Utopia Talk / Politics / $2 Million Per Job Created = B+

Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 16:03:57 L.A.: $111M in Stimulus Saved Just 55 Jobs By William Lajeunesse Published September 17, 2010 | FoxNews.com More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles city controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations. "I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work." According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds -- in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation created even fewer jobs per dollar, spending $40 million but netting just nine jobs. Taxpayer cost per job: $4.4 million. Greuel blamed the dismal numbers on several factors: Aug. 13: Several thousand people protest demanding jobs outside City Hall in Los Angeles. 1. Bureaucratic red tape: Four highway projects did not even go out to bid until seven months after they were authorized. 2. Projects that were supposed to be competitively bid in the private sector went instead went to city workers. 3. Stimulus money was not properly tracked within departments 4. Both departments could not report the jobs created and retained in a timely fashion.. "I would say maybe in a grade, a B- in creating the jobs," Greuel told Fox News. "They have started to spend those dollars but it took seven months to get some of those contracts out. We think in the city that we should move quickly and not in the same usual bureaucratic ways." http://www...nted-city-used-stimulus-funds/
Troll Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 16:06:08 Employment From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about work. For the Kaiser Chiefs album, see Employment (album). This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since April 2010. Its factual accuracy is disputed. Tagged since April 2010. Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed." Black's Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ed. 1979). In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of generating a profit, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages. Employment also exists in the public, non-profit and household sectors. To the extent that employment or the economic equivalent is not universal, unemployment exists. Contents [hide] 1 Employer 2 Employee 2.1 Becoming an employee 2.2 Organizing 2.3 Ending employment 3 Employment contract 3.1 Australia 3.2 Canada 3.3 Pakistan 3.4 India 3.5 Philippines 3.6 United States 3.7 Sweden 4 Culture and social considerations 4.1 The Depression era 4.2 World War 2 4.3 Post World War 2 4.4 Babyboom competition 4.5 Baby bust and echo 5 Models of the employment relationship 6 Work as an economic component 6.1 Other "isms" 6.2 Value of labor 7 Alternatives 8 Globalization and employment relations 9 See also 10 References 11 External links [edit] Employer An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. There are federal rules which determine whether an employee can be classified as exempt or non exempt from over time. Once an employee has been properly classified as exempt or not exempt, an Employer may offer hourly wages or a salary. It is important to note that "salary" does not always mean "exempt from overtime requirements." A properly classified, as exempt, salaried employee is typically not paid more for more hours worked and employers may not deduct wages for items such as lack of work or because the employee worked less hours due to no fault of their own. Employees, that are not exempt, must be paid overtime. They are most often referred to as "hourly employees." The federal rule for overtime for all hourly employees is: Hourly employees that work more than 40 hours in a set and predetermined 24 hour and 7 consecutive day period must be paid 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours over 40. Under no circumstance may either the employer or employee waive the over time requirement. Additionally, many states have their own individual requirements about when and how over time is to be paid. In general, when there are both federal and state laws that apply to the same employment issue, such as Over Time, the law that treats the employee the best or with most favor, is the law that governs. Most employment in the U.S is what is known at AT Will. One state, Montana, is not At Will. For all other states, this means that either the employer or the employee may end the relationship "At Will" and with no notice. In the United States there are a growing body of rules, regulations, and laws which affect the AT Will relationship. Therefore, At Will for employers also means that they must not terminate or make an adverse employment decision based on an "unlawful reason." Employers include individuals hiring a babysitter to governments and businesses which may hire many thousands of employees. In most western societies, governments are the largest single employers but most of the work force is employed in small and medium businesses in the private sector. Although employees may contribute to an enterprise, the employer maintains control over the productive base of land and capital, and is the entity named in contracts. The employer typically maintains ownership of intellectual property created by an employee within the scope of employment and as a function thereof. These inventions or creations become the property of the employer based on a concept known as "works for hire". An employersâ?? relative level of power over employees is dependent upon numerous factors; the most influential being the nature of the employment relationship. The relationship employers share with employees is affected by three significant factors â?? interests, control and motivation. It is up to employers to effectively manage and balance these factors to ensure a harmonious and productive working relationship. Interests can be best described as monetary constraints and economic pressures placed on organizations in their pursuit of profits. It covers facets such as labour productivity, wages and the effect of financial markets on businesses. Wood et al. (2004, p 355) describe control as being either output focused, focusing on desired targets with managers defining, and using, their own methods for reaching targets, or process controls, which specify the manner in which tasks will be achieved (Ibid, p. 357). Employer and managerial control within an organization rests at many levels and has important implications for staff and productivity alike, with control forming the fundamental link between desired outcomes and actual processes. Employers must balance interests such as decreasing wage constraints with a maximization of labour productivity in order to achieve a profitable and productive employment relationship. Motivation is the third and most difficult of the factors for employers to effectively manage in the employment relationship . Employee motivation can often be in direct conflict with control mechanisms of employers, and can be broadly defined as that which energizes, directs and sustains human behaviour ( Stone, 2005, p 412). Dubin (1958, p 213) further elaborates on this, noting motivation as â??something that moves a person to action, and continues him in the course of action already initiated.â?? The employment relationship is thus a difficult challenge for employers to manage, as all three facets are often in direct competition with each other, with interests, control and motivation often clashing in the equally important quest for individual employee autonomy, employer command and control and ultimate profits. [edit] Employee An employee contributes labor and expertise to an endeavour. Employees perform the discrete activity of economic production. Of the three factors of production, employees usually provide the labor. Specifically, an employee is any person hired by an employer to do a specific "job". In most modern economies, the term employee refers to a specific defined relationship between an individual and a corporation, which differs from those of customer, or client. [edit] Becoming an employee Most individuals attain the status of employee after a job interview with a company. If the individual is determined to be a satisfactory fit for the position, he or she is given an official offer of employment within that company for a defined starting salary and position. This individual then has all the rights and privileges of an employee, which may include medical benefits and vacation days. The relationship between a corporation and its employees is usually handled through the human resources department, which handles the incorporation and onboarding of new hires, and the disbursement of any benefits which the employee may be entitled, or any grievances that employee may have. [edit] Organizing Employees can organize into trade unions or labor unions, who represent most of the available work force in a single organization. They utilize their representative power to collectively bargain with the management of companies in order to advance concerns and demands of their membership. [edit] Ending employment An offer of employment, however, does not guarantee employment for any length of time and each party may terminate the relationship at any time. This is referred to as at-will employment. In some professions it is customary to offer two weeks notice when resigning for a job, but that may not be legally enforceable.[1] [edit] Employment contract [edit] Australia In Australia there is the controversial Australian Workplace Agreement. In March 2008 a bill was passed in the Australian Senate that prevented new AWAs from being made, and set up provisions for workers to be transferred from AWAs into intermediate agreements [2] [edit] Canada In the Canadian province of Ontario, formal complaints can be brought to the Ministry of Labour (Ontario). In the province of Quebec, grievances can be filed with the Commission des normes du travail. [edit] Pakistan Pakistan has Contract Labour, Minimum Wage and Provident Funds Acts. Contract labour in Pakistan must be paid minimum wage and certain facilities are to be provided to labour. However, a lot of work has yet to be done to fully implement the Acts. [edit] India India has Contract Labour, Minimum Wage and Provident Funds Acts. Contract labour in India must be paid minimum wage and certain facilities are to be provided to labour. However, a lot of work has yet to be done to fully implement the Act.... [edit] Philippines In the Philippines, Private employment is regulated under the Labor Code of the Philippines by the Department of Labor and Employment. [edit] United States In the United States, the standard employment relationship is considered to be at-will meaning that the employer and employee are both free to terminate the employment at any time and for any cause, or for no cause at all. However, if a termination of employment[3] by the employer is deemed unjust by the employee, there can be legal recourse to challenge such a termination. Unjust termination may include termination due to discrimination because of an individual's race, national origin, sex or gender, pregnancy, age, physical or mental disability, religion, or military status. Additional protections apply in some states, for instance in California unjust termination reasons include marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation or medical condition. Despite whatever agreement an employer makes with an employee for the employee's wages, an employee is entitled to certain minimum wages set by the federal government. The states may set their own minimum wage that is higher than the federal government's to ensure a higher standard of living or living wage for their residents. Under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 an employer may not give different wages based on sex alone.