tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/poverty-717/articlesPoverty – The Conversation2024-03-25T18:55:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265592024-03-25T18:55:03Z2024-03-25T18:55:03ZWhy Russia fears the emergence of Tajik terrorists<p>It has emerged that the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68652380">four gunmen charged</a> in the murder of at least 139 concert-goers at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall theatre <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68652380">were all citizens</a> of the small post-Soviet nation of Tajikistan in Central Asia. </p>
<p>Does their nationality have anything to do with their alleged terrorism? Many Russians probably think so.</p>
<p>Tajikistan, a landlocked country of 10 million sandwiched between Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and China, is the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tajikistan/">most impoverished</a> of the former Soviet republics. Known for its corruption and political repression, it has chafed under the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tajikistans-eternal-ruler-emomali-rakhmon/a-55234401">iron-fisted rule</a> of President Emomali Rahmon since 1994. </p>
<p>There are estimated to be well over <a href="https://asiaplustj.info/en/news/tajikistan/society/20220214/more-than-3-million-tajik-citizens-reportedly-officially-registered-in-russia-last-year">three million Tajiks</a> living in Russia, about one-third of the total Tajik population. Most of them hold the precarious status of “<a href="https://iwpr.net/global-voices/pressure-central-asian-migrants-russia-grows">guest workers</a>,” holding low-paying jobs in construction, produce markets or even cleaning public toilets. </p>
<p>While Russia’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/03/04/russias-population-nightmare-is-going-to-get-even-worse">declining population</a> has led to increasing reliance on foreign workers to fill such needs within its labour force, the attitude of Russians towards natives of Central Asia and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Caucasus">the Caucasus region</a> is generally negative. </p>
<p>It’s similar to the American stereotype about Mexicans so infamously expressed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/">Donald Trump</a> in 2015: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” </p>
<p>Non-Slavs are systematically <a href="https://strongcitiesnetwork.org/resource/online-russian-language-hate-and-discrimination-against-central-asian-migrants/">discriminated against</a> in Russia, and since 2022 they have been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1/is-russia-recruiting-muslim-migrants-to-fight-its-war-in-ukraine">disproportionately conscripted</a> and sent to Ukraine to serve as cannon fodder at the front.</p>
<h2>Tajik exclusion</h2>
<p>As I have described in a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/history-of-the-tajiks-9780755649655/">recent book</a>, few nations in history have seen their standing so dramatically reduced as the Tajiks have over the past 100 years. </p>
<p>For more than a millennium, the <a href="https://sogdians.si.edu/introduction/">Tajiks — Persian-speaking descendants of the ancient Sogdians who dominated the Silk Road</a> — were Central Asia’s cultural elite. </p>
<p>Beginning with what’s known as the <a href="https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Geography/samanid.htm">New Persian Renaissance of the 10th century</a> when their capital, Bukhara, came to rival Baghdad as a centre of Islamic learning and high culture, Tajiks were the principal scholars and bureaucrats of Central Asia’s major cities right up to the time of the Russian Revolution. </p>
<p>The famous medieval polymath Avicenna was an ethnic Tajik, as were the hadith collector Bukhari, the Sufi poet Rumi, and many others.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/avicenna-the-persian-polymath-who-shaped-modern-science-medicine-and-philosophy-142667">Avicenna: the Persian polymath who shaped modern science, medicine and philosophy</a>
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<p>But as the most significant purveyors of Central Asia’s Islamic civilization, Tajiks were seen by the Bolsheviks as representing an obsolete legacy that socialism aimed to overcome. </p>
<p>The Tajiks were virtually excluded from the massive social and political restructuring imposed on Central Asia during the early years of the Soviet Union, with most of their historical territory, including the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03068377608729816">fabled cities of Samarkand and Bukhara</a>, being awarded to the Turkic-speaking Uzbeks who were seen as being more malleable. </p>
<p>Only as late as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Tajikistan">1929 were the Tajiks given their own republic</a>, consisting mostly of marginal, mountainous territory and deprived of any major urban centres.</p>
<h2>Impoverished</h2>
<p>Throughout the 20th century, the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/tajikistan/tajikistan-poverty-biggest-threat-peace">Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic was the most impoverished and underdeveloped</a> region of the former Soviet Union, and it has retained that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/-sp-post-soviet-world-need-to-know-tajikistan">unfortunate status</a> since independence in 1991. </p>
<p>From 1992-1997, the country was plunged into a devastating civil war that destroyed what infrastructure remained from the Soviet period. Since that time, Rahmon has used the threat of <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/25/how-tajikistans-president-extended-his-term-for-life-rahmon-isis-migrant-imf/">renewed civil conflict</a> to vindicate his absolute rule. </p>
<p>The spectre of <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/rahmon-tajikistan-taliban/31476036.html">radical Islam</a> emanating from neighbouring Afghanistan — <a href="https://minorityrights.org/communities/tajiks/">where the Tajik population considerably outnumbers that of Tajikistan</a> — has provided additional justification for Rahmon’s repressive policies.</p>
<p>In today’s Tajikistan even those with a university education find it almost <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11398444">impossible to earn a salary</a> that would enable them to build a normal family life. </p>
<p>Disempowered and humiliated by the system, they are easy prey for radical Islamic preachers who give them a sense of value and purpose. </p>
<p>The added backdrop of financial desperation makes for an explosive cocktail: one of the suspects in the recent Moscow attacks reportedly told his Russian interrogators that he <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/25/four-men-showing-signs-of-severe-beating-charged-over-moscow-concert-attack">was promised a cash reward of half a million Russian rubles (about US$5,300) to carry out his alleged atrocities.</a>.</p>
<h2>Terrorism as desperation?</h2>
<p>Normal, sane human beings everywhere are horrified by terrorist acts regardless of how they are justified by their perpetrators, and the long-suffering people of Tajikistan are no exception.</p>
<p>But unfortunately, the conditions under which a small number of extremists can perceive the psychopathic murder of innocent civilians for cash or ideology as an attractive option show no signs of abating. </p>
<p>Russia’s laughable attempt to somehow link the Moscow attacks <a href="https://theconversation.com/isis-ks-attack-in-moscow-risks-escalating-the-russia-ukraine-war-226472">to Ukraine</a> is a clumsy diversion from the consequences of its relations with Central Asia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Foltz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>News that four of the suspects in the Moscow terror attacks are Tajik will likely result in further demonization against people already facing poverty and discrimination, despite a glorious history.Richard Foltz, Professor of Religions and Cultures, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2222242024-03-19T10:45:17Z2024-03-19T10:45:17ZNigeria’s fuel subsidy removal was too sudden: why a gradual approach would have been better<p>Nigeria <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/06/08/nigerias-new-president-scraps-the-fuel-subsidy">removed</a> fuel subsidies entirely in May 2023. This came as a surprise because of the political risks associated with subsidy removal. Previous administrations were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/16/nigeria-restores-fuel-subsidy-protests">reluctant</a> to jettison the subsidies.</p>
<p>The subsidies had been in place since the <a href="https://www.ictd.ac/publication/fuel-subsidy-social-contract-microeconomic-analysis-nigeria-rib/#:%7E:text=Subsidies%20exist%20because%20the%20government,oil%20price%20shock%20in%201973">1970s</a>, when the government sold petrol to Nigerians at a price below cost – though most consumers weren’t aware of this. </p>
<p>The 1977 <a href="https://gazettes.africa/archive/ng/1977/ng-government-gazette-supplement-dated-1977-01-13-no-2-part-a.pdf">Price Control Act</a> made it illegal for some products (including petrol) to be sold above the regulated price. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olusegun-Obasanjo">Olusegun Obasanjo</a> regime introduced this law to cushion the effects of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/29/1001023637/think-inflation-is-bad-now-lets-take-a-step-back-to-the-1970s">inflation</a>, caused by a worldwide increase in energy prices.</p>
<p>Fuel subsidies have been controversial in Nigeria, and some analysts see them as inequitable. Very few Nigerians own vehicles. Nigeria is among the countries with the <a href="https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/903/#:%7E:text=Estimated%20vehicle%20population%20in%20Nigeria,population%20ratio%20is%20put%200.06.">least number of vehicles</a> per capita, with <a href="https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/903/#:%7E:text=Estimated%20vehicle%20population%20in%20Nigeria,population%20ratio%20is%20put%200.06.">0.06 vehicles</a> per person or 50 vehicles per 1,000 Nigerians.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-fuel-subsidy-is-gone-its-time-to-spend-the-money-in-ways-that-benefit-the-poor-204701">Nigeria’s fuel subsidy is gone. It's time to spend the money in ways that benefit the poor</a>
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<p>So critics have <a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-fuel-subsidy-is-gone-its-time-to-spend-the-money-in-ways-that-benefit-the-poor-204701">argued</a> that the subsidies benefited mainly the elites even though they could afford to buy fuel at market prices. </p>
<p>The subsidies were also considered to be a drain on public finances, costing the government <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nigerias-nnpc-spent-10-billion-fuel-subsidy-2022-2023-01-20/">US$10 billion</a> in 2022. About <a href="https://www.dataphyte.com/latest-reports/nigerias-expenditure-on-fuel-subsidy-in-17-years-adequate-to-build-three-450000bpd-refineries-neiti/">40%</a> of Nigeria’s revenue in 2022 was spent on fuel subsidies.</p>
<p>Fuel subsidies in Nigeria were notorious for their opacity and graft. <a href="https://punchng.com/probe-missing-2-1bn-n3-1tn-subsidy-payments-or-face-lawsuit-serap-tells-tinubu/">Billions of dollars</a> were said to have been lost through corrupt practices in the payment of the subsidies. </p>
<p>These are some of the reasons they were removed. </p>
<p>But now questions are being asked about the way it was done. In a public opinion poll conducted last year, <a href="https://www.noi-polls.com/post/fuel-subsidy-removal-7-in10-nigerians-lament-over-the-negative-impact">73%</a> of Nigerians said they were dissatisfied with the manner in which the fuel subsidy was removed. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-onyeiwu-170137">an economist</a> who has studied the Nigerian economy for over four decades, I can see why the fuel subsidy had to go. </p>
<p>As I argued in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/fuel-subsidies-in-nigeria-theyre-bad-for-the-economy-but-the-lifeblood-of-politicians-170966">previous article</a>, fuel subsidies were bad for the Nigerian economy. They worsened budget deficits and the country’s debt profile, encouraged corruption, and diverted resources away from critical sectors of the economy. They were also inequitable, transferring the national wealth to elites. </p>
<p>But, as has become clear from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-in-nigeria-is-still-climbing-while-it-has-slowed-globally-heres-why-222226">unprecedented inflation</a> in the country partly caused by the removal of fuel subsidies, the abrupt removal of the subsidy was not the best strategy to use. </p>
<p>I believe this action should have been staggered over several months. This would have provided a soft landing, and gradually exposed Nigerians to the full market price of fuel. Doing so in one fell swoop amounts to shock therapy that is very traumatic for an already beleaguered and impoverished citizenry.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fuel-subsidies-in-nigeria-theyre-bad-for-the-economy-but-the-lifeblood-of-politicians-170966">Fuel subsidies in Nigeria: they're bad for the economy, but the lifeblood of politicians</a>
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<h2>Why removing the subsidy should have been gradual</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/bola-ahmed-tinubu-the-kingmaker-is-now-nigerias-president-200383">Bola Tinubu</a> administration could have chosen from various mechanisms to minimise the negative impact of subsidy removal. </p>
<p>As proposed by the <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099061623093529051/pdf/P1779950377213012089e701681a43e5558.pdf">World Bank</a>, a temporary price cap would have ensured that fuel price increases did not inflict too much pain on consumers. This approach would also have enabled the government to significantly reduce, but not eliminate, the fiscal burden of the subsidy. </p>
<p>Another approach is periodic price adjustments: setting the price based on a moving average of previous months’ import costs. These adjustments could have been made together with a price cap. The <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099061623093529051/pdf/P1779950377213012089e701681a43e5558.pdf">Philippines</a> is one country that successfully removed fuel subsidies in the 1990s, using the price adjustment mechanism.</p>
<p>Gradually phasing out subsidies would have been a better approach for a number of reasons. </p>
<p>Firstly, Nigerians had become suspicious of government’s intentions, given their economic experiences with the previous administration of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammadu-Buhari">Muhammadu Buhari</a>. Those <a href="https://newtelegraphng.com/agony-over-buharis-bad-economic-legacy/">experiences</a> include high <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/inflation-cpi">inflation</a> and <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/unemployment-rate">unemployment rates</a>, rising poverty and insecurity. </p>
<p>Tinubu should have re-established government credibility and good intentions first. He could have offered economic succour such as cash transfers and food subsidies for poor Nigerians, wage increases for workers and retirees, scholarships or tuition waivers for indigent students in tertiary institutions, free lunches for primary and secondary students in public schools, and subsidised public transport. </p>
<p>After demonstrating he meant well, he should have gradually rolled out the subsidy removal. Nigerians would have been psychologically prepared for what was coming, including inflation. </p>
<p>The inflationary impact of subsidy removal would have been less severe. Nigerians would have been more tolerant of difficult economic policies. People will accept difficult economic policies if they know their government is humane and pro-people. </p>
<p>Secondly, an incremental approach would have enabled the government to come up with programmes targeted at those most likely to be hurt by subsidy removal. This would have ensured buy-in. The “<a href="https://guardian.ng/politics/tinubus-subsidy-removal-and-palliative-dilemma/">palliatives</a>” introduced by the Tinubu administration and state governments are temporary and have a <a href="https://punchng.com/palliatives-knocks-trail-distribution-beneficiaries-decry-inadequate-foodstuffs-delay/">limited reach</a>. </p>
<p>Gradual subsidy removal would have enabled the government to engage with groups that would be affected by the policy. Groups representing labour, manufacturers, students, women and others could have provided insights into what would be needed to help their members adjust. </p>
<p>This interactive approach would have promoted transparency and credibility in the conduct of government policies.</p>
<p>Many vulnerable Nigerians were already under severe economic pressure. Apart from <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/unemployment-rate">high unemployment</a> and <a href="https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/1092#:%7E:text=In%20Nigeria%2040.1%20percent%20of,considered%20poor%20by%20national%20standards.">poverty rates</a>, <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/inflation-cpi">inflation</a> was biting very hard. </p>
<p>The abrupt removal of fuel subsidies, without first putting in place shock-absorbing measures, will make it more difficult for the government to achieve the policy’s long-term aims: fiscal sustainability; higher levels of investment in productive sectors of the economy; economic growth; and investment in renewable energy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-transport-grant-isnt-the-best-way-to-allocate-fuel-subsidy-savings-heres-what-is-172982">Nigeria's transport grant isn't the best way to allocate fuel subsidy savings: here's what is</a>
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<h2>Minimising the negative impact of subsidy removal</h2>
<p>Tinubu should minimise the negative impact of subsidy removal and <a href="https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/reserves/foreign-exchange/7959058/nigeria-liberalises-exchange-rate">liberalisation</a> of the foreign exchange market. These two phenomena interact to cause the <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-in-nigeria-is-still-climbing-while-it-has-slowed-globally-heres-why-222226">inflation</a> that the country is facing. </p>
<p>First, savings from ending the subsidy should be used to develop productive capacities in agriculture, labour-intensive manufacturing and services. </p>
<p>Manufacturing activities like agro-processing, textiles, footwear, leather products, arts and crafts should be targeted for development. This would generate high-paying jobs that might help Nigerians to cushion the effects of inflation. </p>
<p>In an economy that’s functioning well, wages always adjust to reflect price increases. In Nigeria, however, too many people are either unemployed or in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352695633_EMPLOYMENT_IN_THE_INFORMAL_SECTOR_IN_NIGERIA_IMPLICATIONS_FOR_SUSTAINABLE_ECONOMIC_DEVELOPMENT">informal sector</a>, with limited opportunities to adjust their earnings to reflect inflation. </p>
<p>Funds saved from subsidy removal should be invested in public infrastructure (mass transportation, road construction, electricity generation, water supply). </p>
<p>Funds should also be used to develop people’s capabilities through massive investment in health and education. Part of the savings should be used to support and sustain the <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/president-tinubu-signs-student-loan-bill/">student loan programme</a> announced by the Tinubu administration. </p>
