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CHAPTER 3
I. World Population
A.
Demographic Transition
1.
The Three Phases of Demographic Transition
Demographic transition is a theory that explains population change. It is a three-stage
pattern of population change that occurs as societies industrialize and urbanize (Weeks,
1996:77-80). It is a model that explains population dynamics of European / American
industrial societies.
a.
Phase One:
High birth and high death rates characterize the first phase of Demographic Transition.
Societies in the first phase then to be agrarian.
Death rates are high because of disease. Infant mortality rates are high.
Agrarian societies need a large labor forces who will work cheaply. Children are a readymade labor force.
Children also provide care for the elderly (their parents).
In order to ensure that there is ample labor, birth rates are very high.
Examples of nations that are in the first phase are Ethiopia and El Salvador.
b.
Phase Two:
Phase Two societies are entering the early stages of industrialization.
High birth rates continue to characterize the second phase of demographic transition, but
death rates drop.
Technology allows death rate to fall. Technology provides better sanitations, improved
medical care, and increased food production.
Birth rates remain high, in part, because birth rates are driven by cultural norms. As
societies industrialize, they experience a culture lag or sorts. Technology brings death
rates down quickly, but culture is slow to adjust. There may be several generations
where birth rates are high while death rates are low.
Nations that are in the second phase include most of today's Third World countries. Rapid
population growth characterizes this phase.
c.
Phase Three:
Societies in Phase Three of Demographic Transition tend to be industrialized and urban.
Low birth rates, low death rates, and a stable population characterize the third phase.
Societies may even begin to lose population in the absence of migration.
This phase includes most of Europe, Japan and The United States.
Parents are encouraged to keep families small, in part, because children become an
economic burden in advanced industrial societies. It costs a lot to raise children and the
economic necessities of having children diminish.
People are less dependent on their children as a personal labor force. Later in life, the
state provides for social security.
In order for population growth rates to be slowed in the developing world, a demographic
transition must occur. Birth rates must be reduced. This can be brought about, in part, by
offering family planning and effective methods of birth control. It also involves the
changing role of women.
2.
Demographic Transition: An Economic Explanation of Population Dynamics
Demographic Transition is a population theory that relates economic development to
patterns of population growth. The general position of Demographic Transition is that if
people feel economically secure, then the population growth will slow. In other words,
through industrialization, people obtain a better standard of living and a better standard of
living encourages smaller families. To pass the "good life" on to their children, parents
keep their families small. It makes sense! (Middle-class necessities, like a university
education, are expensive. Therefore, families with several children find it more difficult
to send all of their children to college.
For much of the industrial world, the demographic transition model may be a good
predictor of how populations in the world change. There are signs, however, that much of
the Third World is not following the industrialized nations into the final phase of
Demographic Transition. Some nations have gotten "stuck" in the second phase.
Countries that continue to experience high birth rates and low death rates might drop
back into the first phase that means that death rates will go up dramatically.
B.
Family Planning
Beginning in the 1960s, when the U.S. and the United Nations began funding family
planning programs in less developed countries, all of the following have happened.
There was a decline in the number of children born in less developed nations.
There was an increase in the number of women using contraception.
There was a decrease in the annual population growth
II. Poverty
A.
The Third World and Absolute Poverty
The worldwide inequality gap is demonstrated by all of the following facts.
People in the ten richest countries earned nine times as much per capita as those in the ten
poorest.
The top one-fifth of nations possess 86 percent of the world's GDP and 68 percent of
direct foreign investment.
The top one-fifth of the worlds peoples consume 86 percent of the worlds goods and
services while the poorest one-fifth consume about one percent.
1.
Third World vs. First-World
Is There a Third World?
Many have problems with the all-encompassing term 'third-world,' 'developing nations,'
or the 'periphery.' After all, countries link El Salvador, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone are
lumped into the same category. Obviously, these three countries share no cultural
characteristics and are physically far-removed from one another. One might suggest that
it's ridiculous to categorize these countries the same.