[4] Employees are often contrasted with independent contractors, especially when there is dispute as to the worker's entitlement to have matching taxes paid, workers compensation, and unemployment insurance benefits. However, in September 2009, the court case of Brown v. J. Kaz, Inc. ruled that independent contractors are regarded as employees for the purpose of discrimination laws if they work for the employer on a regular basis, and said employer directs the time, place, and manner of employment.[5] In non-union work environments, in the United States, unjust termination complaints can be brought to the United States Department of Labor. Trade Unions in the United States In unionized work environments in particular, employees who are receiving discipline, up to and including termination of employment can ask for assistance by their shop steward to advocate on behalf of the employee. If an informal negotiation between the shop steward and the company does not resolve the issue, the shop steward may file a grievance, which can result in a resolution within the company, or mediation or arbitration, which are typically funded equally both by the union and the company. [edit] Sweden According to Swedish law there are three types of employments. Test employment. The employer hires a person for a test period of max 6 months. The employment can be ended at any time without giving any reason. This type of employment can be offered only once per employer and employee. Usually a time limited or normal employment is offered after a test employment. Time limited employment. The employer hires a person for a specified time. Usually they are extended for a new period. Normal employment, which has no time limit (except for retirement etc.). There are no laws about minimum salary in Sweden. Instead there are agreements between employer organisations and trade unions about minimum salaries, and other employment conditions. [edit] Culture and social considerations Ideological shifts in demographic eras: This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2010) [edit] The Depression era The Depression placed great emphasis on work when it was so scarce that to not work literally meant to starve. Families were separated as men went looking for work wherever it could be found, whatever it was, no matter how menial. Life expectancy in the 1930s was also not as long as the current (2008) expectancies, so the option for a family to "move back in with parents" wasn't worthwhile, as parents either weren't alive, or didn't have the investment environment to have had a "nest egg" to depend on. [edit] World War 2 World War 2 dramatically flipped the supply and demand of both work and labour. Manufacturing of war supplies created plenty of work, but the absence of men due to recruitment opened the floodgates for labour demand that would be met by women and those who could not enlist and fight. [edit] Post World War 2 In the post-World War 2 period, the workplace had changed as women who had reported for work during the war to replace the men who had gone overseas to fight remained in the workplace to a significant extent. While the demand for manufacturing wasn't as high once the war ended, the new optimism and new social phenomena including urban sprawl created new demands for supply that would create new jobs in road-building, real estate development, etc. Work remained high in social value. [edit] Babyboom competition As the baby boomers left school and started working in the 1970s, the oil crisis and economic lag slowed their engagement in consumerism. As the 1980s dawned, the largest generation were now in their peak employment years, peaking in terms of income, and were now fully engaged in buying, whether homes, or vehicles, or investments for the future. The sheer number of people in the workforce during this period created heightened competition for work, so that corporations who supplied jobs could be increasingly selective and demanding, and workers would do more and more to keep the job they had. As such, commitment to work became sacrificial, as having a good job and the social status it provided became all-consuming for many. This was the era marked most significantly by the standard introduction of "so, what do you do?" [edit] Baby bust and echo The baby bust generation, or Generation X, is the smallest of the last 50 years. As baby boomers retire, there is not as much supply of workers to replace them, so corporations have had to become more accommodating in order to attract the best from this cohort, who have enjoyed less competition and more flexibility than previous generations. Terms like "work life balance", "telecommuting and work from home" and flexible benefits packages have developed in part to offer more attractive options for a generation that has more choice[citation needed]. [edit] Models of the employment relationship Scholars conceptualize the employment relationship in various ways.[6] A key assumption is the extent to which the employment relationship necessarily includes conflicts of interests between employers and employees, and the form of such conflicts.[7] In economic theorizing, the labor market mediates all such conflicts such that employers and employees who enter into an employment relationship are assumed to find this arrangement in their own self-interest. In human resource management theorizing, employers and employees are assumed to have shared interests (or a unity of interests, hence the label â??unitarismâ??). Any conflicts that exist are seen as a manifestation of poor human resource management policies or interpersonal clashes such as personality conflicts, both of which can and should be managed away. From the perspective of pluralist industrial relations, the employment relationship is characterized by a plurality of stakeholders with legitimate interests (hence the label â??pluralism), and some conflicts of interests are seen as inherent in the employment relationship (e.g., wages v. profits). Lastly, the critical paradigm emphasizes antagonistic conflicts of interests between various groups (e.g., the competing capitalist and working classes in a Marxist framework) that are part of a deeper social conflict of unequal power relations. As a result, there are four common models of employment:[8] Mainstream economics: employment is seen as a mutually advantageous transaction in a free market between self-interested legal and economic equals Human resource management (unitarism): employment is a long-term partnership of employees and employers with common interests Pluralist industrial relations: employment is a bargained exchange between stakeholders with some common and some competing economic interests and unequal bargaining power due to imperfect labor markets Critical industrial relations: employment is an unequal power relation between competing groups that is embedded in and inseparable from systemic inequalities throughout the socio-politico-economic system. These models are important because they help reveal why individuals hold differing perspectives on human resource management policies, labor unions, and employment regulation.[9] For example, human resource management policies are seen as dictated by the market in the first view, as essential mechanisms for aligning the interests of employees and employers and thereby creating profitable companies in the second view, as insufficient for looking out for workersâ?? interests in the third view, and as manipulative managerial tools for shaping the ideology and structure of the workplace in the fourth view.[10] [edit] Work as an economic component Capitalism demarcates "work" as something that is supplied by "owners" and demanded by "non owners" to a great degree. In this viewpoint, the risk associated with owning and operating a business is seen as fairly rewarding the risk-taker with the lion's share of profits, even though in reality the lion's share of the "work" to provide the good or service is provided at the worker level. Unsafe and unfair work conditions and a lack of profit-share are among the key factors that contributed to the establishment of unions. Unions The purpose of a union is a written contract between the employer and the employee, specifying the rights and duties of each. Prior to the existence of unions, very few labor contracts existed, allowing the employer to re-define the job any time, occasionally to the detriment of the employee. In the purest sense, a union leverages the collective strength of a group of workers to force owners and management to increase their compensation. Opponents of capitalism Opponents of capitalism, such as Marxists oppose the capitalist employment system, considering it to be unfair that the people who contribute the majority of work to an organization, regardless of their level of financial risk, do not receive a proportionate share of the profit and that full employment is rarely reached under capitalism. [edit] Other "isms" Marxist communism reorders the hierarchy to suggest that all citizens of a society, regardless of individual differences, are equal owners and are thus entitled to equal share of the wealth of the society. [edit] Value of labor The value of work is also informed by the economic system in which it functions. Capitalism allows, or purports to allow, the marketplace to determine the value of a good or service based on demand, rather than impose a value on a good or service. In a communistic environment, the state determines the value a job may have, and may also open or close avenues to those jobs, creating less of a sense of freedom as to who may occupy those jobs. Socio-psychological concepts of freedom, self-actualization, motivation and aspiration are thus tested in a society where a person is not taught "you can do whatever you want", or "you don't have to work hard to get by okay". The capitalist system suggests that success is unlimited or directly proportional to how much an individual wants to work at it, while opponents of communism suggest that imposing value takes away the motivation for someone to be better at their job than the next guy who isn't working as hard but the value in what they do is fixed regardless of performance. While the debate rages, and different countries subscribe to and build their society on different approaches, clearly "work" plays a great role in the definition of a society and the culture of government that will be in place to administer its functioning. The Surrealists and the Situationists were among the few groups to actually oppose work, and during the partially surrealist-influenced events of May 1968 the walls of the Sorbonne were covered with anti-work graffiti. Bob Black is an anarchist author who is well known for exploring the ideas of opposition to work in the essay The Abolition of Work, published in 1985. [edit] Alternatives A developing model of employment, as practiced by such companies as Semco, Google, DaVita, Freys Hotels and Linden Labs, seeks to set aside the "master-servant relationship" implicit in the traditional employment contract. The concommitant employment practices are often grouped under the heading Workplace democracy, and are characterised by high levels of employee engagement; principles-based rather than rules-based work relations; and a problem-solving approach to workplace conflict. In this model management (including its employment function) effectively becomes a domain shared between managers and staff. The resurgent New Unionism movement promotes this employment model, and seeks to extend it. When an individual entirely owns the business for which he or she labours, this is known as self-employment. Self-employment often leads to incorporation. Incorporation offers certain protections of one's personal assets. Laws of incorporation vary from state to state with Delaware having the most incorporated businesses of any state in the U.S. Workers who are not paid wages, such as volunteers, are generally not considered as being employed. One exception to this is an internship, an employment situation in which the worker receives training or experience (and possibly college credit) as the chief form of compensation. Those who work under obligation for the purpose of fulfilling a debt, such as an indentured servant, or as property of the person or entity they work for, such as a slave, do not receive pay for their services and are not considered employed. Some historians suggest that slavery is older than employment, but both arrangements have existed for all recorded history. [edit] Globalization and employment relations The balance of economic efficiency and social equity is the ultimate debate in the field of employment relations.