<p>Successful radical economic reforms, such as the ones implemented in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/6796/chapter/150948559">Rwanda</a>, usually give people an incentive to be more productive, creative and innovative. But policies that are punitive, with marginal or no benefits, are unlikely to succeed.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether Tinubu’s economic policies will spur sustained and inclusive economic growth, as well as alleviate poverty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Onyeiwu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria’s sudden and total removal of fuel subsidies was not the best strategy to use.Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219392024-03-08T13:38:13Z2024-03-08T13:38:13ZTeenagers often know when their parents are having money problems − and that knowledge is linked to mental health challenges, new research finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576103/original/file-20240216-28-neuioj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C77%2C5609%2C3736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teens are more clued in to family finances than many people think.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/single-working-mother-and-her-teenage-girl-talking-royalty-free-image/1457103190">Olga Rolenko/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When parents try to shield their kids from financial hardship, they may be doing them a favor: Teens’ views about their families’ economic challenges are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001451">connected to their mental health and behavior</a>.</p>
<p>That’s the main finding of a study into household income and child development that I recently conducted with my colleagues.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&oi=ao&user=--zcHSQAAAAJ">professor of psychology</a>, I know there’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01210-4">a good deal of research</a> showing that young people who experience more household economic hardship <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00833-y">tend to have more behavioral problems</a>.</p>
<p>But most studies on this issue rely heavily on caregiver reports – that is, what adults say about their kids. Fewer researchers have asked young people themselves. </p>
<p>To fill this gap, my colleagues and I asked more than 100 Pittsburgh-area teenagers, as well as their parents, about their family income, their views about their financial challenges, and their mental health. We checked in with them multiple times over nine months. </p>
<p>Doing this, we found a few important things. First, we found that many families’ economic situations varied over time – they were doing fine with money in some months and struggling during others. And second, we found that when teenagers said they and their family were experiencing hardship, those teens had more behavioral problems.</p>
<p>For example, many teens said that they couldn’t afford school supplies or that their caregivers worried because they lacked money for necessities. In the months when teens reported experiencing these hardships, they were more likely to feel depressed and get in trouble at school.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Other researchers have found that economic hardship is related to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00986.x">differences in parenting</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/children9070981">academic achievement</a> and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106400">other developmental outcomes</a> – but prior studies haven’t always captured the complexities and challenges that struggling families face. </p>
<p>For example, researchers studying links between economic hardship and youth behavioral development have historically looked at family income on a yearly basis. But bills come due weekly or monthly. Our work shows that looking at the annual data alone risks missing an important part of the story: Many families experience brief spells of financial instability.</p>
<p>Our work also shows that teens are acutely affected by economic conditions in their daily lives and understand their families’ circumstances. This has important implications for research. Given that adolescence is a time of major emotional and cognitive changes, our team believes that researchers should center on the perspectives of young people directly affected by economic challenges. For example, we have previously found that how young people view stress and support in their lives may have <a href="https://theconversation.com/positive-parenting-can-help-protect-against-the-effects-of-stress-in-childhood-and-adolescence-new-study-shows-208268">implications for their brain development</a>.</p>
<p>This work also has important implications for public policy. For example, lawmakers assume that economic hardship is fairly stable and set anti-poverty policies accordingly. Our research offers fresh evidence that many people see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/31/business/31-volatility.html">large income swings throughout the year</a>. This kind of economic instability has been found to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0181-5">affect child development</a>, especially when families <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419001494">lose large amounts of income</a>. To lessen the impact of poverty, policymakers may need to think about economic hardship more dynamically.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Our research team wants to continue putting young people’s voices front and center. We’re also interested in more complex ways to make sense of socioeconomic status. While we know that income matters for families, we’re increasingly focused on household wealth, which is a household’s assets minus its debts. Wealth may influence child development in ways that are different from income. We’re just starting to collect data for a new project examining how both of these factors <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/story/nichd-awards-grant-sanford-partnership-focused-adolescent-wellness-factors/">affect teen mental health</a>.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Hanson and his colleagues receive funding from the National Institutes of Health. Hanson is also a board member of the Pittsburgh Non-Profit, Project Destiny.</span></em></p>A study of more than 100 teens and their caregivers showed a unique link between hardship and behavior problems.Jamie Hanson, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233712024-02-29T13:17:22Z2024-02-29T13:17:22ZThe UK’s two-child limit on benefits is hurting the poorest families – poverty experts on why it should be abolished<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577376/original/file-20240222-18-unkhdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C998%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/please-give-me-some-chocolate-group-1299500284">Liderina/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Under the UK’s two-child limit, families on benefit receive a payment for each of their first two children, but no more for any additional children. </p>
<p>The limit results in families losing around <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/catastophic-caps/">£3,200 a year</a> for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017. For low-income households, that’s a huge amount. The policy affects over 400,000 families, according to estimates by think tank the <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/catastophic-caps/">Resolution Foundation</a>. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijsw.12642">new research</a> shows that larger families have become poorer since the introduction of the two-child limit – and the poorest families are losing out the most. The policy breaks the link between need and social benefits: rather than helping those in greatest need, the it punishes them. </p>
<p>The two-child limit came into force in April 2017. A family claiming working-age means-tested benefits, such as the child tax benefit, housing benefit, or universal credit, who had a third or subsequent child born <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-benefits-for-2-or-more-children">after April 6 2017</a> does not receive a child related payment for them. Larger families with children born before this date continue to receive the standard child addition. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/two-child-limit-and-benefit-cap-fail-to-meet-aims/">Research has found</a> that the two-child limit, along with the benefit cap (an upper limit on the amount of out-of-work benefits a family can receive) has put larger families under enormous pressure and harmed parents’ mental health. </p>
<p>Another brutal detail is known as the “rape clause”. The two-child limit allows for an exception in the event of non-consensual conception, but it requires victims to provide <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9301/CBP-9301.pdf">third party evidence</a> – such as a criminal injuries compensation scheme award – and prove they are not living with the perpetrator. </p>
<h2>Losing out</h2>
<p>Our new <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijsw.12642">research</a> used data from the Households Below Average Income dataset, a nationally representative source of information on household incomes. We compared data from 2015-16, before the two-child limit came into force, with 2019-20 (the pandemic disrupted later data collection). We also compared small families – those with one or two children – with larger families of three or more children. </p>
<p>We measured poverty using household disposable incomes after taxes and benefits, but before housing costs. Children in households with incomes below 60% of the national median were counted as poor. </p>
<p>When the two-child limit was announced in 2015, 27% of children in larger families lived in low-income households, based on this measure, compared with 17% of children in smaller families. By 2019-20, after the introduction of the two-child limit, the larger family poverty rate had gone up to 37%. It remained at 17% for smaller families. This was because larger families’ incomes fell rather than because poorer families had more children. </p>
<p>This cannot be solely attributed to the two-child limit. Poverty in larger families <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijsw.12642">had been increasing</a> before it was introduced. But it means that the limit penalised families that were already vulnerable. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Worried couple, woman is pregnant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577384/original/file-20240222-22-3jerkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The poorest families are losing out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/married-man-woman-stressed-worried-postpartum-1940705395">christinarosepix/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also looked at income differences between larger families with or without a child under three. The two-child limit came into force in 2017, meaning that in 2019-20 larger families with children aged under three would be affected by the policy. We found that larger families with a child under three had lower incomes on average in real terms in 2019-20 than in 2015-16. </p>
<p>And we found that poverty has worsened the most in the poorest larger families. Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the large families who were poorer than 90% of families nationally saw their income fall by 18% in real terms. The larger families on middling incomes saw their income fall by 9%.</p>
<p>The income of the poorest small families – families not affected by the two child limit – also fell in real terms, but by much less: 2%. </p>
<h2>Unusual limits</h2>
<p>From an international perspective, the UK two-child limit policy is unusual. None of the other <a href="https://www.oecd.org/about/">developed countries</a> that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijsw.12642">limit the number</a> of children eligible for means-tested family benefits to two children, and in many countries benefits increase with family size. </p>
<p><a href="https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/casepaper228.pdf">Research</a> from the London School of Economics shows that only three European Union countries restrict their benefits by family size (Cyprus, Romania and Spain) but they do so at three or four children. </p>
<p>The rationale for the two-child limit was to reduce government deficit, but it <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006E.pdf">also sought</a> to encourage parents “to reflect carefully on their readiness to support an additional child”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://endchildpoverty.org.uk/two_child_limit/">End Child Poverty Coalition</a> argues that scrapping the limit would be the most cost effective way of reducing child poverty, stating that for the estimated cost of £1.3 billion, a quarter of a million children would be lifted from poverty. If the Labour party is serious about <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Mission-breaking-down-barriers.pdf">breakding down the barriers to opportunity</a>, abolishing the two-child limit should be the first thing they do, should they come to power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Bradshaw receives funding from no one currently. He is a member of the Research Committee of the Child Poverty Action Group and an Emeritus Professor at the University of York.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yekaterina Chzhen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than helping the families in greatest need, the policy punishes them.Yekaterina Chzhen, Assistant Professor in Sociology, Trinity College DublinJonathan Bradshaw, Professor of Social Policy, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178832024-02-28T12:33:55Z2024-02-28T12:33:55ZThe true cost of food is far higher than what you spend at the checkout counter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577158/original/file-20240221-22-p0v0vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5822%2C3872&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stickers don't tell the whole story.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/customer-shops-at-a-grocery-store-on-february-13-2024-in-news-photo/2008637358">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After several years of pandemic-driven <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105846">price spikes at the grocery store</a>, retail food price inflation is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/business/economy/food-price-inflation-cools.html">slowing down</a>. That’s good news for consumers, especially those in low-income households, who spend a <a href="https://theconversation.com/swelling-grocery-bills-are-pummeling-the-poorest-who-spend-over-a-quarter-of-their-incomes-on-food-186980">proportionally larger share of their income on food</a>.</p>
<p>But there’s more to the cost of food than what we pay at the store. Producing, processing, transporting and marketing food creates costs all along the value chain. Many are borne by society as a whole or by communities and regions. </p>
<p>For example, farm runoff is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-harmful-algal-blooms-and-dead-zones-the-us-needs-a-national-strategy-for-regulating-farm-pollution-186286">top cause of algae blooms and dead zones</a> in rivers, lakes and bays. And <a href="https://refed.org/food-waste/the-problem?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5rGuBhCnARIsAN11vgSiHk7wAwmYKS-jz9eGPkOcGbEmBtbSUvPCULQTHcrDZ39d5AlQA28aAvHzEALw_wcB">food waste</a> takes up one-fourth of the space in U.S. landfills, where it rots, generating methane that <a href="https://theconversation.com/about-one-third-of-the-food-americans-buy-is-wasted-hurting-the-climate-and-consumers-wallets-194956">warms Earth’s climate</a>. </p>
<p>Exploring these lesser-known costs is the first step toward reducing them. The key is a method called <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003050803/true-cost-accounting-food-barbara-gemmill-herren-lauren-baker-paula-daniels">true cost accounting</a>, which examines the economic, environmental, social and health impacts of food production and consumption to produce a broader picture of its costs and benefits. </p>
<h2>Trillions of dollars in uncounted costs</h2>
<p>Every year since 1947, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has released an important and widely read report called <a href="https://www.fao.org/publications/home/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-and-agriculture/en">The State of Food and Agriculture</a>, known in the food sector as SOFA. <a href="https://www.fao.org/publications/home/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-and-agriculture/en">SOFA 2023</a> examines how much more our food costs beyond what consumers pay at the grocery store. </p>
<p>Using true cost accounting, the report calculates that the global cost of the agrifood system in 2020 was up to US$12.7 trillion more than consumers paid at retail. That’s equivalent to about 10% of global gross domestic product, or $5 per person per day worldwide. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u1mV5S2QvlA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">True cost accounting is designed to measure the full impacts of producing, transporting and consuming food.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In traditional economics-speak, hidden costs are <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/externality.asp">known as externalities</a> – spillover effects from production that are caused by one party but paid for by another. Some externalities are positive. For example, birds, butterflies and insects pollinate crops at no charge, and everyone who eats those crops benefits. Others, such as pollution, are negative. Delivery trucks emit pollution, and everyone nearby breathes dirtier air. </p>
<p>True cost accounting seeks to make those externalities visible. To do this, scholars analyze data related to environmental, health, social and other costs and benefits, add them together and calculate a price tag that represents what food really costs. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://globalfutures.asu.edu/food/">Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems</a> at Arizona State University, which I direct, recently conducted a <a href="https://cdn.globalfutures.asu.edu/food/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2023/07/04252023-Unveiling-Hidden-Capitals_web.pdf">true cost accounting study</a> of <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/june/beef-cow-calf-production/">cow-calf operations</a> in the Western U.S., in partnership with Colorado State University. It found that the climate costs of these operations are very high – but that solving for climate change alone could threaten the livelihoods of 70,000 ranchers and the rural communities in which they live. A true cost accounting approach can illuminate the need for multidimensional solutions. </p>
<p>I study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GRi_wHAAAAAJ&hl=en">sustainable food systems</a> and am one of 150 scholars across 33 countries who worked together over several years to <a href="https://teebweb.org/publications/teebagrifood/">design and test this new methodology</a>. Our work was led by the U.N. Environment Program and partially funded by the <a href="https://futureoffood.org/">Global Alliance for the Future of Food</a>, a coalition of philanthropic foundations. </p>
<p>In many ways, true cost accounting is a modern and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003050803-12/embedding-tca-within-us-regulatory-decision-making-kathleen-merrigan">improved version of cost-benefit analysis</a>, a method embedded in governmental decision-making in most advanced economies around the world. This approach <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cost-benefitanalysis.asp">quantifies expected rewards and costs</a> associated with taking a particular action and then compares them to see whether the action is likely to produce a net gain or loss for the public.</p>