On the other hand, El Salvador, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone as well as a host of other
developing countries do share a common relationship to the advanced industrialized
countries of the world (the first-world, developed nations, or the core). Historically, the
common relationship was colonialism. More recently, old colonial affairs characterized
by military oppression have transformed into neocolonial relationships. At present,
military control has given way to a situation where rich countries control poor countries
through international markets. The core determines prices for commodities and uses the
poor countries as dumping grounds for hazardous waste (see Henslin, 1999:245).
2.
Absolute Poverty
In general, absolute poverty is a condition that exists when people do not have the means
to secure the most basic necessities of life (Kendall, 1998:31).
Conditions that threaten the developing world include the following:
Malnourishment results in low levels of energy
Vitamin deficiencies make people more susceptible to infectious diseases.
Protein deficiencies often leaves infants with permanent brain damage.
B. Food and Hunger
C.
Sickness and Disease
D.
The New Slavery
The new slavery includes the following. Women and children end up as bonded labor in
factories and sweatshops. Boys are frequently forced to work in coffee and cocoa
plantations. Girls end up as domestic workers or prostitutes.
E.
The Concentration of Misery in Cities
(also see "The Vultures of Cali")
III.
U.S. Relations with the Third World
Dependency Theory
Dependency theory is an approach to explaining global stratification that argues the lack
of industrial development in the least industrialized nations is caused by the industrialized
nations domination the world economy.
In fact, dependency theories argue that the poverty experienced by low-income countries
is the immediate consequence of their exploitation by wealthy countries on which they
are economically dependent (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:173).
Poor countries are "locked-in to a downward spiral of exploitation and poverty." Andre
Gunder Frank (1972) calls this the development of underdevelopment.
Dependency results when foreign businesses make important economic and political
decisions for their own advantage and without regard to the best interests of the local
population.
Except for a few local businessmen who serve the interests of foreign capital, the local
population becomes impoverished (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:173).
Dependency theories contend that power is central in enforcing unequal economic
arrangements. Local leaders opposed to inequitable economic arrangements are
suppressed. Unionization is outlawed. A popular government opposed to outside
influence can be overthrown by the military. Often the police and the military act, not for
the needs of the masses, but rather for the economic elite (Appelbaum & Chambliss,
1997:174).
A.
Colonialism
In 1914, 70% of the world's population lived in colonies.
Colonialism is the process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and
economic control and exploitation of other nations.
The colony has its labor and natural resources exploited by the more powerful nation.
Raw material and human labor was extracted for export.
The culture of the country is often seen as primitive and backwards by the colonizer.
Colonization severely distorted the social, cultural, and economic structures of poor
countries
Colonialism has made developing nations more dependent on the wealthy nations of the
world. Much of the poverty experienced in the developing world today is a result of
hundreds of years of colonial rule.
The wealth that was generated in colonies was held by a few local elites and by the
colonizing power. Little of the wealth remained in the colonized country to assist in local
development.
Local production is often for the export market, and does not benefit the local population.
Therefore, it is possible for a colonized country to produce abundant food while,
simultaneously, its citizens go hungry.
B.
Multinational Corporations and Neocolonialism
Traditional colonization was characterized by the direct rule of a foreign power which
often involved the use of the colonizers military.
Neocolonialism is carried out by corporate entities located in wealthy countries.
Multinational corporations locate in developing countries general seeking cheap labor.
The impact on poor countries of multinationals, however, is similar to that experienced
when developing countries were traditional colonies.
Multi-national corporations have access to the latest technology.
Multi-national corporations receive better terms than local companies when they borrow
money.
Multi-national corporations are tied to global banks through interlocking directorates and
shared ownership.
Poor countries are kept in a dependent status, in part, by the heavy debt carried by firstworld banks. Money that local countries desperately need for development instead is
spent servicing their debt.
The following contributes to the enormous advantage that global corporations have over
local competition when they move into an underdeveloped country:
1.
Arms Sales
Rather than spending resources of social services, poor countries often spend much of
their resources on military goods.