[11] By meeting the needs of the employer; generating profits to establish and maintain economic efficiency; whilst maintaining a balance with the employee and creating social equity that benefits the worker so that he/she can fund and enjoy healthy living; proves to be a continuous revolving issue in westernized societies. Globalization has effected these issues by creating certain economic factors that disallow or allow various employment issues. Economist Edward Lee (1996) studies the effects of globalization and summarizes the four major points of concern that affect employment relations: International competition, from the newly industrialized countries, will cause unemployment growth and increased wage disparity for unskilled workers in industrialized countries. Imports from low-wage countries exert pressure on the manufacturing sector in industrialized countries and foreign direct investment (FDI) is attracted away from the industrialized nations, towards low-waged countries. Economic liberalization will result in unemployment and wage inequality in developing countries. This happens as job losses in un-competitive industries outstrip job opportunities in new industries. Workers will be forced to accept worsening wages and conditions, as a global labour market results in a â??race to the bottomâ??. Increased international competition creates a pressure to reduce the wages and conditions of workers. Globalization reduces the autonomy of the nation state. Capital is increasingly mobile and the ability of the state to regulate economic activity is reduced. What also results from Leeâ??s (1996) findings is that in industrialized countries an average of almost 70 per cent of workers are employed in the service sector, most of which consists of non-tradable activities. As a result, workers are forced to become more skilled and develop sought after trades, or find other means of survival. Ultimately this is a result of changes and trends of employment, an evolving workforce, and globalization that is represented by a more skilled and increasing highly diverse labour force, that are growing in non standard forms of employment (Markey, R. et al. 2006). [edit] See also Basic income Colin Clark's Sector Model Dangerous jobs Employer branding Employment gap Employment rate Employment Research Institute Employment website Equal Opportunity Employment Full Employment Industrial relations Job analysis Job fair Jobless recovery Job (role) Labour economics Labour market Labour power New unionism Occupational illness Payrolling Personnel selection Recruitment Reserve army of labour Termination of employment UK agency worker law Underinvestment employment relationship Unemployment Wage labour Wage slavery Work-life balance Workplace jargon Workplace spirituality [edit] References ^ Resignation Two Weeks Notice ^ House of Reps seals 'death' of WorkChoices - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) ^ "Employment". http://careerfield.org/blog/2010/08/23/employment/. ^ "Equal Pay Act of 1963 - Wage Discrimination". http://www.finduslaw.com/equal_pay_act_of_1963_epa_29_u_s_code_chapter_8_206_d. ^ "Brown v. J. Kaz, Inc., No. 08-2713 (3d Cir. Sept. 11, 2009)". http://www.mmmglawblog.com/tp-080318191354/post-090911112117.shtml. Retrieved 2010-01-23. ^ Kaufman, Bruce E. (2004) Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship, Industrial Relations Research Association. ^ Fox, Alan (1974) Beyond Contract: Work, Power and Trust Relations, Farber and Farber. ^ Budd, John W. and Bhave, Devasheesh (2008) "Values, Ideologies, and Frames of Reference in Industrial Relations," in Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, Sage. ^ Befort, Stephen F. and Budd, John W. (2009) Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives: Bringing Workplace Law and Public Policy Into Focus, Stanford University Press. ^ Budd, John W. and Bhave, Devasheesh (2010) "The Employment Relationship," in Sage Handbook of Handbook of Human Resource Management, Sage. ^ Budd, John W. (2004) Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice, Cornell University Press. This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009) Lee, E. (1996), "Globalization and employment", International Labour Review, Vol. 135 No.5, pp. 485â??98. Raymond Markey, Ann Hodgkinson, Jo Kowalczyk (2002), â??Gender, part-time employment and employee participation in Australian workplacesâ?? Employee Relations, Vol. 24 Iss. 2 Pp. 129 â?? 150 Wood, J, Wallace, J, Zeffane, R, CHampan, J, Fromholtz, M, Morrison V( 2004), Organisational Behaviour:A global perspective, 3rd edition, John Wiley and Sons, QLD, Australia.p 355-357. Stone, R, (2005), Human Resource Management, 5th edition, John Wiley and Sons, QLD Australia.p 412-414 Dubin, R, ( 1958) The World Of Work: Industrial Society and Human Relations, Prentice â?? Hall, Englewood Cliff, NJ, p 213 Freeman, Richard B. and Daniel L. Goroff (2009). Science and Engineering Careers in the United States: An Analysis of Markets and Employment. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226261898. [edit] External links Look up employee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Employment Look up employment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. International guidelines and resolutions on employment related concepts Labor and Employment from UCB Libraries GovPubs NBER, Science and Engineering Workforce Project Recession Ups Character Disorder in Bosses UK gov Local Business Link United States Federal Employment Laws US Department of Labor [hide]v â?¢ d â?¢ eEmployment Classifications Casual/Contingent â?¢ Full-time â?¢ Part-time â?¢ Self-employed/Independent contractor â?¢ Temporary â?¢ Wage labour Hiring Employment counsellor â?¢ Application â?¢ Background Check â?¢ Cover letter â?¢ Drug testing â?¢ Contract â?¢ Interview â?¢ Job hunting â?¢ Job fraud â?¢ Probation â?¢ Referral â?¢ Recruiter (Employment agency â?¢ Executive search) â?¢ Résumé/Curriculum Vitæ (CV) â?¢ Work-at-home scheme Roles Internship â?¢ Job â?¢ Numerary â?¢ Permanent â?¢ Permatemp â?¢ Supernumerary â?¢ Supervisor â?¢ Volunteer Attendance Break â?¢ Career break â?¢ Furlough â?¢ Gap year â?¢ Leave of absence â?¢ Long service leave â?¢ No call, no show â?¢ Sabbatical â?¢ Sick leave Schedules 35-hour workweek â?¢ Eight-hour day â?¢ Flextime plan â?¢ Four-day week â?¢ Overtime â?¢ Retroactive overtime â?¢ Shift work â?¢ Telecommuting â?¢ Workweek â?¢ Working time Wages Living wage â?¢ Maximum wage â?¢ Minimum wage (Canada, USA, Hong Kong) â?¢ Overtime rate â?¢ Paid time off â?¢ Performance-related pay â?¢ Salary â?¢ Salary cap â?¢ Working poor Benefits Annual leave â?¢ Sick leave â?¢ Parental leave â?¢ Health insurance â?¢ Life insurance â?¢ Disability insurance â?¢ Take-home vehicle Health & safety Ergonomics â?¢ Industrial injury â?¢ Occupational disease â?¢ Occupational exposure limit â?¢ Occupational health psychology â?¢ Sick building syndrome â?¢ Work accident (Occupational fatality) â?¢ Workplace noise â?¢ Workplace stress â?¢ Workplace wellness â?¢ Work-life balance â?¢ Workers' compensation Equality Affirmative action â?¢ Equal pay for women Infractions Employee handbook â?¢ Evaluation â?¢ Labour law â?¢ Sexual harassment â?¢ Sleeping while on duty â?¢ Workplace bullying â?¢ Workplace surveillance Willingness Anti-work â?¢ Job satisfaction â?¢ Refusal of work â?¢ Workaholic â?¢ Work aversion â?¢ Work ethic â?¢ Wage slavery Termination At-will employment â?¢ Constructive dismissal â?¢ Dismissal â?¢ Layoff â?¢ Letter of resignation â?¢ Resignation â?¢ Retirement â?¢ Severance package â?¢ Types of unemployment â?¢ Unemployment â?¢ Unemployment benefits â?¢ Wrongful dismissal Miscellaneous Dead end job â?¢ Overqualification â?¢ Recession-proof job â?¢ Underemployment â?¢ Unemployment rates
Troll Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 16:08:46 The recession drove the number of poor Americans in 2009 to its highest total in half a century, yet several measures indicate the impact could well have been worse. While the Census Bureau's report Thursday on the economic conditions of U.S. households found that 3.8 million more people lived in poverty last year than in 2008, the agency and advocates for the poor say millions of others were sustained with the help of government programs. Advocates cite federal stimulus initiatives aimed at low-income earners and the extension of unemployment benefits, which alone are credited with helping keep 3.3 million people out of poverty. Social Aid, Economic Stimulus Advocacy groups say the results provide a strong argument for continuing these programs not only as social aid but as a proven method for stimulating the economy. "The thing about these programs is that they target low-income people, and that money goes back into the economy because they are most likely to spend whatever extra money they get," says LaDonna Pavetti of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "And history shows that poverty levels don't go down until unemployment levels go down. So the worst thing that can happen is to end these programs before we're done needing them." The findings carry political implications for the Nov. 2 congressional elections, which are expected to be a referendum on such economic policies pushed through by President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Gaining momentum from voters frustrated about the economy, Republicans have staked their Election Day ambitions on attacking the Democrats' deficit spending. As part of its counterstrategy, the White House followed the Census Bureau report with a statement claiming credit for helping to mitigate poverty rates. "The data released today also remind us that a historic recession does not have to translate into historic increases in family economic insecurity," Obama said in the statement. "Because of the Recovery Act and many other programs providing tax relief and income support to a majority of working families â?? and especially those most in need â?? millions of Americans were kept out of poverty last year." 