<p>Advocates of true cost accounting assert that its <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cc7724en/online/state-of-food-and-agriculture-2023/true-cost-accounting-assessment.html">more nuanced approach</a> will address shortcomings in traditional cost-benefit analysis – particularly, failing to consider social and health externalities in depth. The hope is that because these two methods have many similarities, it should be relatively easy for governments to upgrade to true cost accounting as it becomes more widely adopted. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dozens of young pigs feed in pens inside a large modern barn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577165/original/file-20240221-24-uqywqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Large-scale livestock farms produce food efficiently at a low cost, but they generate odors and huge quantities of animal waste that can affect adjoining communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FactoryFarmFuror/7e9ceabcae514e9e8111ee867ed05244/photo">AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>True costs of food vary across countries</h2>
<p>The 2023 State of Food and Agriculture report <a href="https://www.fao.org/interactive/state-of-food-agriculture/en/">reveals some clear patterns</a>. Of the $12.7 trillion in worldwide hidden costs that it tallies, 39% are generated by upper-middle-income countries and 36% by high-income countries. </p>
<p>For wealthy countries, 84% of hidden costs derive from unhealthy dietary patterns, such as eating large quantities of red meat and heavily processed foods, which is associated with <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/whats-the-beef-with-red-meat">elevated risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses</a>. Getting sick takes people away from work, so these health effects also reduce productivity, which affects the economy.</p>
<p>In contrast, 50% of the hidden costs of food in low-income countries are social costs that stem from poverty and undernourishment. SOFA 2023 estimates that incomes of poor people who produce food in low-income countries would need to increase by 57% for these workers to obtain sufficient revenue and calories for productive lives. </p>
<p>Food insecurity on farms is also an issue in the U.S., where the people who produce our food <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10448-0">sometimes go hungry themselves</a>. The food system’s reliance on <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/#size">undocumented and low-paid workers</a> yields <a href="https://youthtoday.org/2022/10/youth-agricultural-workers-arent-protected-equally-under-u-s-labor-law/">undernourished children who often are unable to learn</a>. </p>
<p>The fact that many U.S. farmworkers lack access to health insurance also generates costs, since hospitals <a href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/health-care-access-among-californias-farmworkers/">treat them at public expense</a> when these workers fall sick or are injured. </p>
<p>Food production also has environmental costs. <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-few-heavy-storms-cause-a-big-chunk-of-nitrogen-pollution-from-midwest-farms-146980">Nitrogen runoff</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/epa-has-tightened-its-target-for-deadly-particle-pollution-states-need-more-tools-to-reach-it-223610">ammonia emissions</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-amazon-land-grab-how-brazils-government-is-clearing-the-way-for-deforestation-173416">deforestation</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-harmful-algal-blooms-and-dead-zones-the-us-needs-a-national-strategy-for-regulating-farm-pollution-186286">water pollution</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-production-generates-more-than-a-third-of-manmade-greenhouse-gas-emissions-a-new-framework-tells-us-how-much-comes-from-crops-countries-and-regions-167623">greenhouse gas emissions</a> combined represent about 20% of the global hidden costs of food production. Other environmental costs, such as those associated with species loss and pesticide exposure, are not included in the SOFA analysis. </p>
<h2>Should food cost more?</h2>
<p>The first question people ask me about true cost accounting is whether using it will make food more expensive. Some advocates do argue for pricing food at a level that internalizes its hidden costs. </p>
<p>For example, a Dutch organization called <a href="https://trueprice.org/">True Price</a> works with food companies to help them <a href="https://tonyschocolonely.com/us/en/our-mission/news/why-we-wont-stop-paying-a-higher-price-for-cocoa">charge more accurate prices</a>. The group operates a <a href="https://trueprice.org/supermarket-de-aanzet/">grocery store in Amsterdam</a> that charges conventional prices but provides receipts that also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/how-much-do-things-really-cost">display “true” prices</a>, reflecting the goods’ hidden costs. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/ChH0pHdMbic/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Consumers are encouraged to pay these higher prices. When they do, the store shares the proceeds with two nonprofit organizations that promote <a href="https://landandlife.foundation/">land and wildlife conservation</a> and <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/">poverty reduction</a> in Africa. </p>
<p>Rather than raising prices, I believe the most effective way to address the hidden costs of food would be to change government policies that provide <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cb6562en/cb6562en.pdf">$540 billion in agricultural subsidies</a> worldwide every year. Of this amount, 87% goes to support production systems that produce cheap food, fiber and biofuels but also generate social and environmental harms. Examples include subsides that promote chemical fertilizer and pesticide use, overuse of natural resources and cultivation of emission-intensive products such as rice. </p>
<p>U.N. agencies have urged world leaders to redirect these subsidies to reduce negative impacts – a strategy they call “<a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-report-calls-repurposing-usd-470-billion-agricultural-support">a multibillion-dollar opportunity to transform food systems</a>.” While it may seem that eliminating subsidies would raise retail prices, that’s not necessarily true – especially if they are repurposed to support sustainable, equitable and efficient production.</p>
<p>Using true cost accounting as a guide, policymakers could reallocate some of these vast sums of money toward production methods that deliver net-positive benefits, such as expanding <a href="https://theconversation.com/organic-food-has-become-mainstream-but-still-has-room-to-grow-164220">organic agriculture</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trees-can-make-farms-more-sustainable-heres-how-to-help-farmers-plant-more-222030">agroforestry</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-information-age-is-starting-to-transform-fishing-worldwide-179352">sustainable fisheries</a>. They also could invest in training and supporting next-generation food and agriculture leaders.</p>
<p>By creating transparency, true cost accounting can help shift money away from harmful food production systems and toward alternatives that protect resources and rural communities. Doing so could reduce the hidden costs of feeding the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Merrigan served as a reviewer for the SOFA 2023 report described in this article. She has received funding from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.</span></em></p>A new UN report finds that the true global cost of producing food is $12.7 trillion more than consumers pay at the checkout counter. We pay those uncounted costs in other ways.Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225882024-02-27T19:40:15Z2024-02-27T19:40:15ZBetty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ − even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577625/original/file-20240223-28-ht6czh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3691%2C2714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Betty Smith's novel sold millions of copies in the 1940s.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-young-women-smile-as-they-crowd-around-another-who-news-photo/119076541?adppopup=true">Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eighty years ago, in the winter and spring of 1944, Brooklyn-born author <a href="https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/smith-betty">Betty Smith</a> was entering a new chapter of life.</p>
<p>A year earlier, she was an unknown writer, negotiating with her publisher about manuscript edits and the date of publication for her first book, “<a href="https://archive.org/stream/ATreeGrowsInBrooklynByBettySmith/A+Tree+Grows+In+Brooklyn+by+Betty+Smith_djvu.txt">A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</a>,” a semi-autobiographical novel about the poor but spirited Nolan family. </p>
<p>Now she was one of the lucky few. Her book was spotted in cafes, on buses and in bookstores all over town. The following year, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038190/">when it was being made into a film</a> directed by Elia Kazan, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=H1MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43&dq=A+Tree+Grows+in+Brooklyn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj25depp-CDAxXiSTABHYd3C6YQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=A%20Tree%20Grows%20in%20Brooklyn&f=false">Life magazine reported</a>, “Betty Smith’s ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ (2,500,000 copies sold) has become one of the best-loved novels of our time.”</p>
<p>New York in the 1940s was not the city we know today. The Empire State Building had not reached its <a href="https://www.esbnyc.com/about/history">full height</a>, nor had the statue of <a href="https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/alice-in-wonderland/">“Alice in Wonderland” taken up residence in Central Park</a>. And it would be decades before anyone was humming along to a tune that brashly commanded, “Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today, I want to be a part of it: New York, New York!” </p>
<p>Brooklyn, too, was still becoming itself – and no other 20th-century American novel did quite so much for the borough’s reputation.</p>
<h2>Readers fall for Brooklyn</h2>
<p>During World War II, writes law professor <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/when-books-went-to-war-molly-guptill-manning">Molly Guptill Manning</a>, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” was one of the most popular books among the Armed Services Editions, which were mass-produced paperbacks selected by a panel of literary experts for distribution to the U.S. military during World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Green horizontal copy of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' with creases along the cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577644/original/file-20240223-28-x187bq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Armed Services Edition of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/03/A-Tree-Grows-in-Brooklyn-ASE.jpg">UNC Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It seemed like everyone wanted to declare some affiliation with the novel-turned-film and, by extension, with Brooklyn. Even readers who had never set foot in the borough nonetheless found themselves enchanted by it through Smith’s portrayal. </p>
<p>As one reader wrote to Smith, “Raised as a ‘rebel of the old South,’ Brooklyn has long been my symbol of all yankee, thus learning to hate it; but now I have learned to love it through Francie’s eyes … as Francie loved it.”</p>
<p>Advertisers also took note, riffing on Smith’s title with tags such as, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=A+Tree+Grows+in+Brooklyn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgn8vbp-CDAxU6RDABHX3uAF44ChDoAXoECAkQAg#v=onepage&q=A%20Tree%20Grows%20in%20Brooklyn&f=false">A Dress Grows on Peggy</a>,” or Rheingold extra dry lager – the “beer that grows in Brooklyn.”</p>
<h2>Poverty loses its sheen of shame</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, readers who had grown up in the borough responded enthusiastically to Smith’s evocations of their favorite neighborhood haunts, writing to her to share their own memories of the shops and streets that she had included in the novel. </p>
<p>“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” had done something remarkable for them: It removed the veil of shame that surrounded tenement living and, as historian Judith E. Smith has written, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/visions-of-belonging/9780231121712">helped them reclaim their humble origins</a>.</p>
<p>And not just reclaim them. The novel affirmed the desire to move beyond poverty, as the protagonist, Francie, had done, and Betty Smith, too.</p>
<p>Francie’s wanderings through Brooklyn lead to her discovery of a more inviting public school than her own. With her father’s help, she manages to enroll in the school, which is better funded but farther from home. Despite the extra-long schlep, Francie sees it as “a good thing” to have found this new school: “It showed her that there were other worlds beside the world she had been born into and that these other worlds were not unattainable.” </p>
<p>It was a feeling that people of many backgrounds could understand, and not just in Brooklyn. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Red and white brick apartment buildings in Brooklyn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577637/original/file-20240223-16-quqvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">702 Grand Street in Williamsburg, where Smith spent part of her childhood and which served as the setting for ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,’ pictured in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.compass.com/listing/702-grand-street-brooklyn-ny-11211/265170627315403233/">Compass Real Estate</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Smith certainly understood the importance of broadening her horizons: Although she never finished high school, when her marriage to a University of Michigan graduate student brought her to Ann Arbor, she was able to audit classes as a special student.</p>
<p>There, her work for her playwriting classes led to a prestigious playwriting prize, and then an invitation to study at Yale School of Drama. Divorced at that point, Smith was free to pursue her education in theater at Yale. The theme of self-improvement through education made “A Tree Grows” relatable for readers of modest origins.</p>
<p>Readers were quick to see the novel as a paean to Brooklyn, and often sought to bond with Smith over their presumed shared love of Brooklyn.</p>
<p>“I hope you will give us further stories of the Brooklyn which you know, and, I am sure, love so well,” wrote one reader. </p>
<p>“Some day, if you have time, it might be fun to chew the fat a bit about old Williamsburgh (sic),” journalist Meyer Berger wrote to Smith after reading and reviewing her novel. </p>
<p>“Betty Smith obviously loves Brooklyn and is proud of it,” Orville Prescott declared in his <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/08/18/issue.html">glowing New York Times review</a>.</p>
<h2>Smith scorns the borough’s new arrivals</h2>
<p>But did Betty Smith love Brooklyn? </p>
<p>After all, she wrote the novel while living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – years after having moved away from New York. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bkmag.com/2021/08/20/priced-out-the-2020-census-throws-brooklyns-affordable-housing-crisis-into-relief/">Like so many who leave Brooklyn today</a>, Smith did not return to take up residence, in part because she could not afford to live there on her own. By the time she had earned a windfall from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” she had come to love Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>Smith also left Brooklyn with mixed feelings about her hometown. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/visions-of-belonging/9780231121712">She wrote to her publishers in 1942</a>, “If Hitler’s bombers should ever get over and if any portion of this great city has to be wiped out, it would be a blessing if it were (Williamsburg).” </p>
<p>“Evil seems to be part of the very materials that the sidewalks are made out of and the wood and the brick of the houses,” she added. </p>
<p>Although writing about Brooklyn had brought her fortune and fame, she had no desire to return. </p>
<p>As she explained in her 1942 letter, Smith perceived Brooklyn’s current situation as the result of a changing population and growing crime: “A hundred years ago, it was a quiet peaceful village settled by hard-working, sturdy, honest burghers,” Smith reflected in her letter, adding that even 25 years ago, Williamsburg was a gentler place. “But now it’s a fearful one.” </p>
<p>Smith offered her own analysis of the situation: “The feuds in the neighborhood came about because most of the Italians originally came from Sicily and were fierce and murderous. The Jews in the neighborhood were mostly Russian Jews, conditioned to pogroms and much fiercer and more ready to fight.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Kids tug and pull at one another while a woman cries in the background and another woman tries to keep order." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577631/original/file-20240223-26-2gw4kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd gathers in Williamsburg in 1941 to see the corpse of a man shot twice by an unknown gunman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/premium-rates-apply-a-crowd-gathers-in-the-williamsburg-news-photo/2716771?adppopup=true">Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like many Americans at the time, Smith held some entrenched and intolerant views about immigrants and their character. Since she was often invited to contribute guest essays to publications during the height of her fame, she had ample opportunity to express her worldview. </p>
<p>After World War II, Smith directed this hostility toward foreigners at America’s wartime enemies. In her August 1945 essay “<a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/26/305533912.html?pageNumber=104">Thoughts for These Days of Victory</a>,” she encouraged readers not to forget their anger at wartime enemies: “Let us hold this bitterness so that we’ll not again be lulled into a false sense of security. The war proved conclusively that not all men are brothers and that not all nations are sisters.” </p>
<p>A full understanding of the Betty Smith behind the novel that changed how Americans felt about Brooklyn – and their humble origins – are complicated by Smith’s own views and her experiences away from Brooklyn. </p>
<p>As Smith knew, making something of yourself often requires leaving home. It’s hard to tell whether distance made her heart grow fonder. In leaving Brooklyn, Smith had not suddenly started seeing her hometown through rose-colored glasses.</p>
