attending school and gives them primary responsibility for raising children and running the household.

Slavery

• Poor societies are vulnerable to many problems: hunger, illiteracy, warfare, and slavery. The buying and selling of slaves still takes place in Asia, the Middle East, and especially Africa.

• Chattel slavery- one person owns another.

• Child slavery- form of bondage. Desperately poor families make their children take to streets to fend for themselves.

• Debt bondage- the practice by which employers hold workers by paying them too little to cover their debts.

Correlates of Global Poverty

• 1. Technology.

• 2. Population growth.

• 3. Cultural patterns.

• 4. Social stratification.

• 5. Gender inequality.

• 6. Global power relationships.

Modernization Theory

• The entire world was poor several centuries ago; the Industrial Revolution brought affluence to high-income countries; as industrialization gradually transforms poor societies, all nations are likely to become more equal and alike.

• Primary Causes of Global Poverty

• Characteristics of poor societies cause their poverty, including lack of industrial technology, traditional cultural patterns that discourage innovation, and rapid population growth.

• Role of Rich Nations

• Rich countries can and do assist poor nations through population control programs, technology transfers that increase food production and stimulate industrial development and capital investment.

Dependency Theory

• Global parity was disrupted by colonialism, which made some countries rich while making others poor; barring radical change in the world capitalist system, rich nations will grow richer and poor nations will become poorer.

• Primary causes of Global Poverty

• Global economic relations—historical colonialism and now multinational corporations—have enriched high-income countries while making low-income nations economically dependent.

• Role of Rich Nations

• Rich nations have concentrated global resources, conferring advantages on themselves while generating massive foreign debt in low-income countries; rich nations impede the economic development of poor nations.