'The Wrong Direction' Fiscal conservatives say Obama has simply continued costly social aid programs that haven't solved the problem. "Welfare spending is 13 times bigger than when the war on poverty began, in the 1960s," says Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation. "Aid to the poor is now the third most expensive government function, and yet we're seeing plans to spend $10.3 trillion over next 10 years. And yet seeing the indicators that poverty continues to go in the wrong direction." A study released Thursday by the foundation blamed poverty on an increase in single-parent households and entitlement programs that prioritize benefits for unwed parents. The report advocates reducing "anti-marriage penalties" among other initiatives to, as Marshall says, "restore the culture of marriage." The Recovery Act contained a raft of initiatives aimed at low-income earners such as child tax credits, increased food stamp benefits and emergency block grants issued to states that have helped create about 250,000 subsidized jobs. Advocates are urging the Senate to extend the block grants before they expire on Sept. 30. NPR Interactive Map: Poverty Rate By State Unemployment Benefits Helped The larger impact on curbing the growth of poverty came from Congress' decision to extend emergency funding to help states continue paying unemployment insurance benefits. Heavy job losses in dozens of states had depleted unemployment insurance funds by early last year. Unemployment insurance was more effective against poverty than in past years because Congress improved benefits for the longer-term jobless and approved the $25 weekly increase in jobless benefits temporarily granted by the Recovery Act. Still, the Census Bureau report revealed the broadly harsh impact of last year's downturn. More than 43.6 million people were impoverished in 2009 â?? or roughly 1 in every 7 â?? a 1 percent increase from the year earlier and the largest number recorded in 51 years. The 14.3 percent poverty rate is the highest since 1994 and the third consecutive annual increase. Poverty rates increased among all racial and ethnic groups, except Asians, across all family structures and all geographic regions except in the Northeast. In addition, the number of uninsured rose. Given the soaring unemployment rates over the past 16 or so months, most analysts projected poverty rates as high as 15 percent. Many of them also had forecast a decline in median household income, but the Census Bureau said it remained statistically flat, at $49,777. Moving Back Home The report also notes a large increase of people who coped with misfortune by bunking with relatives, or "doubling up." For these households, the poverty rate was 17 percent, but it doesn't capture the dire financial conditions of individuals who moved in with family members to save money. "If you counted the people who moved in â?? who needed the help â?? their own poverty level would have been 44.2 percent," said Timothy M. Smeeding, director of the Institute for Poverty Research at the University of Wisconsin. Smeeding found a particularly dramatic increase in poverty among people ages 25 to 34 who moved in with parents or other relatives. "For those households," he says, "the poverty rate was 8.5 percent. But if young adults' income is taken separately, their poverty rate would have been 42.8 percent. That's an important group."
The Children Member	Fri Sep 17 16:10:47 rofl. Do you now see how inefficient and corrupt your country is. Trying to place the blame on China again? Haha, what a joke. 111 million couldnt save 55 jobs. Haha. Round these highschool dropouts one by one and let them clean the streets for 7 hours a day at 50% minimum wage. Problem solved, dumbasses.
Adolf Hitler Member	Fri Sep 17 16:11:46 Troll rod, that post was interesting. Got anymore info like that?
Rugian Member	Fri Sep 17 16:15:13 "$2 Million Per Job Created = B+" I'm even more opposed to the stimulus packages than Hot Rod is, but this a stupid statistic. If you use that money on a $200 million project to upgrade some infrastructure that desperately needed it, and the contracted construction companies hire 100 new people in addition to the employees they already have to work on the project, then from a "jobs created" perspective the stimulus funding was a waste, but from an infrastructure perspective the money was well spent.
Troll Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 16:17:43 Sure I have more information to post here to start dialogue that I will not participate. I don't want to debate, I'm just posting information, this does not mean I am posting my opinion that is a given right to me that you cannot deny like some of you foreign liberals do! Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them.[1][2] This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages. About 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty; before the industrial revolution, poverty had mostly been the norm.[3][4] Poverty reduction has historically been a result of economic growth as increased levels of production, such as modern industrial technology, made more wealth available for those who were otherwise too poor to afford them.[4][5] Also, investments in modernizing agriculture and increasing yields is considered the core of the antipoverty effort, given three-quarters of the world's poor are rural farmers.[6][7] Today, continued economic development is constrained by the lack of economic freedoms[citation needed]. Economic liberalization includes extending property rights, especially to land, to the poor, and making financial services, notably savings, accessible.[8][9][10] Inefficient institutions, corruption and political instability can also discourage investment. Aid and government support in health, education and infrastructure helps growth by increasing human and physical capital.[4] Contents [hide] 1 Causes 1.1 Scarcity of basic needs 1.2 Barriers to opportunities 2 Effects of poverty 2.1 Health 2.2 Education 2.3 Housing 2.4 Violence 2.5 Drug abuse 3 Poverty reduction 3.1 Economic liberalization 3.2 Capital, infrastructure and technology 3.3 Aid 3.4 Good institutions 3.5 Empowering women 4 Demographics 4.1 Absolute poverty 4.2 Relative poverty 4.3 Other aspects 4.4 Voluntary poverty 5 See also 5.1 Organizations and campaigns 5.2 In documentary photography and film 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links [edit] Causes [edit] Scarcity of basic needs Hardwood surgical tables are commonplace in rural Nigerian clinics.Before the industrial revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economies produced little, making wealth scarce.[3] In Antwerp and Lyon, two of the largest cities in western Europe, by 1600 three-quarters of the total population were too poor to pay taxes.[11] In 18th century England, half the population was at least occasionally dependent on charity for subsistence.[12] In modern times, food shortages have been reduced dramatically in the developed world, thanks to agricultural technologies such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and new irrigation methods.[13][14] Also, mass production of goods in places such as China has made what were once considered luxuries, such as vehicles or computers, inexpensive and thus accessible to many who were otherwise too poor to afford them.[15][16] Rises in the costs of living make poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. As a result poor households, and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. For example in late 2007 increases in the price of grains[17] led to food riots in some countries[18][19][20]. The World Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty.[21] Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis.[22][23][24] Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields.[25] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[26][27] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[28] Health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigrating from impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000 Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006.[29] There are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in Ethiopia.[30] Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods drive poverty[31][32][33] The world's population is expected to reach nearly 9 billion in 2040.[34] However, the reverse is also true, that poverty causes overpopulation as it gives women little power to plan childhood, have educational attainment, or a career.[35] [edit] Barriers to opportunities Street children sleeping in Mulberry Street - Jacob Riis photo New York, United States of America (1890) Homeless people living in cardboard boxes in Los Angeles, California.The unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give full-fledged property rights of land to their tenants is cited as the chief obstacle to development.[36] This lack of economic freedom inhibits entrepreneurship among the poor.[5] New enterprises and foreign investment can be driven away by the results of inefficient institutions, notably corruption, weak rule of law and excessive bureaucratic burdens.[4][5] Lack of financial services, as a result of restrictive regulations, such as the requirements for banking licenses, makes it hard for even smaller microsavings programs to reach the poor.[37] It takes two days, two bureaucratic procedures, and $280 to open a business in Canada while an entrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20 procedures to do the same.[5] Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of small enterprises, where most jobs are created.[5] In India before economic reforms, businesses had to bribe government officials even for routine activities, which was a tax on business in effect.[4] Corruption, for example, in Nigeria, led to an estimated $400 billion of the country's oil revenue to be stolen by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.[38][39] Lack of opportunities can further be caused by the failure of governments to provide essential infrastructure.[40][41]. Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away, leading to brain drains. This is mainly caused by richer countries' restrictions on Freedom of Movement of the poor, uneducated class. Entry visas are granted with much higher probability to the rich and educated of developing countries. Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually.[42] Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.[43] Poor health and education severely affects productivity. Inadequate nutrition in childhood undermines the ability of individuals to develop their full capabilities. Lack of essential minerals such as iodine and iron can impair brain development. 2 billion people (one-third of the total global population) are affected by iodine deficiency. In developing countries, it is estimated that 40% of children aged 4 and younger suffer from anemia because of insufficient iron in their diets. See also Health and intelligence.[44] Similarly substance abuse, including for example alcoholism and drug abuse can consign people to vicious poverty cycles.[citation needed] Infectious diseases such as Malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3-1.5% annually.[45][46][47] War, political instability and crime, including violent gangs and drug cartels, also discourage investment. Civil wars and conflicts in Africa cost the continent some $300 billion between 1990 and 2005.[48] Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war that resulted in minor border changes.[49] Shocks in the business cycle affect poverty rates, increasing in recessions and declining in booms. Cultural factors, such as discrimination of various kinds, can negatively affect productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping,[50] gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and caste discrimination.[51] Max Weber and the modernization theory suggest that cultural values could affect economic success.[52][53] However, researchers[who?] have gathered evidence that suggest that values are not as deeply ingrained and that changing economic opportunities explain most of the movement into and out of poverty, as opposed to shifts in values.