Previously independent self-governing political processes now include outside powers.
Natural resources are exploited to help pay off the debt incurred from spending on the
military.
Massive debt means less money for social services.
Other consequences of selling arms to the developing world include the following:
The political and cultural stability of a given region can be altered.
The recipient country could use its newly acquired arms for purposes other than defense.
Arms could even be used against the selling country.
2. Corporate Sales That Endanger Life
a.
Corporate Dumping
Eitzen (2003:73) describes corporate dumping as the exporting of goods that have been
banned or not approved (untested) for sale in the United States. Toxic waste is an
example. Generally, the market for these goods is found in the third world. These
countries do not bar the importation of banned substances. Further, their citizenry is
often illiterate and, therefore, unaware of the dangers.
C.
First World Foreign Assistance
Wealthy nations should provide aid to developing nations with the following provisions:
The aid should be used for truly humanitarian purposes.
The aid should reach the intended targets and not the well off elites.
Governments that receive the aid should have sensible and humane plans for using the
new resources.
Bibliography
Appelbaum, Richard P. and William J. Chambliss
1997 Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York: Longman.
Eitzen, D. Stanley and Maxine Baca-Zinn
2000 Social Problems. (8th Ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
2003 Social Problems. (9th Ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Eitzen, D. Stanley, Maxine Baca-Zinn, and Kelly Eitzen Smith
2009 Social Problems. (11th Ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Population Data Sheet
1985 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
1987 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
1988 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
1990 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
1993 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
1998 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
2000 "World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
Weeks, John R
1996 Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. (6th Ed.) Belmont: Wadsworth
Publishing Company
The conceptual origins of "Myths about Hunger" are found in a publication provided by
FOOD FIRST in an article entitled "Hunger Is Not a Myth, But Myths Keep Us From
Ending Hunger." Food First reminds us that between 400 million and a billion people do
not get enough to eat. Of those, twenty million will die. Most of those who die are
children.
Increased food production, advanced agricultural techniques, and billions of dollars in
foreign aid are not solving the problem of hunger. Part of the explanation is that foreign
aid is inevitably tied to existing "structures of misery" (Michael Harrington, 1984). By
becoming aware of the misconceptions associated with hunger, it is hoped that as a world
community we can come closer to addressing the true dynamics of hunger.
MYTH #1:
Scarcity - People are hungry because there is not enough food
Enough grain is grown worldwide to provide every man, woman, and child with 3500
calories per day, which is what the average North American consumes. Enough food is
grown in worldwide to provide everyone with an adequate diet.
Redistribution on a local level
A group called City Harvest in New York City in 1981 began a program to collect good
perishable food from the kitchens of the restaurants, hotels, caterers, corporations,
schools, universities and government food services for the purpose of giving it to the
poor. Since 1981, the City Harvest has opened another 203 programs. 122 are in the
U.S. and another 84 in the outside the U.S. Now 204 HARVEST programs pick up and
deliver free to soup kitchens and shelters enough food for an average of 700,000 meals
around the world a day.
Its director, Helen Palit, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 27
percent of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted. There is enough food suitable for
human consumption in every city to feed every hungry person in that city. Palit contends
that it is just a matter of logistics.
(Material provided by Helen Palit, May 24, 2004 by e-mail).
The one common denominator in every country where hunger is prevalent is that a few
powerful people wield an ever tightening control over food production, distribution, and
other economic resources. A United Nations study found that in eighty-three countries
worldwide, 3 percent of the population controls more than 80 percent of food production.
Redistributing control of food production would help to eliminate hunger.
MYTH #2:
Overpopulation - Hunger exists where there are too many people to feed
Population density by itself does not directly correspond to the prevalence of hunger.
Food First notes that Bolivia has six times as much land under cultivation (per person) as
China while 45 percent of Bolivia's people are hungry. China, on the other hand, has
eliminated widespread hunger.
