Download Unit 2: Global inequalities and quality of life

UNIT 2:
GLOBAL
INEQUALITIES
AND QUALIT Y OF
LIFE
WHAT IS QUALITY OF LIFE?
• Quality of life is the general well-being or happiness of a person or society, as measured by
meeting basic needs
• Poverty: having little or no money, possessions, or other resources to meet basic needs
• Equality: a condition in which all people are treated the same way, regardless of individual
differences
• Inequality: the lack of equality between people or groups of people
• Most Canadians have a very high quality of life. Most have safe drinking water, can afford to buy
food at grocery stores, attend public schools, and have access to health care.
• Some Canadians have a low quality of life. Over 800,00 Canadians use food banks annually.
HOW DO WE MEASURE QUALITY OF
LIFE?
• Indicator: a condition that can be observed or measured
• There are several indicators that help us measure quality of life
– Income ( a person’s salary). Income usually effects other indicators. For example, if you have a high salary,
you are able to afford more luxuries like sending your children to school and buying the latest Apple
product. Some people have an income and still need to use food banks because their income isn’t enough
to cover basic needs.
– Access to safe water
– Literacy rate
• Literacy is the ability to read and write
• Literacy is key to learning and communicating. If the majority of people in a community can read, they will also have
better nutrition and lower levels of infectious diseases.
QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS
• Access to education
– When students have access to education, they are more likely to have higher incomes when
graduating high school. This means they can contribute to their countries economy.
– Countries that do not have mandatory schooling, often have uneducated citizens which means that
citizens are less able to contribute and help the economy grow
• Life Expectancy
– The estimated average number of years that a person can be expected to live
– Overall healthcare is a big indicator of life expectancy- the better access you have to medicine, the
longer you live
COMPARING QUALITY OF LIFE
• Geographers use two things to measure quality of life:
– HDI: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
• The results of an annual evaluation of countries made by looking at life expectancy, literacy, and income
– GNI: GROSS NATIONAL INCOME
• The total, or gross, income of a country in one year, divided by the number of people
• When measuring inequalities, geographers use
– Inequality- adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)
• The results of an annual evaluation of countries made by looking at life expectancy, income, and literacy,
and how these are distributed among the population
WEALTH DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
COUNTRIES?
• Wealth: the total value of a countries resources, including material goods, natural resources
and human resources
• Economy: the system by which goods and services are produced, sold, and bought in a
country
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The total value produced in a country over the period of a
year
• GDP (per capita): the total value of everything produced in a country over the period of a
year divided by the number of citizens
• Global development: the improvement of the quality of life in countries around the world
by sustainably improving social, political, economic and environmental systems
• Economic development: the improvement of a country’s economy
GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS THAT AFFECT
WEALTH
• Natural resources
• Location
• Human resources
NATURAL RESOURCES
• Many countries develop their economy and increase their wealth by using their natural
resources
– For example, Canada has fresh water and lumber to help support the economy
– In Malaysia, there is fertile soil and a warm climate which means they can grow crops
• Countries that have plentiful natural resources have an advantage for economic growth
– The economic development helps to create jobs and boosts quality of life
– Having plentiful natural resources does not a guarantee that quality of life will follow
LOCATION
• Some places grow economically because of their location near useful geographic features such
as a natural harbor
• Some places have a good location because of where they are in relation to the rest of the
world
– Example: Singapore owes its economic success to its location on a sea route
HUMAN RESOURCES
• A country needs people to use and manage the resources it has
• Without the people who know how to harvest trees or mine gold and turn them into
industries, the resources themselves would not be valuable to us.
• Every country needs an educated population that can help it build, operate, and maintain
industries.
• Literacy rates are a rough indicator of a country’s human resources
– People with higher literacy rates can become skilled workers who develop business plans and help
the economy develop
– One of the first steps in economic development is improving literacy rates because people who are
skilled can work and contribute to the economy
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Economic activity: actions that involve producing, distributing, or consuming goods and services
• Examples of economic activity:
– Attending school: getting skills and knowledge that help you meet your needs and wants
– Working: paying taxes, spending money
– Going to a movie
– Buying lunch
• These things are all economic activities because they cost money. When you buy
something, you pay taxes, taxes help fund many essential needs of the country (like
paying your healthcare). The more people spend, the more they give back, the
wealthier the country is/could be.