[54] [edit] Effects of poverty Again in a developed nation council houses in Seacroft, Leeds, UK have been deserted due to poverty and high crime.See also: Malnutrition The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global. [edit] Health Main article: Diseases of poverty Hunger, disease, and less education describe a person in poverty. One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990.[55] Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease.[56] Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.[57] Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night.[58] Poverty increases the risk of homelessness.[59] There are over 100 million street children worldwide.[60] Increased risk of drug abuse may also be associated with poverty.[61] According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of the world's regions.[62] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished,[63] one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.[64] Every year, more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth.[65] Almost 90% of maternal deaths occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world.[66] Women who have children born in poverty cannot nourish the children efficiently with the right prenatal care. They may also suffer from disease that may be passed down to the child through birth. Asthma is a common problem children acquire when born into poverty. [edit] Education Great Depression: man lying down on pier, New York City docks, 1935.Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins in primary school for some less fortunate children. In the US educational system, these children are at a higher risk than other children for retention in their grade, special placements during the schoolâ??s hours and even not completing their high school education.[67] There are indeed many explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, the risk factors are similar to excuses such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage pregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents.[67] Families and society who submit low levels of investment in the education and development of less fortunate children end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life of parental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearing with all the connected risks to family, health and well-being are majorly important issues to address since education from preschool to high school are both identifiably meaningful in a life.[67] Poverty often drastically affects childrenâ??s success in school. A childâ??s â??home activities, preferences, mannerismsâ?? must align with the world and in the cases that they do not these students are at a disadvantage in the school and most importantly the classroom.[68] Therefore, it is safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less success educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal less healthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from the academic year. Additionally, poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger, fatigue, irritability, headaches, ear infections, flu, and colds.[68] These illnesses could potentially restrict a child or studentâ??s focus and concentration. [edit] Housing Afghan girl begging in Kabul.See also: slums and orphanages Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional focus of the poverty in the developing world, according to a report by the United Nations.[69] Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.[70] Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm childrenâ??s development by separating them from their families.[70] It is speculated that, flush with money, orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died.[70] [edit] Violence See also: slavery and human trafficking According to a UN report on modern slavery, the most common form of human trafficking is for prostitution, which is largely fueled by poverty.[71][72] In Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to prostitution for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.[73] In one survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported witnessing a homicide.[74] 51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for a household: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% in Washington, DC (mean income for a household: $40,127).[75] [edit] Drug abuse Further information: Drug abuse Unemployment and distance from rural areas are where most drug abuse occurs. Drug abuse can result in a community shouldering the impact of many nefarious acts such as stealing, killing, theft, sexual assault, and prostitution. Drug abuse is synonymous with poor performance in school & work, and a general malaise of intra-personal intelligence[citation needed]. People who have abused drugs and have spent all of their money buying substancesâ??i.e. heroin, alcohol, methamphetamines etc.â??become addicts. This induces a downward spiral in the functionality of most addicts, as the drugs and poverty can be cyclical. When an addict has no other way to support their addiction they resort to illegal measures to obtain income. This is where a community becomes affected by drug abuse. The urgeâ??or â??Jonesinâ??â??for many different substances begins to take over an addictâ??s life. [edit] Poverty reduction Main article: Poverty reduction Historically, poverty reduction has been largely a result of economic growth.[4][5] The industrial revolution led to high economic growth and eliminated mass poverty in what is now considered the developed world.[3][5] In 1820, 75% of humanity lived on less than a dollar a day, while in 2001, only about 20% do.[5][dubious â?? discuss] As three quarters of the world's poor live in the country side, the World Bank cites helping small farmers as the heart of the fight against poverty.[7] Economic growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a countryâ??s population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors.[76] However, aid is essential in providing better lives for those who are already poor and in sponsoring medical and scientific efforts such as the green revolution and the eradication of smallpox.[36][77] [edit] Economic liberalization Information and communication technologies for development help to fight poverty.Ian Vásquez, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Global Economic Liberty, wrote that extending property rights protection to the poor is one of the most important poverty reduction strategies a nation could take.[5][neutrality is disputed] Securing property rights to land, the largest asset for most societies, is vital to their economic freedom.[5][36] The World Bank concludes increasing land rights is â??the key to reducing povertyâ?? citing that land rights greatly increase poor peopleâ??s wealth, in some cases doubling it.[10] Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has estimated that state recognition of the property of the poor would give them assets worth 40 times all the foreign aid since 1945.[5] Although approaches varied, the World Bank said the key issues were security of tenure and ensuring land transactions were low cost.[10] In China and India, noted reductions in poverty in recent decades have occurred mostly as a result of the abandonment of collective farming in China and the cutting of government red tape in India.[78] However, ending government sponsorship of social programs is sometimes advocated as a free market principle with tragic consequences. For example, the World Bank presses poor nations to eliminate subsidies for fertilizer even while many farmers cannot afford them at market prices.[79] The reconfiguration of public financing in former Soviet states during their transition to a market economy called for reduced spending on health and education, sharply increasing poverty.[80][81][82] Trade liberalization increases the total surplus of trading nations.[dubious â?? discuss] Remittances sent to poor countries, such as India, are sometimes larger than foreign direct investment and total remittances are more than double aid flows from OECD countries.[83] Foreign investment and export industries helped fuel the economic expansion of fast growing Asian nations.[84] However, trade rules are often unfair as they block access to richer nationsâ?? markets and ban poorer nations from supporting their industries.[79][85] Processed products from poorer nations, in contrast to raw materials, get vastly higher tariffs at richer nations' ports.[86] A University of Toronto study found the dropping of duty charges on thousands of products from African nations because of the African Growth and Opportunity Act was directly responsible for a "surprisingly large" increase in imports from Africa.[87] However, Chinese textile and clothing exports have encountered criticism from Europe, the United States and some African countries.[88][89] Deals can also be negotiated to favor developing countries such as China, where laws compel foreign multinationals to train their future Chinese competitors in strategic industries and render themselves redundant in the long term.[90] In Thailand, the 51 percent rule compels multinational corporations starting operations in Thailand give 51 percent control to a Thai company in a joint venture.[91] [edit] Capital, infrastructure and technology World GDP per capitaInvestments in human capital, in the form of health, is needed for economic growth. Nations do not necessarily need wealth to gain health.[92] For example, Sri Lanka had a maternal mortality rate of 2% in the 1930s, higher than any nation today.[93] It reduced it to .5-.6% in the 1950s and to .06% today while spending less each year on maternal health because it learned what worked and what did not.[93] Cheap water filters and promoting hand washing are some of the most cost effective health interventions and can cut deaths from diarrhea and pneumonia.[94][95] Knowledge on the cost effectiveness of healthcare interventions can be elusive but educational measures to disseminate what works are available, such as the disease control priorities project.[92] Human capital, in the form of education, is an even more important determinant of economic growth than physical capital.[4] Deworming children costs about 50 cents per child per year and reduces non-attendance from anemia, illness and malnutrition and is only a twenty-fifth as expensive to increase school attendance as by constructing schools.[96] UN economists argue that good infrastructure, such as roads and information networks, helps market reforms to work.[97] China claims it is investing in railways, roads, ports and rural telephones in African countries as part of its formula for economic development.[97] It was the technology of the steam engine that originally began the dramatic decreases in poverty levels. Cell phone technology brings the market to poor or rural sections.[98] With necessary information, remote farmers can produce specific crops to sell to the buyers that brings the best price.[99] Such technology also makes financial services accessible to the poor. Those in poverty place overwhelming importance on having a safe place to save money, much more so than receiving loans.[8] Also, a large part of microfinance loans are spent on products that would usually be paid by a checking or savings account.[8] Mobile banking addresses the problem of the heavy regulation and costly maintenance of saving accounts.[8] Mobile financial services in the developing world, ahead of the developed world in this respect, could be worth $5 billion by 2012.