<p>In Chapel Hill she was finally able to see Brooklyn – and write about it – in a way that brought readers of all kinds closer to Brooklyn and legitimized their own origin stories. That, in and of itself, is a kind of love, even if it’s not the unconditional kind so many had imagined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Gordan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it.Rachel Gordan, Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186822024-02-21T13:19:25Z2024-02-21T13:19:25ZMarriage is not as effective an anti-poverty strategy as you’ve been led to believe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575664/original/file-20240214-26-6cr98q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the popular guidance, marriage can be an economic risk for single parents with unstable partners.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/divorce-process-royalty-free-image/1329914655">simarik/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Brides.com predicts that 2024 will be the “<a href="https://www.brides.com/marriage-proposal-boom-2024-8358024">year of the proposal</a>” as engagements tick back up after a pandemic-driven slowdown.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, support for marriage has found new grist in recent books, including <a href="https://sociology.as.virginia.edu/people/w-bradford-wilcox">sociologist</a> Brad Wilcox’s “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Married-Americans-Families-Civilization/dp/0063210851">Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization</a>” and economist Melissa Kearney’s “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo205550079.html">The Two-Parent Privilege</a>.”</p>
<p>Kearney’s book was <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/review-of-the-two-parent-privilege-by-melissa-kearney">hailed by economist Tyler Cowen</a> as possibly “the most important economics and policy book of this year.” This is not because it treads new ground but because, as author <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/review-of-the-two-parent-privilege-by-melissa-kearney">Kay Hymowitz writes</a>, it breaks the supposed “taboo about an honest accounting of family decline.” </p>
<p>These developments are good news for the marriage promotion movement, which <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/webid-moynihan">for decades</a> has claimed that marriage supports children’s well-being and combats poverty. The movement dates back at least to the U.S. Department of Labor’s <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/webid-moynihan">Moynihan Report of 1965</a>, which argued that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-moynihan-report-an-annotated-edition/404632/">family structure aggravated Black poverty</a>.</p>
<p>Forty years after the Moynihan Report, George W. Bush-era programs such as the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/policy-guidance/csbg-im-no-89-healthy-marriage-initiative">Healthy Marriage Initiative</a> sought to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4624797">enlist churches</a> and other community groups in an effort to channel childbearing back into marriage. These initiatives continue today, with the federally subsidized <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/healthy-marriage-responsible-fatherhood">Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs</a>.</p>
<p>Still, nearly <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/single-parent-day.html">30% of U.S. children</a> live in single-parent homes today, compared with 10% in 1965.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gCJEShUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">law professors</a> who have written extensively about <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0BBCYNAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">family structure</a> and <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/eleanor-brown/">poverty</a>. We, and others, have found that there is almost no evidence that federal programs that promote marriage <a href="https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-arts-and-sciences/NCFMR/documents/FP/FP-14-02_HMIInitiative.pdf">have made a difference</a> in encouraging two-parent households. That’s in large part because they forgo effective solutions that directly address poverty for measures that embrace the culture wars. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Child hangs upside down on playground equipment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Having a parent who has a college degree makes kids less likely to live in poverty than having parents who are married.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-upside-down-on-the-jungle-gym-royalty-free-image/1127705002">Mayur Kakade/Moment Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Marriage and social class</h2>
<p>Today’s marriage promoters claim that <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-benefits-of-marriage-shouldnt-only-be-for-elites">marriage should not be just for elites</a>. The emergence of marriage as a marker of class, they believe, is a sign of societal dysfunction.</p>
<p>According to census data released in 2021, 9.5% of children living with two parents – and 7.5% with married parents – <a href="https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/statistical-briefing-book/population/faqs/qa01203#:%7E:text=In%202021%2C%209.5%25%20of%20children,17.4%25">lived below the poverty level</a>, compared with 31.7% of children living with a single parent.</p>
<p>Kearney’s argument comes down to: 1 + 1 = 2. Two parents have more resources, including money and time to spend with children, than one. She marshals extensive research designed to show that children from married couple families are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-063016-103749">more likely to graduate</a> from high school, complete college and earn <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-063016-103749">higher incomes as adults</a> than the children of single parents.</p>
<p>It is undoubtedly true that two parents – that is, two nonviolent parents with reliable incomes and cooperative behavior – have <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cohabiting-parents-differ-from-married-ones-in-three-big-ways/">more resources for their children</a> than one parent who has to work two jobs to pay the rent. However, this equation <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/pmyhj">does not address causation</a>. In other words, parents who have stable incomes and behaviors are more likely to stay together than parents who don’t.</p>
<p>Ethnographic studies indicate, for example, that the most common reasons unmarried women are no longer with the fathers of their children are the men’s <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3841832">violent behavior, infidelity</a> and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520335233/essential-dads">substance abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, income volatility disproportionately affects parents who don’t go to college. So while they may have more money to invest in children together than apart, when one of these parents experiences a substantial drop in income, the other parent may have to decide whether to <a href="https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1455&context=fac_works">support the partner or the children</a> on what is often a meager income.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/having-a-single-parent-doesnt-determine-your-life-chances-the-data-shows-poverty-is-far-more-important-217841">impact of having single parents</a> also plays out differently by race and class. As sociologist and researcher <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/opinion/two-parent-family.html">Christina Cross explains</a>, “Living apart from a biological parent does not carry the same cost for Black youths as for their white peers, and being raised in a two-parent family is not equally beneficial.” </p>
<p>For example, Cross found that living in a single-mother family is less likely to affect high school completion rates for Black children than for white children. Also, Black families tend to be more embedded in extended family than white families, and this additional support system may help protect children from negative outcomes associated with single-parent households.</p>
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<h2>Making men more ‘marriageable’</h2>
<p>Kearney, to her credit, does note that economic insecurity largely explains what is happening to working-class families, and that no parent should have to tolerate violence or substance abuse. But she doubles down on the need to restore a norm of two-parent families.</p>
<p>Many of her policy prescriptions are sensible. She advocates for better opportunities for low-income men – to make them, in the words of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo13375722.html">sociologist William Julius Wilson</a>, “marriageable.” Such policies would include wage subsidies to improve their job opportunities, investment in community colleges that provide skills training, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-the-box-would-help-people-released-from-prison-rebuild-their-lives-45539">removal of questions about criminal histories</a> from job applications, so that candidates who have previously been incarcerated are not immediately disqualified.</p>
<h2>A new marriage model</h2>
<p>What marriage promotion efforts overlook, however, are the underlying changes in what marriage has become – both legally and practically. </p>
<p>The new marriage model rests on three premises.</p>
<p>The first is a moral command: Have sex if you want to, but don’t have children until you are ready. While the shotgun marriage once served as the primary response to unplanned pregnancy, such marriages today often derail education and careers and are <a href="https://today.duke.edu/2016/11/shotgun-marriage-dead#:%7E:text=After%20a%20decade%2C%2030%20percent,prior%20to%20a%20child's%20conception.">more likely to result in divorce</a> than other marriages. Research shows that lower-income women’s pregnancies are much <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/fb-unintended-pregnancy-us_0_4.pdf">more likely to be unplanned</a>. </p>
<p>The second is the ability to pick a partner who will support you and assume joint responsibility for parenting. As women have attained more economic independence, they are less in need of men to raise children, particularly if their partners are insensitive or abusive. With healthy relationships, couples pick partners based on trust, commitment and equal respect. This is more difficult to do in communities with high rates of incarceration and few opportunities for stable employment. </p>
<p>And the third is economic and behavioral stability. Instability undermines even committed unions. Parents who wait until they find the right partner and have stable lives bring a lot more to parenting, whether they marry or not.</p>
<p>We believe that creating opportunities for low-income parents to reach this middle-class model is likely to be the most effective marriage promotion policy.</p>
<h2>Economic support is key</h2>
<p>In relationships that fall outside of these premises, 1 + 1 often becomes 1 + -1, which equals 0.</p>
<p>Being committed to a partner who can’t pay speeding tickets, runs up credit card bills, comes home drunk or can’t be relied on to pick up the children after school is not a recipe for success. </p>
<p>Economic principles suggest that businesses with more volatile income streams need a stronger capital base to withstand the downturns. Working-class couples who face economic insecurity see commitment as similarly misguided; without a capital base, a downturn for one partner can wipe out the other.</p>
<p>The Biden administration’s child tax credit expansion included in the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-02-08/the-child-tax-credit-bill-seems-destined-for-defeat-in-the-senate?embedded-checkout=true">American Rescue Plan Act of 2021</a> helped cut the child poverty rate – after accounting for government assistance – <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/governments-pandemic-response-turned-a-would-be-poverty-surge-into">to a record low</a> that year. It did more to address child poverty than <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106094155.htm">marriage promotion efforts have ever done</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers have described such income-support policies as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09782-0">ultimate multipurpose policy instrument</a>.” They improve the economic circumstances of single-parent families and, in doing so, may also provide greater support for two-parent relationships. </p>
<p>Policymakers know how to solve child poverty – and these measures are far more effective than efforts to put two married parents in every household.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Marriage on its own won’t do away with child poverty, and in fact it can create even more instability for low-income families.Eleanor Brown, Professor of Law, Fordham UniversityJune Carbone, Professor of Law, University of MinnesotaNaomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232052024-02-09T14:29:46Z2024-02-09T14:29:46ZSouth African president Cyril Ramaphosa aims for upbeat tone in annual address, but fails to impress a jaundiced electorate<p>This year’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/news/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2024-state-nation-address-08-feb-2024">State of the Nation Address</a> – delivered annually in February by South Africa’s president – was bound to be stuffed with electioneering messages and slogans. The country goes to the polls <a href="https://www.eisa.org/election-calendar/">any time between May and August</a> and there was no doubt that Cyril Ramaphosa would use the occasion to burnish the governing African National Congress’s reputation.</p>
<p>That’s indeed what he did. The upcoming elections are the most significant since the country became a democracy in 1994. Numerous opinion polls suggest the ANC will <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2024/2024-02/new-poll-shows-dramatic-decline-in-electoral-support-of-anc.html">fall below 50%</a> of the vote nationally for the first time, providing opportunities for opposition coalitions. A party needs to win <a href="https://www.gov.za/CoalitionsDialogue/faqs">50%</a> or more of the seats in parliament to form a government on its own. </p>
<p>Adding to the moment was the fact that this was the last state of the nation address of Ramaphosa’s term.</p>
<p>In his 105-minute address Ramaphosa tried to remind his audience of the government’s achievements over the past three decades of democracy. </p>
<p>These included 200 prosecutions for corruption, and new public-private partnerships to build power transmission lines. </p>
<p>The omissions included the persistence of <a href="https://southafrica.un.org/en/123531-slow-violence-malnutrition-south-africa">chronic malnutrition</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-revolting-against-inept-local-government-why-it-matters-155483">distressing number of ANC-run municipalities</a> whose sewage treatment plants have broken down, which can no longer bill for electricity, and which fail to repair potholed roads.</p>
<p>As a political scientist I’ve <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/nagenda_v2021_n80_a5">studied</a> South African politics for many years.</p>
<p>The president’s speech – looking back and ahead – couldn’t cover up the fact that the last five years have been some of the most difficult for ordinary South Africans. Power cuts have <a href="https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-and-food-safety-how-to-avoid-illness-during-loadshedding-200586">become more severe</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/statistics-south-africa-quarterly-labour-force-survey-quarter-three-2023-14#:%7E:text=The%20unemployment%20rate%20according%20to,000%20over%20the%20same%20period.">joblessness</a> continues to rise and the economy is performing <a href="https://www.resbank.co.za/content/dam/sarb/publications/statements/monetary-policy-statements/2024/january/Statement%20of%20the%20Monetary%20Policy%20Committee%20January%202024.pdf">poorly</a>. </p>
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<p>If he was hoping to liven up the ANC’s election chances, his speech might just not do it. </p>
<h2>The contested record</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa listed a number of achievements of the last 30 years as testimony of the advances made under successive ANC governments. But many of the claims rang hollow.</p>
<p><strong>Poverty:</strong> In 1994 71% of South Africa’s population lived in poverty; today 55% do, <a href="https://www.gov.za/news/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2024-state-nation-address-08-feb-2024">he said</a>, citing World Bank figures. He gave an example of a girl born in 1994 whose parents live in a house built by the state, who got a child grant, went to a free school with free meals, and obtained a bursary to graduate from a training college and start earning a living.</p>
<p>All this is true for millions of South Africans. The problem is that it’s not for millions of others. </p>
<p><strong>Employment:</strong> The president devoted paragraphs of his speech to job opportunities created by various government programmes. </p>
<p>But this too was heavily criticised. To my knowledge, the phrase “job opportunity” is state-speak for a temporary job which always ends, usually after three months, to then be offered to someone else in the unemployment queue. Real unemployment – the expanded definition – is <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/Media%20release%20QLFS%20Q4%202022.pdf">around 42%</a>, up from 15% <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w13167/w13167.pdf">in 1994</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Energy:</strong> On the continuing power cuts Ramaphosa <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/state-nation-address-president-cyril-ramaphosa-cape-town-city-hall-2">pledged</a> that</p>
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<p>the worst is behind us and an end to load-shedding is in reach.</p>
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<p>He said public-private partnerships are building 14,000km of transmission cables. These will link up new solar and other power plants to an augmented national grid. </p>
<p>But South Africans have grown weary of unfulfilled promises. Many have been made before. People have become cynical about pledges of future electricity improvements. Sadly, the state power utility, Eskom, could not celebrate 2023 as its centenary. Last year saw the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-22/south-africa-faces-two-more-years-of-power-outages-eskom-says">worst power cuts in the country’s history</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robberies-surge-as-criminals-take-advantage-of-south-africas-power-outages-199106">Robberies surge as criminals take advantage of South Africa's power outages</a>
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<p><strong>Investment and black ownership:</strong> The president reported that R1.5 trillion (US$79 billion) of new investment had come into South Africa since 2018, and that black ownership of mining had risen from 2% in 1994 to 39% today. A quarter of agricultural private land was now owned by black farmers, and the government’s goal of one-third of farm land being returned to black farmers by 2030 was now in reach. </p>
<p>But evidence shows land reform has a mixed record of <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2022/11/ancs-land-reform-shame-75-of-land-reform-farms-have-failed">successes and failures</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Minimum wage:</strong> Ramaphosa took a swipe at the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, by reminding South Africans that 6 million workers had had their pay raised by national minimum wages over the past few years. </p>
<p>The Democratic Alliance is <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2020/12/da-opposes-national-minimum-wage-commissions-proposed-increases">opposed to minimum wages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Social grants:</strong> Ramaphosa listed a host of social security measures. These included 9 million people on <a href="https://www.gov.za/services/services-residents/social-benefits/social-relief-distress">Social Relief of Distress</a> grants (R350 or US$18.42 a month) which started during the COVID pandemic, and the 9 million school children receiving a free lunch daily. There are <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=16711">62 million</a> South Africans. </p>