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Traditional system:
– Most often seen in small isolated communities
– People are farmers, hunters, or fishermen
– People meet their needs through their own efforts (they may have their own crops or their own
animals)
– Examples: the Inuit of Canada, Fulani people of Nigeria, and the Saami of Northern Europe
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Command economy
– The government owns or controls all of the resources, goods, and services
– Citizens have little freedom to contribute to decisions that affect their country
– The government forces people to do as their told
– Examples: China, North Korea, and Cuba
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Market economy
– Producers and consumers make all the economic decisions
– Producers decide which goods and services to offer
– Consumers are free to decide how they spend their money
– The government does not interfere in business instead it provides only the services ensure the
economy can work effectively. They do not own and run industries
• Ex: providing national defense, road building, policing, and fire protection
– United States and Taiwan have market economies
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Mixed economy:
– Individuals and businesses are free to make decisions
– The government makes some decisions to encourage or regulate businesses to strike a balance
between protecting people’s quality of life and encouraging the economy without slowing it down
– Most countries including Canada and France have mixed economies
ECONOMIC SECTORS
ECONOMIC PATTERNS
HOW DOES GLOBAL TRADE AFFECT
QUALITY OF LIFE?
• Trade: the buying and selling of goods and services
• Global trade: trade among the countries in the world
• Globalization: the process of growing connections around the world
TRADE AND WEALTH
• Increasing trade increases wealth
– Ex: Phillipines has increased its wealth by selling call center services to the world
• When an industry is doing well, employees’ quality of life improves financially
• The more money an industry makes, the more money it can afford to pay it’s workers
• Outsourcing: employing people in a country with lower wages to provide goods or services
to people in a country with higher wages
– This creates more jobs for developing countries and less expensive goods and services; however it
takes away jobs from those in more developed countries
FAIR
TRADE
Three perspectives on fair trade:
• Fair trade is global trade in which producers in a developing
countries get a fair price for their products, workers are treated
ethically, and the environmental products are sustainable
POPULATION GROWTH AND QUALITY
OF LIFE
• The more people there are, the more mouths there are to feed, but also the more people
there are to contribute to the economy
• In some counties, the population growth creates a barrier to providing basic needs for its
citizens.
– A rapid population growth can cause a lack of access to education or proper housing
– It can also mean an increase in air or water pollution and public health issues
GOVERNMENTS AND QUALITY OF LIFE
• Corruption: dishonest and illegal actions taken by authorities in power
• Public Sector: the part of a country’s economy that is controlled by the government
• People depend on their government for many different things such as healthcare, access to
clean water, safe borders, etc…
• Citizens pay taxes to give all levels of government the money and ability to make decisions that
will improve and protect their quality of life
• In many countries, governments fail to do this successfully. Sometimes government officials put
their own needs above the needs of the people.
• Sometimes government fund or start wars or no do not provide adequate support during
times of conflict
CORRUPTION IN THE ECONOMY
• Corruption decreases quality of life and discourages positive economic activity
• The World Bank has estimated that $1.1Trillion dollars is spent worldwide on bribes, or illegal
payments, and favours every year.
• Many people (particularly in developing counties) have to pay bribes in order to start a new
business or pay the police to allow them to sell goods
• This affects people’s job opportunities and incomes which affects their quality of life
FOREIGN DEBT
• Foreign debt is the money that country owes to individuals, corporations, and governments in
other countries.
• Developing countries have large debts for reasons like this:
– Recovery from natural disasters
– Corrupt government spending
– Costs of war or post war rebuilding
– High interest rates ( a charge made for borrowing money) on loans
FOREIGN DEBT AND QUALITY OF LIFE
• When a country cannot pay its debt, it needs to borrow even more money
• The country then has no money left to spend on developing its economy or improving quality
of life
• In some countries, citizens indirectly contribute to foreign debt
– For example, in Greece peoples salaries were high, retirement age was low, and government services
were plentiful but many people and businesses avoided paying taxes which resulted in Greece having
to borrow more money to pay off its foreign debt. BY 2010, owed so much money that it could not
keep up with its payments and as a result had to cut jobs, salaries, services and raise retirement age.
– More than 1 million Greek citizens lost their healthcare coverage as a result
IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE
Look up these terms in your textbook and define them for the test:
Social justice
equity
Developmental aid
Humanitarian aid
Donor countries
Direct aid
Recipient countries
Indirect aid
Non governmental organization
Private sector