[100] Safaricomâ??s M-Pesa launched one of the first systems where a network of agents of mostly shopkeepers, instead of bank branches, would take deposits in cash and translate these onto a virtual account on customers' phones. Cash transfers can be done between phones and issued back in cash with a small commission, making remittances safer.[9] [edit] Aid Local citizens from the Janabi Village wait their turn to gather goods from the Sons of Iraq (Abna al-Iraq) in a military operation conducted in Yusufiyah, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc Luke Thornberry)Main article: Aid See also: Welfare, Development aid, and Debt relief Aid in its simplest form is a basic income grant, a form of social security periodically providing citizens with money. In pilot projects in Namibia, where such a program pays just $13 a month, people were able to pay tuition fees, raising the proportion of children going to school by 92%, child malnutrition rates fell from 42% to 10% and economic activity grew by 10%.[101][102] Researchers say it is more efficient to support the families and extended families that care for the vast majority of orphans with simple allocations of cash than supporting orphanages, who get most of the aid.[70] Some aid, such as Conditional Cash Transfers, can be rewarded based on desirable actions such as enrolling children in school or receiving vaccinations.[103] In Mexico, for example, dropout rates of 16-19 year olds in rural area dropped by 20% and children gained half an inch in height.[104] Initial fears that the program would encourage families to stay at home rather than work to collect benefits have proven to be unfounded. Instead, there is less excuse for neglectful behavior as, for example, children stopped begging on the streets instead of going to school because it could result in suspension from the program.[104] Another form of aid is microloans, made famous by the Grameen Bank, where small amounts of money are loaned to farmers or villages, mostly women, who can then obtain physical capital to increase their economic rewards. For example, the Thai government's People's Bank, makes loans of $100 to $300 to help farmers buy equipment or seeds, help street vendors acquire an inventory to sell, or help others set up small shops. While advancing the woman and her household's position economically, microloans empower women and enable them to voice their opinions in general household decisions.[105] Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; this may be because it is better at reaching the poor and better controlled at the grassroots level.[106] Critics argue that some of the foreign aid is stolen by corrupt governments and officials, and that higher aid levels erode the quality of governance. Policy becomes much more oriented toward what will get more aid money than it does towards meeting the needs of the people.[107] Supporters of aid argue that these problems may be solved with better auditing of how the aid is used.[107] Immunization campaigns for children, such as against polio, diphtheria and measles have save millions of lives.[77] A major proportion of aid from donor nations is tied, mandating that a receiving nation spend on products and expertise originating only from the donor country.[108] For example, Eritrea is forced to spend aid money on foreign goods and services to build a network of railways even though it is cheaper to use local expertise and resources.[108] US law requires food aid be spent on buying food at home, instead of where the hungry live, and, as a result, half of what is spent is used on transport.[109] One of the proposed ways to help poor countries has been debt relief. Many less developed nations have gotten themselves into extensive debt to banks and governments from the rich nations and interest payments on these debts are often more than a country can generate per year in profits from exports.[110] If poor countries do not have to spend so much on debt payments, they can use the money instead for priorities which help reduce poverty such as basic health-care and education.[111] For example, Zambia began offering services, such as free health care even while overwhelming the health care infrastructure, because of savings that resulted from the rounds of debt relief in 2005.[112] [edit] Good institutions Main article: Corruption Efficient institutions that are not corrupt and obey the rule of law make and enforce good laws that provide security to property and businesses. Efficient and fair governments would work to invest in the long-term interests of the nation rather than plunder resources through corruption.[4] Researchers at UC Berkeley developed what they called a "Weberianness scale" which measures aspects of bureaucracies and governments Max Weber described as most important for rational-legal and efficient government over 100 years ago. Comparative research has found that the scale is correlated with higher rates of economic development.[113] With their related concept of good governance World Bank researchers have found much the same: Data from 150 nations have shown several measures of good governance (such as accountability, effectiveness, rule of law, low corruption) to be related to higher rates of economic development. [114] The United Nations Development Program published a report in April 2000 which focused on good governance in poor countries as a key to economic development and overcoming the selfish interests of wealthy elites often behind state actions in developing nations. The report concludes that â??Without good governance, reliance on trickle-down economic development and a host of other strategies will not work.â?? [115] Examples of good governance leading to economic development and poverty reduction include Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Vietnam, which tend to have a strong government, called a hard state or development state. These â??hard statesâ?? have the will and authority to create and maintain policies that lead to long-term development that helps all their citizens, not just the wealthy. Multinational corporations are regulated so that they follow reasonable standards for pay and labor conditions, pay reasonable taxes to help develop the country, and keep some of the profits in the country, reinvesting them to provide further development. In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana,[116] and by 2008 it was 17 times as high as Ghana's.[117] Funds from aid and natural resources are often diverted into private hands and then sent to banks overseas as a result of graft.[57] If Western banks rejected stolen money, says a report by Global Witness, ordinary people would benefit â??in a way that aid flows will never achieveâ??.[57] The report asked for more regulation of banks as they have proved capable of stanching the flow of funds linked to terrorism, money-laundering or tax evasion.[57] [edit] Empowering women Empowering women has helped some countries increase and sustain economic development.[118] When given more rights and opportunities women begin to receive more education, thus increasing the overall human capital of the country; when given more influence women seem to act more responsibly in helping people in the family or village; and when better educated and more in control of their lives, women are more successful in bringing down rapid population growth because they have more say in family planning.[119] [edit] Demographics Percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. UN estimates 2000-2006. Percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2006 Life expectancy. The Human Development Index. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality. Life expectancy has been increasing and converging for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has recently seen a decline, partly related to the AIDS epidemic. Graph shows the years 1950-2005. See also: Poverty by country and Poverty threshold [edit] Absolute poverty Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the latter being actually an index of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It estimates that "in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day."[120] Six million children die of hunger every year - 17,000 every day.[121] Selective Primary Health Care has been shown to be one of the most efficient ways in which absolute poverty can be eradicated in comparison to Primary Health Care which has a target of treating diseases. Disease prevention is the focus of Selective Primary Health Care which puts this system on higher grounds in terms of preventing malnutrition and illness, thus putting an end to Absolute Poverty.[122] The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[120] Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia.[123] In East Asia the World Bank reported that "The poverty headcount rate at the $2-a-day level is estimated to have fallen to about 27 percent [in 2007], down from 29.5 percent in 2006 and 69 percent in 1990."[124] In Sub-Saharan Africa extreme poverty went up from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001[citation needed], which combined with growing population increased the number of people living in extreme poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[125] In the early 1990s some of the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income.[126] The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in large declines in GDP per capita, of about 30 to 35% between 1990 and the trough year of 1998 (when it was at its minimum). As a result poverty rates also increased although in subsequent years as per capita incomes recovered the poverty rate dropped from 31.4% of the population to 19.6%[127][128] The World Bank issued a report predicting that between 2007 and 2027 the populations of Georgia and Ukraine will decrease by 17% and 24% respectively.[129] World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the world since 1990:[130][131] Region 1990 2002 2004 East Asia and Pacific 15.40% 12.33% 9.07% Europe and Central Asia 3.60% 1.28% 0.95% Latin America and the Caribbean 9.62% 9.08% 8.64% Middle East and North Africa 2.08% 1.69% 1.47% South Asia 35.04% 33.44% 30.84% Sub-Saharan Africa 46.07% 42.63% 41.09% Other human development indicators have also been improving. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world.[citation needed] Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[citation needed] The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water and electricity and basic consumer items.[132] There are various criticisms of these measurements.[133] Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion note that although "a clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident ... with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and India has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor". Since the world's population is increasing, a constant number living in poverty would be associated with a diminishing proportion. Looking at the percentage living on less than $1/day, and if excluding China and India, then this percentage has decreased from 31.35% to 20.70% between 1981 and 2004.[134] The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the number living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the Czech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the developing world and even if conditions there improve in absolute terms, the report warns, Africa in 2030 will be home to a larger proportion of the world's poorest people than it is today.