There are obvious long term problems associated with rapid population growth, but rapid
population growth is not in its self a cause of hunger. Rapid population growth is a
symptom of poverty. Families who live in poverty give birth to several children to:
Ensure the survival of some children because infant mortality rates are high.
and because poor families depend on children to gather resources.
Overpopulation will cease to be a problem when poverty is no longer a problem.
MYTH #3: Increased Production - The solution to hunger is to use improved
technology to produce more food. Foreign aid facilitates this process.
Often efforts to increase food production have ended up increasing the prevalence of
hunger. Often increased production is financed by First-World countries. Foreign
assistance provided by the United States government is often distributed by AID (Agency
for International Development). Food produced via First-World financing is often
exported back to the core leaving the local population more hungry than before the aid
arrived in their country.
Agro-Exports and Central America
Business is so good in the agro-export sector that land that was once devoted to
producing food crops for the local population now grows crops that will reap the highest
price on the international market. El Salvadorans are among the most malnourished
people in the world even while the acreage of land under cultivation is increasing
(LaFeber, 1984:175).
Although fifty percent of AID's budget goes for agriculture, rural development, and
nutrition, AID does not do much to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. AID's
concentration in agriculture is designed to increase agricultural production in crops
destined for the U.S. and to increase consumption of U.S. technology and farm products
like fertilizer and pesticides. While local farmers grow, process, and package fresh
vegetables for export to more affluent countries that can afford the exports, local hunger
and poverty persist and actually increases (Barry et al., 1983:91). Although the aggregate
economy of the local government expands, the daily lives of individuals become more
desperate. This is a sad contradiction in U.S. policy toward Central America.
Foreign investment distorts the local economy in the following ways.
A.
Further Concentration of Wealth:
Foreign aid causes a further concentration of wealth in poor countries. Farmers who can
benefit from increased production use their profits to buy out poorer farmers or they
invest their profits in other sectors of the economy. Land, therefore, is further
concentrated in the hands of fewer people.
B.
Problems Associated with Advanced Technology:
High technology itself is a problem because machinery replaces human labor, thereby
creating more unemployment and more poverty.
C.
Inflation:
The influx of large amounts of money creates other economic problems, such as inflation,
thereby further exacerbating the existence of those who have to live at a subsistence
level. Inflation occurs when foreign money is used to buy farm implements. When extra
money is available to purchase certain items, the price of those items invariably goes up.
Money that may originally be intended to improve the immediate conditions of the poor
may create a situation where locals can no longer afford to buy necessary items.
MYTH #4:
Foreign Assistance is Designed to Alleviates Hunger
Of course, the assumption that foreign assistance is designed to help the poor, the hungry,
and the dispossessed is itself a myth. If the sole reason for foreign aid were to improve
the conditions of people living in developing countries, the goal should have already been
met in Central America. In 1982 alone, El Salvador received enough aid to triple the per
capita income of its one million poorest people (Barry et al., 1983: 243).
The main purpose of foreign aid has never been to help the world's starving masses or to
encourage the economic development of the Third-World in a manner that benefits the
majority of people who live there. Foreign aid is "an instrument of American national
security policy" (Nathan and Oliver, 1985:250). Foreign aid seeks markets for U.S.
investment and seeks to short circuit attempts to nationalize U.S. interests. U.S. foreign
aid also attempts to arrange treaties so that U.S. interests are further promoted (Barry et
al., 1983:83).
While speaking before the House Subcommittee of Foreign Operations, Clarence Long
sarcastically characterized U.S. foreign aid as a process that takes "money from the poor
in rich nations and gives it to the rich in poor nations" (Barry et al., 1983:111).
Often, U.S. foreign aid has decisively anti-humanitarian consequences. As First-World
demand for agricultural exports increase, the value of Third-World farm land also
increases. This action, in turn, increases the coercion experienced by Third-World
campesinos.
Unintended Consequences of Foreign Aid
LaFeber (1984:182) notes that in 1968, as U.S. investments were increasing in Central
America, the oligarchies began stealing land by simply stringing barbed wire around
tracts of land that they wanted. The peasants were then ordered off the land. As the
"campesinos" lose their land, the conditions for class warfare and revolution increase.