<p>But even here the real story isn’t all that good. Malnutrition and hunger remain stubbornly persistent. National statistics show that <a href="https://southafrica.un.org/en/123531-slow-violence-malnutrition-south-africa">27% of children are stunted</a> – under weight and under height for their age. Child grants cannot feed both a baby and its unemployed single mother. </p>
<p><strong>Health:</strong> the president spoke of a new academic hospital under construction <a href="https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/limpopo-get-new-academic-hospital">in Limpopo province</a>. He did not mention that hundreds of newly graduated doctors cannot find jobs in the public health sector due to budget cuts compelling a <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2024-02-07-this-is-why-the-health-department-cannot-employ-new-doctors/#:%7E:text=SA%20has%20close%20to%20700,afford%20to%20employ%20these%20professionals">freeze on filling empty posts</a>.</p>
<h2>What was left unsaid</h2>
<p>In my view South Africans won’t be impressed by the speech. Previous State of the Nation addresses have not been followed by implementation. In one ill-advised one <a href="https://www.gov.za/news/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2019-state-nation-address-07-feb-2019">in 2019</a>, the president fantasised about bullet trains, when his audience were desperately waiting for the resumption of service on slow train commuting routes. They still are.</p>
<p>The 2024 speech offers fertile material for opposition parties to score points against the ANC. They have already started to do so in <a href="https://www.enca.com/top-stories/sona-2024-opposition-parties-criticise-story-tintswalo">TV interviews</a> and other <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/business-opinion/750354/sona-2024-reactions-ramaphosa-pats-himself-on-the-back-while-south-africa-sits-in-crisis/">media</a>: promises of an end to power cuts attract the most sarcasm.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thirty-years-of-rural-health-research-south-africas-agincourt-studies-offer-unique-insights-222624">Thirty years of rural health research: South Africa’s Agincourt studies offer unique insights</a>
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<p>This address had to be held in the old Cape Town city hall, rented from a DA-controlled municipality, because negligent security failed to prevent an arsonist from <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-further-measures-regarding-parliament-fire-incident-and-alleged-administrative-irregularities">burning down the parliament building</a> on Jauary 2022 – symptomatic of general state incompetence.</p>
<p>Parliamentary practice is that opposition parties are given at least two full days to criticise the State of the Nation address and to present their alternatives. </p>
<p>This address by and large repeats what the ANC and government have already said on several occasions. Likewise, the opposition responses are not new. It will be more of the same from both sides all the way to voting day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is a member of the African National Congress, but writes this piece in his professional capacity as a political scientist.</span></em></p>The president’s speech couldn’t cover up for the fact that the last five years have been among the most difficult for ordinary South Africans.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216922024-02-08T16:28:09Z2024-02-08T16:28:09ZHave Conservative councils started placing more children in care each year than Labour councils? New analysis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573757/original/file-20240206-20-u3h0ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5734%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/schoolchildren-crossing-road-on-their-way-1089516491">Studio Peace/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In England, over 80,000 children are now in care, an increase of <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2023">nearly one third</a> since 2010. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213423005781?via%3Dihub">We’ve discovered</a> that local party politics is a factor in this. Our analysis shows that, between 2015 and 2021, six or seven more children each year were taken into care in an average sized Conservative council than in an equivalent Labour council.</p>
<p>There have been big inequalities between local authorities in the rise in the numbers of children in care since the start of the Cameron-Clegg, Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010. In the north-east of England they have increased by over 60%, while in inner London they’re <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children">down almost 20%</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468017318793479">Previous evidence shows</a> that the key factor is economics. Children in the most deprived 10% of small neighbourhoods are over <a href="https://pure.hud.ac.uk/ws/files/21398145/CWIP_Final_Report.pdf">ten times more likely</a> to be in care than in the least deprived 10%. </p>
<p>But, despite talk about levelling up, child poverty has risen much faster in Labour councils than in Conservative ones. This means that we would expect the number of children being placed into care in Labour councils to rise more quickly. But the actual numbers of children going into care in Labour and Conservative councils each year is more or less the same. </p>
<p>Our research controlled for poverty. We found that if two average-sized local authorities were the same in terms of poverty, income and expenditure, over five years, a Conservative council would take over 30 more children into care than a Labour council. </p>
<h2>What we did</h2>
<p>We investigated whether rates of children in care have been growing or falling across all English local authorities according to their party political leadership. </p>
<p>We then used a statistical model to predict what these trends would be likely to look like were we to imagine that child poverty, average household income, and council spending on services to prevent children being taken into care had stayed the same throughout 2015-2021, rather than growing at different rates across the country. This allowed us to focus in on the specific relationship between care rates and local party political control.</p>
<p>By focusing on differences in these trends, rather than overall numbers, we are able to isolate factors that can explain the recent dramatic increase in numbers of children in care from factors associated with longstanding differences between local authorities. </p>
<p>Once again, we found that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics">child poverty</a> was by far the most significant factor behind the upward trend. The greater the local increase in child poverty, the steeper the upward trend in children in care. This is, of course, mainly influenced by national policies affecting employment, wages, housing costs, benefit levels and so on. Local councils have little control over those. </p>
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<img alt="Young boy looking out of window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Child poverty is the most important factor in the rise in numbers of children being placed in care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/small-boy-sitting-near-window-thinking-248899603">spixel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Then we analysed changes to care numbers in more detail. In an average sized local authority, the numbers of children in care increased by around seven or eight per year between 2015 and 2021. Before controlling for child poverty, Labour and Conservative councils’ growing rates of children in care appear virtually indistinguishable. </p>
<p>However, because child poverty rose almost twice as fast in Labour councils than Conservative ones, this masked a real contrast between local authorities led by the two parties. </p>
<p>That means that, in an average size local authority, after five years we would expect over 30 more children in care in a Conservative council than a Labour council, holding trends in poverty, income and expenditure constant. Thirty additional children in care would cost a typical authority £2.5m more per year. That’s money that we think would be better spent keeping families together.</p>
<h2>Looking for explanations</h2>
<p>Three reasons might explain the difference between Labour and Conservative councils. First, Conservative and Labour councils may have different approaches to supporting families and protecting children. There may be a greater emphasis in Conservative councils on removing children at risk rather than providing support to families to prevent or mitigate risks.</p>
<p>This was the view taken by Michael Gove, when he was education secretary with responsibility for children’s services. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-failure-of-child-protection-and-the-need-for-a-fresh-start">In a 2012 speech</a> he argued that children were being left for too long in homes where they were experiencing neglect and abuse. “More children should be taken into care more quickly”, he said.</p>
<p>Second, as a result, Conservative councils may allocate a smaller proportion of their budget to family support services, or may fund different kinds of preventative services. </p>
<p>Third, it may be that Conservative councils allocate proportionately less funding to the most deprived areas within their local authority than Labour councils, resulting in less support for families and children in greatest need.</p>
<p>All these hypotheses require testing.</p>
<p>We aren’t saying that Conservative councillors want more children in care. Most councils are under huge pressures because of the rising costs of both children’s and adult social care services, driving several to bankruptcy. </p>
<p>Research shows that the steep upward trend in the numbers of children in care results mainly from national policies affecting families. It is increasingly clear that reducing child poverty, especially deep and persistent poverty, and insecure housing and low income, is the key to reducing the numbers of children in care.</p>
<p>But local actions matter too. Local councils cannot control national economic trends, but they can poverty-proof local services, make sure that the services focus on areas of greatest need and that services respond directly to family poverty by offering concrete help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I receive funding from the Wellcome Trust for my contribution to a separate research programme. I have previously been funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for work on children's services, poverty and inequality.
I am a member of the Labour Party </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calum Webb receives funding from the British Academy PF21\210024; he has previously been funded by the ESRC and the Nuffield Foundation. He was formerly a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>We investigated whether rates of children in care have been growing or falling across all English local authorities according to their party political leadership.Paul Bywaters, Professor of Social Work, University of HuddersfieldCalum Webb, Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217892024-01-29T12:51:00Z2024-01-29T12:51:00ZOver half of charity campaigns for international causes focus on Africa – here’s why that’s harmful<p>The images used by charities and NGOs can become deeply ingrained in the memories of supporters, donors, development partners and the “beneficiaries” themselves. These stories colour what is generally known about global poverty and the developing world. </p>
<p>One of the most notorious examples was the media and charity coverage of the <a href="http://www.imaging-famine.org/papers/UK_Report_Section_1.pdf">Ethiopian famine</a> in the early 1980s. Powerful and disturbing images brought the reality of the famine into the lives of millions of British people and fast became the currency of the media and NGOs.</p>
<p>But there’s a problem with this. The use of such imagery seems to confirm rather than challenge traditional perceptions that Africa is underdeveloped and not capable of dealing with its own problems.</p>
<p>In 2021, I purchased 17 national newspapers in the UK every weekend over a period of six months. The aim was to explore whether charity adverts have changed in recent years and what kinds of characters are represented in fundraising campaigns. </p>
<p>After analysing a total of 541 fundraising images, one of the <a href="https://charity-advertising.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/charity-representations-of-distant-others-report-2024.pdf">major findings</a> was that Africa continues to be over-represented in charity adverts supporting international causes. Over half of the images (56%) focused on countries in Africa. And almost none of these images contain whole family units – rather they are set in rural areas and feature women and children.</p>
<p>But there is also evidence that charities are actively responding to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2018/jan/12/charities-stop-poverty-porn-fundraising-ed-sheeran-comic-relief">previous critiques</a> of using shock tactics, dehumanisation and employing images to evoke emotions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A charity advert in a newspaper with a picture of women and children in rural Ethiopia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571441/original/file-20240125-21-l248se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of an advert by EthiopiAid in the Guardian using images of women and children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Girling</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>By constantly focusing the spotlight on African countries, charities reinforce historical stereotypes of underdevelopment that equate Africa with poverty. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/67684/public-attitudes-april10.pdf">report</a> from 2010 that was commissioned by the Department for International Development, for instance, found that the UK public view “developing countries” as synonymous with “Africa”. They associate Africa with poverty and misery, reflecting some of the representations used in charitable appeals. </p>
<p>The consistent portrayal of these depictions in various campaigns has promoted the view among the British public that there has been little to no progress in economic and social development across Africa since the 1980s. This has contributed to the belief that Africa is a “<a href="https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379931879_Andrews.pdf">bottomless pit</a>” in terms of charitable efforts and the constant need for foreign aid.</p>
<p>But, in reality, this is not the case. Africa is developing fast. It has the world’s <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/reimagining-economic-growth-in-africa-turning-diversity-into-opportunity">youngest and fastest-growing population</a> which, by the middle of this century, is expected to hit 2.5 billion.</p>
<h2>Addressing stereotypes</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, my findings do suggest that the sector is making strides towards decolonising narratives and addressing its use of damaging stereotypes. In 2016, a study found that 34% of all <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jid.3235">British charity adverts</a> used “pitiful images” that explicitly emphasised human suffering. </p>
<p>However, by 2021, only two out of the 27 charities that placed adverts used pitiful images in their fundraising appeals. This amounted to 11% of all adverts as these charities repeatedly used such imagery over the six month study period, but it still represents a significant decline.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fundraising appeal by Sightsavers depicting an African child suffering from trachoma." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571442/original/file-20240125-15-h61b6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Image from a Sightsavers fundraising leaflet which was used 20 times during the six month period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Girling</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women and children continued to be the most popular characters in newspaper adverts. But, compared to similar studies from <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/representations-of-global-poverty-9780857722492/">2013</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jid.3235">2016</a>, there was a significant reduction in the use of images of children. In 2021, 21% of charitable campaigns featured images of children, down from 42% in 2013.</p>
<p>By 2021, 20% of all the images used in charitable campaigns were also of people characterised as professionals or leaders from developing countries. These people included doctors, nurses and other development workers, offering a more realistic view of people from Africa.</p>
<p>Several factors have prompted charities into reconsidering the potential damage of the representation they use and the stories they tell in recent years. One of the main factors is the need to decolonise narratives by reducing the use of negative stereotypes.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Lives-Matter">Black Lives Matter</a> protests in 2020 were a significant catalyst in charities rapidly adopting or updating their ethical imagery policies. The protests alerted people and organisations to the injustices of colonial histories. </p>
<p>The COVID pandemic was also instrumental in charities being forced to employ local photographers and filmmakers in the countries where they deliver programmes. Travel restrictions that were imposed during the pandemic meant charities were unable to fly in their own staff.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Images have the potential to inflict damage. So communications professionals in the charity sector must strive to diversify the characters they portray.</p>
<p>But the public has a level of responsibility too. We all need to be careful about making assumptions of other countries and cultures when viewing charity images in newspaper adverts. Photographs may not always provide a complete picture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Girling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Charity advertising often reinforces historical stereotypes of underdevelopment that equate Africa with poverty.David Girling, Associate Professor and Director of Research Communication in the School of Global Development, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220332024-01-26T17:57:58Z2024-01-26T17:57:58ZThe Kitchen: Daniel Kaluuya and Kano’s dystopian film portrays a gentrified future uncomfortably close to home<p>For his directorial debut, British actor Daniel Kaluuya has teamed up with filmmaker and architect Kibwe Tavares and the musician and actor, Kano AKA Kane Robinson, in The Kitchen, a dystopian tale of community bonds and inequality, now out on Netflix. The story is set in 2044. The gap between rich and poor it portrays has never loomed larger. It has also never felt closer to home. </p>
<p>The titular Kitchen is a brutalist former <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026118777451">sink estate</a> in south London. Surrounded by sparkling private apartment complexes, the people have been parked here in temporary housing by a government now bent on recuperating the real estate and kicking them out. </p>
<p>Here, Izi (Robinson), a worker at the Life after Life scam funeral company, is biding his time through gritted teeth. He cannot wait to get out, having almost saved enough to afford a new apartment in the Buena Vida development. The story hinges on the relationship he forges with recently orphaned Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman). </p>