[135] The reason for the faster economic growth in East Asia and South Asia is a result of their relative backwardness, in a phenomenon called the convergence hypothesis or the conditional convergence hypothesis. Because these economies began modernizing later than richer nations, they could benefit from simply adapting technological advances which enable higher levels of productivity that had been invented over centuries in richer nations. [edit] Relative poverty Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other different income inequality metrics, for example the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index. Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.[136] [edit] Other aspects Slum in Mumbai, India. 60% of Mumbai's more than 18 million inhabitants live in slums.[137]Economic aspects of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income. Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished "capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value.[138] The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power.[139][140] Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.[141][142][143] Such social exclusion can be minimized through strengthened connections with the mainstream, such as through the provision of relational care to those who are experiencing poverty. Harlem, New York, USA. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold.[144]The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty.[145] These include: Precarious livelihoods Excluded locations Physical limitations Gender relationships Problems in social relationships Lack of security Abuse by those in power Dis-empowering institutions Limited capabilities Weak community organizations David Moore, in his book The World Bank, argues that some analysis of poverty reflect pejorative, sometimes racial, stereotypes of impoverished people as powerless victims and passive recipients of aid programs.[146] Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the United States.Ultra-poverty, a term apparently coined by Michael Lipton,[147] connotes being amongst poorest of the poor in low-income countries. Lipton defined ultra-poverty as receiving less than 80 percent of minimum caloric intake whilst spending more than 80% of income on food. Alternatively a 2007 report issued by International Food Policy Research Institute defined ultra-poverty as living on less than 54 cents per day.[148] BRAC (NGO) has pioneered a program called Targeting the Ultra-Poor to redress ultra-poverty by working with individual ultra-poor women.[149] [edit] Voluntary poverty See also: Simple living "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, It will be in the valley of love and delight." â??Shaker song.[150] Among some individuals, such as ascetics, poverty is considered a necessary or desirable condition, which must be embraced in order to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual states. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element of renunciation in religions such as Buddhism (only for monks, not for lay persons) and Jainism, whilst in Roman Catholicism it is one of the evangelical counsels. Certain religious orders also take a vow of extreme poverty. For example, the Franciscan orders have traditionally foregone all individual and corporate forms of ownership. While individual ownership of goods and wealth is forbidden for Benedictines, following the Rule of St. Benedict, the monastery itself may possess both goods and money, and throughout history some monasteries have become very rich.[citation needed] In this context of religious vows, poverty may be understood as a means of self-denial in order to place oneself at the service of others; Pope Honorius III wrote in 1217 that the Dominicans "lived a life of voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation of others". Following Jesus' warning that riches can be like thorns that choke up the good seed of the word (Matthew 13:22), voluntary poverty is often understood by Christians as of benefit to the individual â?? a form of self-discipline by which one distances oneself from distractions from God.[citation needed] [edit] See also Bottom of the pyramid 2007â??2008 world food price crisis Cycle of poverty Development state Diseases of poverty Distribution of wealth Economic development Economic inequality Feminization of poverty Financial exclusion Food security Food vs fuel Fuel poverty Full employment Great Depression Green Revolution Hunger Immiserizing growth Income disparity International inequality International Development Life expectancy Literacy Migrant worker Minimum wage Poor Law Poverty reduction Poverty threshold Poverty trap Rural ghetto Shanty town Social exclusion Subsidized housing Street children Theories of poverty Underclass Welfare Working poor Sustainable development portal Nations: Poverty by country Least Developed Countries Countries by fertility rate Countries by GDP (PPP) Countries by poverty rate Theology: Relational care Sadaqah Zakat [edit] Organizations and campaigns Abahlali baseMjondolo - South African Shack dwellers' organisation Appropedia Azafady Bridges of Hope International Network of Development Agencies Inc. Brooks World Poverty Institute Catholic Charities USA[151] Center for Global Development Child Poverty Action Group Compassion Canada End Poverty Now Eurodad Food First Five Talents - Gives poverty stricken people another chance Free the Children Grameen Bank A micro lending bank for the poor. Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) Habitat for Humanity International Harlem Children's Zone Homeless International [152] 17 October: UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (White Band Day 4) International Food Policy Research Institute International Fund for Agricultural Development Islamic Development Bank Islamic Relief Southern Poverty Law Center The Make Poverty History campaign Microgiving Direct charitable giving Mississippi Teacher Corps ONE campaign [153] Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development United Nations Millennium Campaign [154][155] United Prosperity (organisation) U.S. Agency for International Development World Bank World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists World Food Day World Food Program [edit] In documentary photography and film Authors with significant work High Food Prices: Haiti on the Brink Diane Arbus Richard Avedon Jim Goldberg Dorothea Lange Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Sebastião Salgado Tom Stone Significant titles Born into Brothels (2004 film) Harlan County, USA Streetwise (1984 film) [edit] References ^ http://enc....aspx?lextype=3&search=poverty Encarta Poverty definition ^ Sociology in our times ^ a b c "Under traditional (i.e., nonindustrialized) modes of economic production, widespread poverty had been accepted as inevitable. The total output of goods and services, even if equally distributed, would still have been insufficient to give the entire population a comfortable standard of living by prevailing standards. With the economic productivity that resulted from industrialization, however, this ceased to be the case" Encyclopedia Britannica, "Poverty" ^ a b c d e f g h Krugman, Paul, and Robin Wells. Macroeconomics. 2. New York City: Worth Publishers, 2009. Print. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ending Mass Poverty by Ian Vásquez ^ Obama enlists major powers to aid poor farmers with $15 billion ^ a b World Bank report puts agriculture at core of antipoverty effort ^ a b c d http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1918733,00.html Microfinanceâ??s next step: deposits ^ a b http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8194241.stm Africaâ??s mobile banking revolution ^ a b c Land rights help fight poverty ^ "Europe in crisis, 1598-1648". Geoffrey Parker (2001). p.11. ISBN 0-631-22028-3 ^ "Why did the American Revolution take place?". Digital History. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm Forgotten benefactor of humanity ^ BBC Ethical Man ^ In Laos, Chinese motorcycles change lives ^ China boosts African economies, offering a second opportunity ^ The cost of food: Facts and figures ^ Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring ^ Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come? ^ Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits ^ 100 million at risk from rising food costs ^ Global Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages ^ Vanishing Himalayan Glaciers Threaten a Billion ^ Big melt threatens millions, says UN ^ Exploitation and Over-exploitation in Societies Past and Present, Brigitta Benzing, Bernd Herrmann ^ The Earth Is Shrinking: Advancing Deserts and Rising Seas Squeezing Civilization ^ Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land ^ Africa may be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025 ^ Philippine Medical Brain Drain Leaves Public Health System in Crisis - VoA News, retrieved 29 May 2008 ^ "Out of Africa - health workers leave in droves". Telegraph. November 2, 2004. ^ "Population growth driving climate change, poverty: experts". Agence France-Presse. September 21, 2009. ^ "Birth rates 'must be curbed to win war on global poverty". The Independent. January 31, 2007. ^ "Another Inconvenient Truth: The World's Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma". Scientific American. October 2, 2009. ^ "World Population Clock â?? Worldometers". ^ http://www.henrygeorge.org/popsup.htm ^ a b c How to spread democracy ^ Savings revolution ^ "Anti-Corruption Climate Change: it started in Nigeria". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). ^ "Nigeria: The Hidden Cost of Corruption". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). ^ Global Competitiveness Report 2006, World Economic Forum, Website ^ Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction: Cross-country Evidence Hossein Jalilian and John Weiss. 2004. ^ Brain drain in Africa ^ Studentsâ?? exodus costs India forex outflow of $10 bn: Assocham, Thaindian News, January 26, 2009 ^ Hunger and Malnutrition paper by Jere R Behrman, Harold Alderman and John Hoddinott. ^ Economic costs of AIDS ^ The economic and social burden of malaria ^ Poverty Issues Dominate WHO Regional Meeting ^ "Wars cost Africa $18 billion US a year: report". CBC News. October 11, 2007. ^ "Will arms ban slow war?". BBC News. May 18, 2000. ^ Ending Poverty in Community (EPIC) ^ UN report slams India for caste discrimination ^ Moore, Wilbert. 1974. Social Change. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hill. ^ Parsons, Talcott. 1966. Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ^ Kerbo, Harold. 2006. Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical, Comparative, and Global Perspective, 6th edition New York: McGraw-Hill. ^ The World Health Report, World Health Organization (See annex table 2) ^ Rising food prices curb aid to global poor ^ a b c d Malnutrition The Starvelings ^ 1.02 billion people hungry. FAO, 2009. ^ Study: 744,000 homeless in United States ^ Street Children ^ Health warning over Russian youth ^ "2008 Global Hunger Index Key Findings & Facts". 2008. http://www.ifpri.org/media/200610GHI/GHIFindings.asp. ^ "Half of India's children malnourished, says NGO report". Calcutta News. October 15, 2009. ^ "India: Undernourished Children: A Call for Reform and Action". World Bank. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:20916955~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html. ^ "Maternal mortality ratio falling too slowly to meet goal". WHO. October 12, 2007. ^ "The causes of maternal death". BBC News. November 23, 1998. ^ a b c Huston, A. C. (1991). Children in Poverty: Child Development and Public Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ^ a b Solley, Bobbie A. (2005). When Povertyâ??s Children Write: Celebrating Strengths, Transforming Lives. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Inc. ^ Report reveals global slum crisis ^ a b c d Aid gives alternatives to African orphanages ^ Experts encourage action against sex trafficking ^ Child sex boom fueled by poverty ^ Zimbabwean girls trade sex for food ^ Atkins, M. S., McKay, M., Talbott, E., & Arvantis, P. (1996). "DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Implications and guidelines for school mental health teams," School Psychology Review, 25, 274-283. Citing: Bell, C. C., & Jenkins, E. J. (1991). "Traumatic stress and children," Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 2, 175-185. ^ Atkins, M. S., McKay, M., Talbott, E., & Arvantis, P. (1996). "DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Implications and guidelines for school mental health teams," School Psychology Review, 25, 274-283. Citing: Osofsky, J. D., Wewers, S., Harm, D. M., & Fick, A. C. (1993). "Chronic community violence: What is happening to our children?," Psychiatry, 56, 36-45; and, Richters, J. E., & Martinez, P (1993). "The NIMH community violence project: Vol. 1. Children as victims of and witnesses to violence," Psychiatry, 56, 7-21. ^ Poverty- Climate change:Bangladesh facing the challenge ^ a b Why aid does work ^ Can aid bring an end to poverty ^ a b Ending famine simply by ignoring the experts ^ Transition: The First Ten Years â?? Analysis and Lessons for Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002, p. 4. ^ "Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries". New York Times. October 12, 2000. ^ Child poverty soars in eastern Europe". BBC News. October 11, 2000. ^ Migration and development: The aid workers who really help ^ Vogel, Ezra F. 1991. The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ^ Market access ^ Make trade fair ^ Relaxed trade rules boost African development ^ "SOUTH AFRICA: Fallout as China sews up textile market". IRIN Africa. June 29, 2005. ^ Growth of China's textile industry slows". Chinadaily.com.cn. March 21, 2007. ^ http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,465007-3,00.html Does Communism work after all? ^ Muscat, Robert J. 1994. The Fifth Tiger: A Study of Thai Development. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ^ a b Disease Control Priorities Project ^ a b Saving millions for just a few dollars ^ India's Tata launches water filter for rural poor ^ Millions mark UN hand washing day ^ How can we help the worldâ??s poor ^ a b China becomes Africa's suitor ^ Give cash not food ^ Market approach recasts often-hungry Ethiopia as potential bread basket ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8100388.stm Africa pioneers mobile bank push ^ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,642310,00.html A new approach to aid: How a basic income program saved a Namibian village ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm Namibians line up for free cash ^ Brazil becomes antipoverty showcase ^ a b Latin America makes dent in poverty with â??conditional cashâ?? programs ^ Grasmuck, Sherri and Espinal, Rosario. 2000. Market Success or Female Autonomy? Income,Ideology, and Empowerment among Microentrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic. Gender and Society 14 (2):231-255. ^ Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Nongovernmental and Bilateral Aid ^ a b MYTH: More Foreign Aid Will End Global Poverty ^ a b http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24509 Tied aid strangling nations, says UN ^ Let them eat micronutrients ^ World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 2001. Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, Progress Report. Retrieved from Worldbank.org. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4081220.stm African debt relief ^ Zambia overwhelmed by free health care ^ Evans, Peter, and James E. Rauch. 1999. "Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of 'Weberian' State Structures on Economic Growth." American Sociological Review, 64:748-765. ^ Kaufmann, D.; Kraay, A; Zoido-Lobaton, P.. "Governance Matters.". World Bank Policy Research Working Paper no. 2196. Washington DC. ^ United Nations Development Report. 2000. Overcoming Human Poverty: UNDP Poverty Report 2000. New York: United Nations Publications. ^ Leading article: Africa has to spend carefully. The Independent. July 13, 2006. ^ Data refer to the year 2008. $26,341 GDP for Korea, $1513 for Ghana. World Economic Outlook Database-October 2008, International Monetary Fund. Accessed on February 14, 2009. ^ "Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?. Scientific American. July 29, 2009. ^ World Bank. 2001. Engendering Development--Through Gender Equality in Right, Resources and Voice. New York: Oxford University Press. ^ a b The World Bank, 2007, Understanding Poverty ^ "U.N. chief: Hunger kills 17,000 kids daily - CNN.com". CNN. November 17, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/17/italy.food.summit/. Retrieved May 22, 2010. ^ Walsh, Julia A., and Kenneth S. Warren. 1980. Selective primary health care: An interim strategy for disease control in developing countries. Social Science & Medicine. Part C: Medical Economics 14 (2):145-163. ^ Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, 2007, "How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s?" Table 3, p. 28. [1] ^ World Bank, 14 November 2007, 'East Asia Remains Robust Despite US Slow Down' [2] ^ The Independent, 'Birth rates must be curbed to win war on global poverty', 31 January 2007 [3] ^ Worldbank.org reference ^ World Bank, Data and Statistics,WDI, GDF, & ADI Online Databases ^ "Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries". The New York Times. October 12, 2000. ^ "East: 'If Countries Don't Act Now, It's Going To Be Too Late'". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 2007. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/6/0E4DF063-3807-420D-B551-B3D07F7AA84C.html. Retrieved 2007-12-22. ^ World Bank, 2007, Povcalnet Poverty Data
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 19:30:46 I'm just posting what The LA City Controller said.
eds Member	Fri Sep 17 20:29:10 Okay so all those jobs that will be created now that "They have started to spend those dollars" don't count in your calculations at all? Nice math.
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 21:23:15 It is not my fucking calculation. The article is about the report from The Los Angeles City Controller.
Rugian Member	Fri Sep 17 21:36:21 Hot Rod: You can't keep spamming that line. People are directing their criticisms at the controller, not at you; you can either agree or disagree with those criticisms, but this effort to tray and reduce those criticisms to personal attacks on you when they are not is just poor trolling. The point is the controller was ignoring the non-job-creation benefits of stimulus money spent. The article does mention that the way the money was spent on the projects was inefficient, which is the real story. The jobs thing is a red herring. Even if these projects were done in a fiscally efficient manner, the ratio of money spent to jobs created/retained would have not been impressive. That's how construction jobs are. A $10 million road project doesn't need 100 workers.
Aeros Member	Fri Sep 17 21:49:03 Shit, I agree with Rugian. Rod, you have a problem. Also, why is a supposedly legit news source playing dumb with stats like this?
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 21:50:11 Sorry, I thought the comments were aimed at me. I didn't know The LA City Controller was reading Utopia. If they are criticizing him, they should mention him instead of saying you. As I posted the OP it sure sounds like they are blaming me for the article. Perhaps you should get them to phrase it in a conversational tone rather than as a criticism. A person gets a little thin skinned sometimes.
Disclaimer Member	Fri Sep 17 21:55:03 Internet trolls tend to have inferiority complexes and difficulty with authority. Unable to confront their troubles offline, these sociopaths turn their efforts to an Internet environment. The environment allows them the luxury of complete or relative anonymity. The environment also prevents other users from responding with physical violence or intimidation. The internal sense of inferiority held by Internet trolls stems from lack of power in their own lives. A troll will sometimes engage in behavior described as trolling to target a particular individual, or because they have concluded there is no normal or rational forum for more legitimate discourse. In other situations, the person accused of trolling may simply be attempting to spread joviality or using a form of humor, such as satire, which can lead others to mistake the behavior for trolling. A alleged troll's target may be chosen randomly, though it is would seem unlikely that a person who describes themself as an Internet troll would attack something they appreciate. Many other reasons may also exist.
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 22:09:11 I think practically the entire Stimulus Pkg. was nothing more than an invitation to liberals around the country to throw a piece of pork into the barrel. Not saying the infrastructure doesn't need a lot of work, it most certainly does. But it needs a well thought out spending program of it's own administered by the appropriate departments be it Transportation, Interior, etc. The infrastructure projects are nothing more than temporary jobs. You go in, build something or make repairs and the worker is out of a job again. What is needed are jobs that will be there for the employee year after year. Such as service, factory, sales, etc. Jobs that create wealth and incomes over long periods. What Obama calls a stimulus bill is little more than a payoff to lower level liberals and the unions.
Disclaimer Member	Fri Sep 17 22:11:26 A troll will sometimes engage in behavior described as trolling to target a particular individual, or because they have concluded there is no normal or rational forum for more legitimate discourse.
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 22:14:00 Disclaimer - Internet trolls tend to have inferiority complexes... You should know.
Disclaimer Member	Fri Sep 17 22:14:48 A troll will sometimes engage in behavior described as trolling to target a particular individual, or because they have concluded there is no normal or rational forum for more legitimate discourse.
Hot Rod Member	Fri Sep 17 22:34:37 Fri Sep 17 22:09:11 I think practically the entire Stimulus Pkg. was nothing more than an invitation to liberals around the country to throw a piece of pork into the barrel. Not saying the infrastructure doesn't need a lot of work, it most certainly does. But it needs a well thought out spending program of it's own administered by the appropriate departments be it Transportation, Interior, etc. The infrastructure projects are nothing more than temporary jobs. You go in, build something or make repairs and the worker is out of a job again. What is needed are jobs that will be there for the employee year after year. Such as service, factory, sales, etc. Jobs that create wealth and incomes over long periods. What Obama calls a stimulus bill is little more than a payoff to lower level liberals and the unions. http://www...hread=38448&time=1284779688835
Disclaimer Member	Fri Sep 17 22:37:56 Unable to confront their troubles offline, these sociopaths turn their efforts to an Internet environment.
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