MYTH #5: Land Redistribution - Redistributing control over resources would mean
even less food production for the hungry because such redistribution would decrease the
efficiency of food production.
Three aspects of centralized ownership act to produce more hunger.
A.
Centralization Discourages Food Production
Anti-democratic systems of land tenure often leave large tracts of land unused. Food First
cites Brazil as an example where most Brazilian land is in the hands of a few owners. In
Brazil, only about 15 percent of arable land is under cultivation.
Profits Vs. Hunger: Guatemala, 1954
Most arable land in Central America is owned by monopolies that keep large tracts of
land unused to prevent their competitors from using it. In 1954, when Guatemalan
President Arbenz threatened to nationalize land belonging to multinationals, United Fruit
had only 139,000 acres of bananas planted on three million acres of land they controlled.
U.S. interests eventually overthrew Arbenz (the CIA and United Fruit). After the
American-sponsored Coup d'etat, United Fruit acknowledged that they held the unused
land in check so that its competition would not be able to use that land (LaFeber,
1984:118).
B.
Land Redistribution Encourages Production
Large scale producers grow less food per acre than do small scale producers. To survive,
small scale producers have to cultivate every available acre. Large scale producers, on the
other hand, can profit by keeping acreage out of production. Large scale enterprises have
significant impact on local economies because they tend to control most of a given
commodity. By drying up supplies in specific commodities, the monopolies can cause the
price per unit of specific commodities to rise.
When land ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few, returns from production are
seldom invested in making agriculture more productive. Instead, profits are invested in
other areas of the economy that can make even more profits for the landowners and
further concentrate power and resources.
Note:
While we encourage the use of all available acreage, we must also be aware of the
problems associated with over exploitation of the land. An example is found in the state
of Chihuahua, Chih.
MYTH #6: Rich vs. Poor - Providing assistance to hungry people in poor countries is a
threat to high standards of living enjoyed by those in rich countries
The terms "rich country" and "poor country" are not very meaningful when it comes to
describing hunger because all countries have hungry people. Furthermore, hunger is not a
Third-World issue. The United States has more than twenty million people who are
considered hungry while more than two billion pounds of government surplus food sit in
storage (Food First).
Similar economic conditions are in operation to cause hunger in all countries of the
world. In the U.S., and Third World countries, small and mid-size farmers are being
squeezed out of business because they are unable to compete with corporate farms.
More and more, the economy is a world-economy. Forces that affect poor people in the
U.S. are the same ones that affect people in Nicaragua or Southern Africa. When megacorporations move to Mexico to take advantage of "cheap" labor, poor Mexicans are
exploited and Americans lose jobs. The poor in foreign lands are not our enemy. They
should be our allies in a common effort to achieve secure and satisfying lives. As
corporations operate ever more on the world level, labor organizations as well must
encourage worker-unity on a world level.
MYTH #7:
Good Will - Everyone wants to end hunger
Corporations can benefit from hunger. Keeping land idle can create huge profits. When
supplies of a particular commodity are scarce, demand and, therefore, prices rise. While
land lies idle, those who are already poor are pushed further into poverty. High levels of
poverty and unemployment are good for profits. When many people are desperate for
work, none can demand decent wages.
Governments of countries that have many poor people also benefit from hunger. In some
poor countries in Africa, the government can pay as little as 20 percent of the market
price for crops.
Bibliography
Barry, Tom and Beth Wood, Deb Preusch, James Petras
1983 Dollars and Dictators: A Guide to Central America. New York: Grove Press.
Food First
"Hunger Is Not a Myth, But Myths Keep Us From Ending Hunger." Food First
Harrington, Michael
1984 The New American Poverty. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Hunger Action Forum
Hunger Action Forum, July 1988:1
LaFeber, Walter
1984 Inevitable Revolutions: The United States and Central America. New York: W. W.
Norton.