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<p>With no vestige of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/austerity-gutted-the-welfare-state-preserving-benefits-now-cant-make-up-for-that-193360">welfare state</a>, those who are too poor to live in the city can’t even afford to die there. Grieving families fall back on Life after Life, which promises to save burial costs by growing trees, supposedly for “ecological restoration projects” from composted bodies. </p>
<p>In a future where death is too expensive, it is not surprising that social housing no longer exists. Life on the Kitchen is hard. Essential infrastructure regularly fails. Residents queue for one shower cubicle when the water goes off across the blocks. </p>
<p>These breakdowns are deliberate. Staples (Hope Ikpoku Jr), a local Robin Hood, musters his troupe of bikers to secure supermarket delivery vans’ contents in order to feed the estate’s residents. “They cuttin’ water, they blockin’ deliveries, they takin’ people,” Staples tells Benji. </p>
<h2>When the community pushes back</h2>
<p>“They” refers to the authorities behind the gentrification project that threatens the Kitchen’s existence. Police raids, violent and brutal, are increasing in regularity to clear the remaining residents out. “I can’t breathe,” Benji gasps at one point, a clear reference to the events that sparked the 2020 <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-pandemic-changed-social-media-and-george-floyds-death-created-a-collective-conscience-140104">#BlackLivesMatter protests</a>. </p>
<p>Residents warn each other the police are coming by <a href="https://theconversation.com/voices-hearts-and-hands-how-the-powerful-sounds-of-protest-have-changed-over-time-140192">banging pots and pans</a> against the railings, giving the Kitchen its name. There may be echoes of the pandemic’s clap for carers in this act, but its roots lie much further back.</p>
<p>It recalls the <em>cacerolazo</em> women’s protests across <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14791420701821773?casa_token=DEw1By77KAcAAAAA:CAk3bR2DNK5RjNWnlKNMOl30A27QGKK4rgSju2z5Q9E3Y9TeMFruP8tVmxtcGPBEUE_JAFACq-1t">South America</a> in the early 2000s over the impact of globalisation on their impoverished communities. The Kitchen’s inhabitants are pushing back against the forces marginalising them, with the basic materials they have to hand.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/daniel-kaluuya-kibwe-tavares-the-kitchen-kano-netflix-3568525">a recent interview</a>, Kaluuya described what happened to his Kings Cross neighbourhood, in London, after the Eurostar terminal opened in 2007. Gentrification reduced crime rates associated with drugs and prostitution. It also ripped out stable residential communities. </p>
<p>An unflinching belief in the potential of community strength runs through the film. “We gotta look out for each other,” Lord Kitchener (Ian Wright), the estate’s resident radio DJ and unofficial leader, reminds his listeners. “They can’t stop We.” </p>
<p>The radio shows hosted by the Lord, as he’s known, reflect and reinforce the Kitchen’s cohesion. There is daily news of weddings and birthdays, where to find food, where there’s no water. Everyone living there is “family”, “a team”. </p>
<p>Amid its sprawling, blocky concrete structures (created in part through Tavares’ architectural nous), the estate’s residents create their own world. Hollowed out spaces beneath the flats become a vibrant market supplied through raids on shops beyond the estate. Residents constantly come together to eat and drink, to roller skate. One joyful scene sees the whole club doing the Candy dance. Everyone knows all the moves. </p>
<p>The Kitchen’s community defending itself reflects real events observed in urban Britain from the 1960s onwards. Local residents in poor districts –- often led by women –- have been organising themselves for decades to defend their spaces from the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03071022.2017.1290366?casa_token=z-VYxLWy6lEAAAAA:eDIISxGhryJz21MK57pT4hBDr8GDXIfJgFUbGc38xgOKnR7VeWj8ahRAEtlUuGRMf8BFMlQqSFBF">dangers of car ownership</a>, from the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/83/1/79/3862507">impact of housing shortages</a> and from the <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/sites/urban-lab/files/case-study-5-lambeth-council.pdf">negative consequences</a> of gentrification. </p>
<p>Just as people in the Kitchen do not necessarily see their communal parties as an explicit form of resistance, researchers have described innumerable incidences of <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/5081/5081.html">“implicit activism”</a> where local people work to improve their surroundings without seeing themselves and their families displaced in the process. </p>
<p>As one mother on an estate in the East Midlands <a href="https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Small_acts_kind_words_and_not_too_much_fuss_Implicit_activisms/10108445">put it</a>, when her local Sure Start centre was threatened with closure in the early 2000s, “If there was a big issue, I think most of the mums here would be up for it. We stick together like that.” </p>
<p>Such communal activities, The Kitchen suggests, offer a more genuine reality than that manufactured by government-led “community improvement”. This point is forcibly brought home when we see that the breathtaking views over the city from Izi’s new apartment are in fact a series of projected images. The flat has no real window. </p>
<p>The question the film poses is whether community action is enough. The real danger is that by 2044, the gap between rich and poor in the UK will be so great as to be unbroachable. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2024-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk">Poverty rates</a> are rising steeply, especially among children. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/21/gordon-brown-urges-overhaul-benefits-system-study-crisis">Benefits</a> no longer cover the most basic costs to eat healthily and stay warm. <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-awaab-ishaks-death-says-about-the-state-of-social-housing-in-the-uk-expert-qanda-19374">State housing stock</a> continues to decline. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-private-rental-sector-created-a-homelessness-crisis-in-ireland-and-england-201734">Private sector rents</a> are soaring. Local authorities are going <a href="https://theconversation.com/birminghams-bankruptcy-is-only-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-local-authorities-across-england-are-at-risk-212912">bankrupt</a> and the basic services people need – from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/25/warehouse-disabled-people-bristol-city-council">in-home social care</a> to special needs education and waste collection – are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67577142">dwindling</a>. </p>
<p>The future The Kitchen depicts is not quite where we are, but familiar enough to feel realistic. Those watching it in this general election year would do well to consider whether this is the future that we wish to see.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Krista Cowman receives funding from AHRC; European Science Foundation and is a member of the Labour Party</span></em></p>The film is run through with an unflinching belief in the power communities wield and the tangible limits they face.Krista Cowman, Head of School of History Politics and International Relations, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219382024-01-25T22:36:01Z2024-01-25T22:36:01ZIs Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, a far-right leader? The answer is not simple<p>A shockwave has been rippling through Argentina <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/javier-milei-wins-argentina-presidential-elections-runoff/">since Javier Milei came to power in December</a>, prompting demonstrators to take to the streets in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/24/argentina-strike-protest-javier-milei">general strike</a> on Wednesday.</p>
<p>With an ideology described as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/world/americas/argentina-javier-milei-cuts.html">“anarcho-capitalism,”</a> Milei promises major upheaval in a country with a long tradition of state control, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/argentina-presidential-election-1.7033471">which is now in the throes of a deep economic crisis</a>. </p>
<p>While the radical nature of his proposals won over many Argentines, it also alienated many, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentine-powerful-union-calls-january-strike-action-2023-12-28/">leading to calls for the general strike</a>. </p>
<p>Analysts have tried to understand the ideological links between Milei and the various far-right movements that have emerged over the last 20 years, particularly in Europe and the United States. </p>
<p>As a doctoral student in political science at Laval University, my research focuses on authoritarianism, particularly in Argentina. In the following, I explore the relationship between Milei and the far-right movement. </p>
<h2>Be careful about drawing quick conclusions</h2>
<p>Milei <a href="https://theglobalamericans.org/2023/12/javier-milei-and-the-populist-wave-in-argentina/">can be described as a populist</a>. The description is apt, even natural, if we consider the many references he makes in his speeches to far-right figures such as <a href="https://twitter.com/JMilei/status/1727501082560205296">Donald Trump</a>, Brazil’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/20/trump-bolsonaro-javier-milei-argentina-far-right">Jair Bolsonaro</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/santiago-abascal-who-is-spains-far-right-leader-what-does-he-stand-2023-07-17/">Spain’s Santiago Abascal</a>, president of the Vox formation, <a href="https://thediplomatinspain.com/en/2023/11/milei-invites-abascal-to-his-inauguration-as-argentine-president/">whom he invited to his inauguration</a>.</p>
<p>Milei’s calls to fight “the left,” <a href="https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/01/argentinas-milei-berates-western-neo-marxists-at-world-economic-forum/">his criticism of “cultural Marxism,”</a> and his openly anti-system approach all reinforce this identity.</p>
<p>However, this rather simplistic comparison ignores significant differences in Milei’s program, particularly where his economic and migration policies are concerned. Despite similarities, there are significant differences, particularly in the way each movement understands the role of the state and its relationship to society as a whole. </p>
<p>Specifically, I would like to draw attention to a central difference, namely the role of nationalism, and to the innovations Milei has introduced in the context of the global rise of the right.</p>
<h2>Nativist nationalism at the heart of the far right</h2>
<p>In an article summarizing the far-right political parties in Europe, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-042814-012441">Matt Golder</a>, professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University, analyzes the scientific literature on them. He finds three elements that are increasingly characteristic of this movement: “nationalism,” “populism,” and “radicalism.”</p>
<p>The nationalism expounded by far-right parties can be described as “nativism.” According to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511492037">Cas Mudde</a>, professor of political science at the University of Georgia, “nativism” is understood as “nationalism plus xenophobia.” It is based on the idea of the existence of an imaginary “native” population <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-042814-012441">built on cultural or ethnic features</a>, whose homogeneity must be protected from any element that is foreign and external to it. </p>
<p>With its conception of a homogeneous community, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511492037">nativism is then added to nationalism, which is articulated as the congruence between state and nation</a>. This contributes the element of xenophobia mentioned by Mudde. In so doing, extreme right-wing movements put forward a radicalized preference for anything that can be defined as belonging to the “national community.”</p>
<p>This version of nationalism is well known, and it is easy to find European and American examples of it: <a href="https://gnet-research.org/2023/01/27/mainstreaming-far-right-conspiracies-eric-zemmours-discourse-as-a-case-study/">Éric Zemmour’s calls against the “Great Replacement,”</a> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/the-snake-song-lyrics-trump-b2464914.html">Trump’s warnings about the danger of immigration</a>, or the Islamophobia of <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-frauke-petry-of-the-alternative-for-germany-a-1084493.html">the Alternative for Germany party</a>, are some examples. </p>
<p>This nativism on the part of far-right parties is becoming the foundation of their political projects, including their economic policies.</p>
<p>It is on this basis that the contemporary far right is putting forward clear protectionist projects. A large proportion of far-right movements share Euro-scepticism, nationalization and anti-globalization rhetoric. The root of their projects is a belief in a national community, defined either in ethnic or cultural terms, which must be protected from the influence of outside elements. </p>
<h2>Liberalizing the economy, Milei’s priority</h2>
<p>Although the list of promises of Milei’s party may come as a surprise due to their radical nature and breadth, the element of nativism is absent from his rhetoric.</p>
<p>Rather, the plans and platform of his party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), represent a clear opposition to nativism, which is widespread in Argentina and represented by the Peronist movement. Accusations of his alleged anti-immigration ideology are also unfounded, at least so far.</p>
<p>Milei’s program mentions immigration only marginally. This is evident in LLA’s <a href="https://www.electoral.gob.ar/nuevo/paginas/pdf/plataformas/2023/PASO/JUJUY%2079%20PARTIDO%20RENOVADOR%20FEDERAL%20-PLATAFORMA%20LA%20LIBERTAD%20AVANZA.pdf">electoral platform</a>, where the subjects of “nation” and immigration are relatively absent. </p>
<p>Argentina has in fact received proportionally <a href="https://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMTendanceStatPays?langue=fr&codePays=ARG&codeTheme=1&codeStat=SM.POP.NETM">fewer immigrants than most European or North American countries in recent years</a>. The debate over immigration is more about the universality of the health and education services, thanks to which everyone, regardless of their migratory status, <a href="https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/uploads/res/document/ley-de-migraciones-25871-english_html/Ley_de_Migraciones_25871_English.pdf">can benefit from the public health system (even tourists) and free education</a>. Milei is not exactly opposed to immigration (he has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNnAKnHxGo">even expressed support for</a> certain types of state spending associated with it).</p>
<p>On the other hand, liberalization has been, and continues to be the pillar of Milei’s program, which is perfectly embodied in the proposal to eliminate the central bank and introduce free monetary competition. <a href="https://www.electoral.gob.ar/nuevo/paginas/pdf/plataformas/2023/PASO/CABA%20501%20LA%20LIBERTAD%20AVANZA%20ADHIERE%20PLATAFORMA%20ON.pdf">His program</a> also includes dollarization, optimizing and reducing the size of the state, opening up to international trade, reforming the labour code, mental health laws and regulations on medical services.</p>
<h2>Wait before judging Milei’s political project</h2>
<p>In other words, in spite of his populist style and the radical nature of his proposals, Milei’s approach makes it difficult to immediately identify him with the European and American far right without further qualification.</p>
<p>This does not necessarily mean that the Milei phenomenon should not be considered part of the extended family of the far right. As <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c983y398v0do">Cristóbal Rovira, Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile states,</a> not all members of the far-right “family” embrace all its elements. However, it does force us to think twice before making quick and what could be simplistic associations. The fact that Milei has spoken in favour of Trump does not make him, by definition, “Trumpist.”</p>
<p>There are certainly individuals within his political party who are closer to the political projects of Trump or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/santiago-abascal-who-is-spains-far-right-leader-what-does-he-stand-2023-07-17/">Santiago Abascal</a>. However, Milei’s personal positions largely define what we can expect from his government and the political project he is putting forward.</p>
<p>Although Milei, himself, affirms his ideological kinship with leaders often included in the large family of the contemporary far right, certain elements of his program and the core of his ideology show some distance from this movement. More broadly, in order to understand what is new about a political phenomenon and what this implies, it is important to put it into context.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221938/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Federico Chaves Correa ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Some aspects of Argentine President Javier Milei’s programme resemble the far right, but others do not. Without excluding him from this movement, we should recognize there are differences.Federico Chaves Correa, Doctorant en science politique, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166212024-01-07T19:05:27Z2024-01-07T19:05:27ZChina’s capitalist reforms are said to have moved 800 million out of extreme poverty – new data suggests the opposite<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562651/original/file-20231130-29-ouom1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=464%2C408%2C2016%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hong-kong-apr-22-streets-old-410311939">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has become an article of faith among many economists that China’s pro-market reforms of the 1980s and 1990s ushered in a sustained reduction in poverty.</p>
<p>This narrative relies on figures from the World Bank, showing that over the past 40 years the number of people in China living in “extreme poverty” (less than US$1.90 per day) fell by <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/lifting-800-million-people-out-of-poverty-new-report-looks-at-lessons-from-china-s-experience">almost 800 million</a>. That’s a fair chunk of the world population, which is currently about eight billion.</p>
<p>The World Bank’s calculations suggest China’s rate of extreme poverty has plummeted from one of the highest in the world – 88% – in 1981, to virtually zero today, with the fastest gains in the 1980s and 1990s during the capitalist reforms of Chairman Deng Xiaoping.</p>
<h2>It depends how you define purchasing power</h2>
<p>The World Bank calculations use <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/what-are-ppps">purchasing power parity</a>, which is a standard way of comparing <em>general</em> purchasing power over time and between countries. But this approach does not tell us about people’s purchasing power over the <em>specific goods and services</em> that are necessary for survival. Because of this, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=893159">scholars warn</a> that the World Bank’s method cannot give an accurate picture of real poverty trends.</p>
<p>In a new paper published in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2023.2217087">New Political Economy</a> we calculate extreme poverty rates for China using data published by the OECD, assessing people’s incomes against the prices of necessary subsistence goods; among them 2,100 calories per day, essential nutrients, three square meters of housing per person, clothing, heating and soap.</p>
<p>In contrast to the World Bank, we find that from 1981 to 1990 – at the end of the socialist period – China’s rate of extreme poverty was one of the <em>lowest</em> in the developing world. It averaged only 5.6%, compared to 51% in India, 36.5% in Indonesia and 29.5% in Brazil. </p>
<p>We find extreme poverty increased dramatically during the market reforms of the 1990s. It reached a peak of 68% as price deregulation pushed up the cost of basic food and housing, cutting the buying power of low-income people. </p>
<p>Extreme poverty then slid during the 2000s, but has yet to fall to the levels calculated by the World Bank.</p>
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<h2>Under communism, China subsidised necessities</h2>
<p>The two approaches produce different answers because purchasing power parity adjusts incomes in accordance with the cost of all purchases including luxury goods rather than in accordance with the <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161080">cost of basic items</a> needed for survival.</p>
<p>The difference matters a lot when comparing socialist and capitalist systems and assessing transitions between those systems. Socialist policies can keep the cost of meeting basic needs low in a way overall price measures don’t pick up. </p>
<p>This seems to have been the case in China. Until its market reforms, China’s government provided food and shelter at little or no cost. This meant US$1.90 was able to buy more basic necessities in China than in comparable capitalist countries.</p>
<p>As the government removed controls on the prices of basic goods and <a href="https://www.scirp.org/html/6-3800327_53057.htm">dismantled</a> its social security system throughout the 1990s, the price of necessities moved beyond the means of many.</p>
<p>Of course, these results may not hold if low-priced essentials were difficult to obtain in practice, something the <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/how-was-life-volume-ii_e20f2f1a-en">OECD data</a> we used cannot tell us.</p>
<p>But other social indicators support our finding that extreme poverty was lower in China than in India, Indonesia and Brazil in the 1980s.</p>
<p>China performed better than these countries on several key social indicators, including <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25495509/">life expectancy</a>, infant and child mortality, mean years of schooling, and the share of the population with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2023.2217087">access to electricity</a>.</p>
<p>It’s impossible to measure extreme poverty with absolute certainty. But our results are corroborated by other indicators and seem to suggest extreme poverty worsened during China’s reforms.</p>
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<h2>Economic growth by itself is not enough</h2>
<p>It is important to clarify that our findings refer only to extreme poverty, defined as the inability to purchase essential food, shelter and a few basic necessities. </p>
<p>China’s impressive industrial development has, of course, led to substantial improvements in access to modern appliances, information technology and other goods. But when it comes to access to basic nutrients and housing, a large share of China’s population appears to have suffered during the move to a market economy.</p>
<p>Our findings have important implications. They suggest that although industrial development is an important goal, it can’t be relied upon to cut extreme poverty in and of itself, at least not in the context of capitalist reforms and social policy retrenchment.</p>
<p>Public ownership, price controls, and universal access to social services, of the kind advanced in China before the market reforms, can be at least as effective, especially at low levels of economic development.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-population-is-now-inexorably-shrinking-bringing-forward-the-day-the-planets-population-turns-down-198061">China's population is now inexorably shrinking, bringing forward the day the planet's population turns down</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Hickel acknowledges support by the María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dylan Sullivan and Michail Moatsos do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The World Bank used a tool known as purchasing power parity to make its calculations. An improved methodology suggests China’s pro-market reforms increased rather than shrank extreme poverty.Dylan Sullivan, Adjunct Fellow and PhD candidate in the Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie UniversityJason Hickel, Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of BarcelonaMichail Moatsos, Assistant Professor, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197822023-12-15T15:33:34Z2023-12-15T15:33:34ZCancer: people living in England’s poorest areas at higher risk of death – new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566056/original/file-20231215-21-pjzlb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4991%2C2801&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those living in London had the lowest risk of dying from cancer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/patient-sat-on-bed-looked-out-1687562503">namtipStudio/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nationally, the risk of dying from most cancers is falling thanks to improvements in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/bjc2016304">screening, diagnostics and treatment</a>. But <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(23)00530-2/fulltext">new research</a> shows stark health inequalities still exist in England when it comes to cancer care. The study found that people who live in the poorest parts of England have more than a 70% higher risk of dying from cancer compared with those who live in more affluent areas.</p>
<p>To conduct their study, the researchers analysed data from the Office for National Statistics on the ten cancers that caused the most deaths between 2002-2019 across 314 districts of England. The postcode at the time of a person’s death was used to assign each cancer death with a district.</p>
<p>Each district’s socioeconomic status was measured using data from the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-indices-of-deprivation">English Indices of Deprivation</a>. This estimates the proportion of the population experiencing deprivation due to low income. </p>
<p>The team only included cancer deaths that occurred before the age of 80. This was to ensure the data was accurate, as multi-morbidity (the presence of two or more long-term health conditions) becomes more common after 80, and this makes it difficult to know whether a person has died from cancer or a different cause. </p>
<p>This study was the first to explore trends in cancer deaths at a district level. </p>
<p>The findings show that people from cities in the north of England – including Hull, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle – as well as those living in coastal areas to the east of London, had the highest probabilities of dying from cancer. Those living in London had the lowest risk of dying from cancer. Even people living in poorer parts of London still had a lower risk of dying from cancer compared to those living in equally deprived areas of the country. </p>
<p>A woman’s risk of dying from cancer was one in ten in Westminster compared to one in six if she lived in Manchester. For men, the risk of dying from cancer was one in eight if he lived in Harrow, but was one in five in Manchester.</p>
<p>While the overall risk of dying from cancer decreased in all districts of England from 2002-2019, these reductions weren’t equal. For men, overall risk of dying from cancer decreased by 37% if he lived in London – while in Blackpool, a man’s overall risk only decreased by 13%. For women, their overall risk of dying from cancer decreased by 30% if they lived in London – while in Essex, a woman’s overall risk only decreased by 7%.</p>
<p>The types of cancer people were most at risk of dying from also varied by region. Those living in the most impoverished districts had a greater risk of dying from lung, colorectal, oesophageal and bladder cancer. These types of cancer are associated with modifiable lifestyle risk factors (such as smoking, excess drinking, poor diet and obesity). These deaths could have potentially been prevented with better access to screening and treatment.</p>
<p>There was less geographic variation in a person’s risk of dying from lymphoma, multiple myeloma and leukaemia. These types of cancer tend not to be associated with modifiable risk factors.</p>
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<img alt="A female doctor explains lung x-ray results to older female patient." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566057/original/file-20231215-21-pk9sfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People living in impoverished districts had greater risk of dying from lung cancer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/doctor-shows-results-old-patient-xray-2184021869">Dragana Gordic/ Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>One shortcoming of the study that the researchers acknowledge is that they didn’t have reliable data on ethnicity. This will be important for future studies to consider, as certain ethnic groups are shown to have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-022-01847-x">poorer cancer outcomes</a>.</p>
<p>A further limitation is that the data only indicates the place a person was living at the time of their death. This might not always be representative of where the person grew up and lived, which could have affected their likelihood of developing certain types of cancer. </p>
<h2>The importance of place</h2>
<p>The findings from this study reinforce the vital importance of place on health outcomes. </p>
<p>Research has consistently shown that people living in the most deprived parts of England experience <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-2021-health-in-coastal-communities">worse health outcomes</a>. Some of the most deprived parts of the country are <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2214.full">under-resourced coastal and rural areas</a>.</p>
<p>There are numerous reasons why people living in deprived areas experience greater health inequality.</p>
<p>First, people in deprived areas face <a href="https://bjgpopen.org/content/3/2/bjgpopen19X101646.full">greater challenges</a> accessing good quality healthcare – including cancer care – compared to those living in cities. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3755018/">Some of the barriers</a> that prevent people in these areas from receiving preventative care and cancer treatment can include lack of transportation to appointments and poor medical care infrastructure. </p>
<p>Health literacy also tends to be lower in people from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.12440">more deprived areas</a>. This is probably due to a range of factors, including existing poor health and lower socioeconomic status. This is important, as being unable to obtain, read, understand and use health information puts a person at greater risk of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10810730.2010.499985">poor health outcomes</a>. Improving health literacy in local communities could help to improve cancer outcomes. </p>
<p>Poverty is another clear, fundamental <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1">determinant of health</a>. <a href="https://patient.info/doctor/health-and-social-class">Deprived areas</a> tend to have high rates of smoking, excess alcohol consumption, poor diet and lower rates of physical activity. All of these factors can increase a person’s risk of poor health outcomes.</p>
<p>Public health programmes and interventions that target modifiable cancer risk factors, as well as increasing access to and use of <a href="https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/bjon.2022.31.10.S14">screening and diagnostic tools</a>, may help to reduce cancer incidence and improve survival in deprived areas. </p>
<p><a href="https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/26/12/1679/71343/Mobile-Screening-Units-for-the-Early-Detection-of">Mobile screening services</a> offered within the community – outside of formal healthcare settings – could be one such way to increase access to, and engagement with, cancer screening. It will also be important to ensure people receiving cancer treatment and follow-up care are able to access it, regardless of where they live.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David currently receives research funding from Cancer Research UK. He also holds a professional registration with the UK charity, Macmillan Cancer Support.</span></em></p>People living in the poorest parts of England were at a more than 70% higher risk of dying from cancer compared to those living in more affluent areas.David Nelson, Research Fellow in Rural Health and Care, University of LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182062023-12-06T15:53:41Z2023-12-06T15:53:41ZUniversal basic income: Wales is set to end its experiment – why we think that’s a mistake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563366/original/file-20231204-19-2f6mm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3841&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Welsh UBI for care leavers pilot runs until 2025 and won't be extended beyond that date. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-hand-taking-british-money-uk-2328478975">Alex Segre/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Welsh government has <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/wales-not-continue-paying-care-27990859">announced</a> that its universal basic income (UBI) project will not be continued after the initial pilot ends in 2025 because of the cost.</p>
<p>The trial involved paying monthly payments of £1,600 each to a group of 635 care leavers. The scheme, which began in 2022, was offered to all young people leaving the care system at the age of 18.</p>
<p>The scheme has yet to be fully evaluated, but initial feedback has been positive. And given <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n193">the success</a> of many similar projects around the world, there is a good chance it will have significantly improved the wellbeing of the participants, who are a particularly vulnerable group.</p>
<p>If the pilot were to be expanded, we could learn more about the long-term impacts of UBI and its advantages across the population, including whether it could actually save money. But not continuing the scheme risks squandering these potential benefits and losing the momentum that might make it possible for UBI to be rolled out more widely. And all before we even know how successful the pilot has been.</p>
<p>A UBI is a sum of money that is periodically paid to all people equally and unconditionally. Many of its advocates <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032329213483106">argue</a> that because it provides people with a stable income, it allows them to focus on personal development, family life, education and their contribution to society instead of worrying about money. </p>
<p>However, some of its opponents <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/100137b4-0cdf-11e8-bacb-2958fde95e5e">argue</a> that UBI is too expensive to implement, discourages people from working and that people should not have something for nothing. </p>
<p>Wales contends with high and long-standing levels of poverty, with some areas having the <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/poverty-wales-2020">highest</a> in the UK. That has been <a href="https://phwwhocc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/PHW-Cost-of-Living-report-Eng-04_10_23.pdf">exacerbated</a> by the economic fallout of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. </p>
<p>Some vulnerable groups are particularly affected by poverty. Among those are care leavers, who tend to face <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cfs.12421">challenges</a> such as lower educational attainment, higher health and housing needs, substance misuse and an increased risk of committing crime – all of which can cost the state.</p>
<p>The Welsh government’s UBI pilot was launched to address the particular challenges faced by young people leaving local authority care or foster care and transitioning into adulthood. It runs until May 2025 with the final evaluation, <a href="https://cascadewales.org/research/the-welsh-basic-income-evaluation/">conducted</a> by Cardiff University, expected in 2027. </p>
<p>The pilot was recently <a href="https://nation.cymru/news/praise-for-basic-income-pilot-for-care-leavers/">praised</a> by Wales’ minister for social justice, Jane Hutt, who described receiving “fantastic feedback” from participants. Indeed, the programme’s provisional uptake rate of 97% surpasses that of any other opt-in UBI scheme globally. </p>
<p>There has also been international <a href="https://www.wcpp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Basic-Income-Conference-Highlights-Pack.pdf">interest</a> in the Welsh pilot from experts in Europe and Canada. And other <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20499736-seed_preliminaryanalysis-seedsfirstyear_finalreport_individualpages-2">pilots</a> from across the world, including the <a href="https://www.stocktondemonstration.org/">USA</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/07/finnish-basic-income-pilot-improved-wellbeing-study-finds-coronavirus#:%7E:text=The%20researchers%2C%20who%20conducted%2081,loneliness%20than%20the%20control%20group">Finland</a>, have shown how a UBI improves wellbeing, including improved mental and physical <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n193">health</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-universal-basic-income-pilots-havent-led-to-policy-change-despite-their-success-180062">no country</a> has ever introduced a UBI despite those many examples. This has been largely because of the perceived costs and public opinion about giving people money for nothing.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-universal-basic-income-pilots-havent-led-to-policy-change-despite-their-success-180062">Three reasons universal basic income pilots haven't led to policy change – despite their success</a>
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<p>Wales’ first minister, Mark Drakeford, appeared to be open to a more permanent place for a UBI in <a href="https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/12457#C382219">October 2021</a> before the project was launched: “Our pilot … will give us valuable information for the future about how the concept of basic income could apply to other groups more widely across the Welsh population.” </p>
<p>Launching the scheme <a href="https://www.gov.wales/wales-pilots-basic-income-scheme">in 2022</a>, Drakeford described it as “radical”. And Jane Hutt said it was “globally ambitious” and the cost-of-living crisis meant “new ways of supporting people who are most in need” were necessary.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">First Minister Mark Drakeford launches the Welsh care leavers UBI pilot in 2022, describing it as “radical” and “innovative”.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Economic concerns</h2>
<p>Two years on and the Welsh government is now concerned about the cost of a UBI. It says that its <a href="https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-welsh-government-response-uk-autumn-statement-2023">own budget</a> has seen real term cuts in recent years. </p>
<p>Despite this, its decision not to roll the programme out beyond the end of the pilot is a missed opportunity, in our view. The evaluation from the Welsh pilot is likely to provide crucial insights into the impact of UBI on various aspects of care leavers’ lives. This should help to inform future policy and practise for other parts of the social security system too. </p>
<p>Given the multiple challenges faced by care leavers, the long-term benefits of poverty reduction and improved wellbeing appear likely to outweigh the economic concerns. For example, <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/10/e075831">recent research</a> in the UK has shown that UBI could substantially improve mental health in young people and therefore reduce the costs to the NHS. And this could extend well beyond care leavers – which we could find out if the project was expanded.</p>
<p>But our worry now is that the results from this pilot will simply be shelved, just like all the others across the globe. There will be a Senedd election in May 2026 and by the time the results of the pilot’s evaluation are due in 2027, the political landscape will have moved on once more.</p>
<p>There’s a danger that because the project is not being extended beyond the pilot, the results from the upcoming evaluation will be too easy to ignore and forget. Instead, Wales should capitalise on the insights gained from this pilot to fully establish just how transformative UBI could be in empowering vulnerable people and foster a more prosperous, equitable and resilient future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A UBI pilot in Wales gives a sum of money to young people leaving the care system. But it won’t be rolled out beyond its trial period.Hefin Gwilym, Lecturer in Social Policy, Bangor UniversityDave Beck, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185772023-12-04T21:42:51Z2023-12-04T21:42:51ZImplementing a basic income means overcoming myths about the ‘undeserving poor’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563038/original/file-20231201-17-uloyo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C0%2C5928%2C3197&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on supposed individual failings belies the structural and systemic problems that perpetuate poverty.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/implementing-a-basic-income-means-overcoming-myths-about-the-undeserving-poor" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Newfoundland and Labrador recently announced plans to introduce a <a href="https://www.gov.nl.ca/releases/2023/exec/1108n01/">basic income for people aged 60-64 receiving social assistance</a>. It is slated to roll out in April 2024 and will <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-poverty-reduction-plan-1.7022512">match existing federal seniors’ benefits</a>. </p>
<p>On Prince Edward Island, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-guaranteed-basic-income-report-1.7036102">a recent report</a> has outlined how the province could reduce poverty by adopting a basic income. Meanwhile in Ottawa, the <a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/s-233">Senate is considering developing a framework for a national basic income</a>. Momentum behind a basic income is clearly growing in Canada. </p>
<p>Still, <a href="https://narrativeresearch.ca/while-the-majority-of-canadians-would-support-a-guaranteed-basic-income-for-low-income-individuals-opinions-are-mixed-towards-the-idea-of-a-universal-basic-income-for-all/">some remain skeptical</a> and reservations about basic income often come down to <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/11/14/Guaranteed-Income-Alberta-Shows-Need/">ideas about who truly deserves assistance</a>. </p>
<h2>Treating poverty as an individual problem</h2>
<p>There are largely <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2006.tb00852.x">three explanations for poverty</a>. First, the <em>individual explanation</em> points to personal failings or inadequacies (like laziness or lack of discipline) as key contributors. </p>
<p>Second, the <em>structural or systemic explanation</em> considers the societal barriers that cause poverty: the lack of quality jobs, inequality, climate disruptions and economic and health crises, among other issues. </p>
<p>Third, the <em>fatalistic explanation</em> suggests that how people fare in life really chalks up to fate (hence the “less fortunate” label), bad luck causes unfortunate events, like illness or loss, that trigger poverty. </p>
<p>Of these, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2016.1268874">the second has the greatest weight</a> — the causes of poverty are systemic.</p>
<p>Canada’s social welfare architecture is <a href="https://learn.thompsonbooks.com/store/38">modelled after the British and built on 16th-century poor law ideas</a>. This legacy taught us to believe that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1554477X.2016.1268874">poverty is a personal responsibility</a>, with the onus on individuals to lift themselves out of it through discipline and hard work. Public assistance was <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/131610/regulating-the-poor-by-frances-fox-piven-and-richard-a-cloward/">purposefully designed to be punitive and stigmatizing so that people avoided it at all costs</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://oxfordre.com/socialwork/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.001.0001/acrefore-9780199975839-e-947">The poor were divided into two camps</a>: the deserving poor (the infirm, elderly or disabled) were provided assistance at home, whereas the “able-bodied” undeserving poor were provided food and lodging in exchange for work in gruelling workhouses, supposedly meant to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4148891">instil a work ethic</a>. </p>
<p>Following two World Wars and a depression, though, society began to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-020-00124-2">appreciate that people could become “poor” through no fault of their own and that an active government response was needed</a> to foster a healthy and prosperous society. </p>
<p>In the 1950s to 1970s, Canada <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2021.1957070">introduced various income security programs</a>. By the ‘70s and '80s, however, some became worried about too much government spending and we reverted to the old ways of thinking about poverty again. </p>
<h2>Myths about poverty</h2>
<p>My research focuses on understanding the causes of poverty and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2021.1957070">debunking myths</a> about why people become and remain “poor.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17405900802405312">New ideas don’t always “sweep away the old”</a> and myths about poverty linger, such as:</p>
<p><strong>Myth 1: Poverty stems from individual problems.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/poverty-results-structural-barriers-not-personal-choices-safety-net-programs-should-reflect-fact">Systemic barriers carry more weight in engendering poverty than individual factors</a>. The cost of living crisis in Canada is being driven by <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/11/27/2785923/0/en/Hunger-is-becoming-the-new-normal-as-Ontarians-struggle-to-get-ahead.html">inadequate income support programs, unaffordable housing and the lack of quality employment</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Myth 2: Poor people are lazy, unmotivated and need incentives to work.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> <a href="https://cwp-csp.ca/2017/04/un-and-under-employed-the-new-normal-of-precarious-work/">People in poverty are working hard (often in multiple jobs) but aren’t getting any further ahead</a>. It’s not a matter of inadequate motivation, but a <a href="https://workersactioncentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/WAC-From-the-Frontlines-web.pdf">fundamental lack of gainful work opportunities — jobs that pay wages people can live on and possibly raise families on</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Myth 3: Poor people are all mentally ill and drug-addicted.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23294382/">Addictions are not “the sole property of the poor,” rather they traverse all socioeconomic levels</a>. Poverty does create immense worries for those subjected to it, but <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay0214">research shows</a> mental health and substance use issues improve through interventions, like basic income, that alleviate poverty. <a href="https://restorativemedicine.org/journal/addiction-childhood-trauma-stress-and-the-biology-of-addiction/">Poor environments (often featuring trauma and childhood adversity) generate mental illness and addictions</a>; enriching environments diminish them. </p>
<p><strong>Myth 4: Poor people are criminals and prone to violence.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> Criminal behaviour and violence are not confined to people within a specific category or class, although the consequences of criminal behaviour can often differ. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/legal-aid-middle-class-1.3476870">Wealthy people can afford high-powered lawyers who help them avoid prosecution and punishment</a>. White-collar crime often receives little to no punishment.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, low-income neighbourhoods are <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp06-e.pdf">regularly subjected to surveillance and heightened police presence</a>. And racism (both systemic and overt) has led to the <a href="https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/sites/default/files/2023-10/discussion_paper_on_systemic_racism.pdf">over-representation of marginalized people in the criminal justice system</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/equitable-sentencing-can-mitigate-anti-black-racism-in-canadas-justice-system-217515">Equitable sentencing can mitigate anti-Black racism in Canada's justice system</a>
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<p><strong>Myth 5: Poor people have different morals and values; they’re different from me.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> Assumptions of dubious morality again <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17405900802405312">play into narratives of poverty being about individual problems</a>, and exonerate the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo5948882.html">economic and political structures that reproduce poverty</a>. Almost everyone <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1049-258520190000027009">(even the richest among us)</a> affiliate with the “middle class” and its ideals. Differences among people have much more to do with access to power and resources, not morals and values.</p>
<p><strong>Myth 6: Poor people just need to be more resilient.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> Focusing on individual resilience suggests it is people who must be the ones to adapt and change, not <a href="https://restless.co.uk/health/healthy-mind/the-importance-of-resilience-and-the-ability-to-adapt/">the conditions they’re exposed to</a>. Individual characteristics like emotional intelligence <a href="https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/mental-health-what-is-resilience-rule-of-resilience-how-to-overcome-challenges-how-to-deal-with-pressure-emotional-intelligence.html">explain a measure of resiliency</a>, but researchers are now embracing a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0586-3_2">contextual understanding of resilience</a> that acknowledges how social structures often determine how resilient we can be. Supportive environments that provide access to resources and opportunities <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/state-public-health-canada-2023/report/report.pdf">are more likely to produce resilient populations</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Myth 7: Ending poverty isn’t affordable, and people can rely on charity.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Reality:</strong> The system we’ve opted for now is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/bis-2016-0020">hugely expensive</a>. We pay dearly to address poverty’s symptoms, not its causes, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huw021">and do so ineffectively</a>. </p>
<p>Cash transfers to individuals have great <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/02/781152563/researchers-find-a-remarkable-ripple-effect-when-you-give-cash-to-poor-families">health and social benefits that can reduce the exorbitant costs of poverty</a>. And charity just won’t cut it — <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/september-2018/rights-based-approach-key-alleviating-poverty/">people never get out of poverty by using charitable programs and there is a loss of dignity for those who use them</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.4140">These myths are incredibly damaging</a> and hinder us from advancing policy solutions proven to work. Cash-transfer programs, like basic income, <a href="https://ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/research-updates/cash-transfer-programs-are-growing-more-common-in-the-u-s-as-studies-show-they-improve-peoples-health/">have a solid evidence base</a>, showing they’re effective. </p>
<p>People don’t suddenly <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/bis-2018-0011/html">drop out of the workforce</a> when they receive a basic income, nor are such programs <a href="https://cuisr.usask.ca/documents/basic-income-presentation-for-april-28-2023.sk-imf-edits.pdf">too expensive to implement</a>. We should be <a href="https://www.policynote.ca/wealth-tax-2/#:%7E:text=A%20wealth%20tax%20has%20high,to%20acknowledge%20in%20recent%20years.">taxing super-rich corporations and individuals</a> more to curb income inequality, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/20/the-inner-level-review">known to be deadly for society</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s discard outdated thinking. Like Newfoundland and Labrador, the rest of Canada needs a basic income to help people cope with the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7037331">cost of living</a> crisis. Unlike misleading myths, the anguish of poverty is real.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracy Smith-Carrier receives funding through the Canada Research Chairs program. Funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connections Grant, she is co-organizing the BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) Forum in Ottawa from May 23-26, 2024. Tracy chairs the National Strategic Planning Committee to Advance a Basic Income Guarantee. </span></em></p>Momentum on basic income is growing in Canada. However, pervasive myths about poverty are making implementing the idea challenging.Tracy Smith-Carrier, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161162023-12-01T12:34:49Z2023-12-01T12:34:49ZWhy men in 19th century Wales dressed as women to protest taxation<p>South-west Wales was reeling in the wake of social unrest in November 1843. There had been a series of protests over several years by farmers furious at taxation levels, mainly attacking tollgates. Often, the men involved dressed as women and were therefore known in Welsh as <em>Merched Beca</em> (Rebecca’s daughters). The events that unfolded came to be known as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Rebecca_s_Children.html?id=7-ohAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Rebecca riots</a> in English. </p>
<p>There has been speculation that the name “Rebecca” stemmed from a literal interpretation of <a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/24-60.htm">Genesis 24:60</a> in the Bible, which refers to Rebekah’s offspring possessing the gates of their enemies. But the truth is, nobody really knows why the name was chosen.</p>
<p>Tollgates had been <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/transportcomms/roadsrail/overview/turnpikestolls/">introduced</a> in Britain from the late 17th century as a means of raising revenue to maintain public roads. They were regulated and maintained by the <a href="https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/transport/onlineatlas/britishturnpiketrusts.pdf">Turnpike Trusts</a>, individual bodies set up by parliament. </p>
<p>Tolls had long been regarded as a burden by the people. But complaints to magistrates about their unfair regulation were largely ignored. The tollgates therefore became regarded as symbols of oppression to be demolished by the Rebeccaites, with unrest largely concentrated across Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire. </p>
<p>The first recorded appearance of Rebecca was on <a href="https://www.peoplescollection.wales/content/rebecca-riots">May 13 1839</a>, when a tollgate at Efailwen in Pembrokeshire was demolished. Rebecca emerged again during the winter of 1842, with protests <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/rebecca-riots/">intensifying</a> throughout the summer of 1843. </p>
<p>The attacks targeted tollgates and private property, while toll-keepers and authority figures were also intimidated. These included the local gentry, who upheld law and order locally as magistrates and oversaw the administration of the tolls as members of the Turnpike Trusts.</p>
<p>Those who protested were predominantly young men who were tenant farmers, farm servants and agricultural labourers. But other protesters included non-agricultural labourers from industrialised regions of Carmarthenshire and neighbouring Glamorgan.</p>
<p>A striking element of the protest was the adoption of women’s clothing to conceal the identities of those involved. This was theatrically woven into the ritual of protest as “Rebecca”, the name given to the leader of the various protests, called on her children to tear down any gate that blocked their way. </p>
<p>However, the Rebecca riots were more than just a protest movement against the tolls. They were also a reaction to the socio-economic climate, to agricultural depression, failing harvests, rising levels of rent and the weight of various taxes. All these factors collectively placed substantial pressure on rural communities. </p>
<p>There was also widespread <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/">criticism</a> of the administration of the new <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/19thcentury/overview/poorlaw/">Poor Law</a>, introduced in 1834, which ensured that poor people were housed in <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/">workhouses</a>, where families were separated, subjected to hard work and harsh living conditions.</p>
<h2>Escalation</h2>
<p>On June 19 1843, a procession in the market town of Carmarthen led to the storming of the <a href="https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/17651/">workhouse</a>. This signalled a turning point that saw the protests intensify, with attacks on private property in addition to tollgates. </p>
<p>There were reports of physical violence and use of firearms too, with one recorded death, that of <a href="https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-fatal-rebecca-riot-hendy">Sarah Williams</a>, the 75-year-old keeper of the Hendy tollgate in Carmarthenshire. Someone shot her while she tried to rescue her belongings from the burning tollhouse on September 9 1843.</p>
<p>Following the Carmarthen workhouse attack, The Times newspaper <a href="https://oro.open.ac.uk/78848/1/DE-WINTON_A329_RVOR.pdf">sent</a> Thomas Campbell Foster to report on “The State of South Wales”. His reports disseminated news of Rebecca and her daughters across Britain. </p>
<p>Even Queen Victoria was concerned by the events. She wrote in her <a href="http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/search/displayItem.do?FormatType=fulltextimgsrc&QueryType=articles&ResultsID=3399090357290&filterSequence=0&PageNumber=1&ItemNumber=1&ItemID=qvj03918&volumeType=PSBEA">journal</a> how she strongly advised the home secretary, Sir James Graham, to apprehend and punish the Rebeccaites. She feared events in Wales would spur on the movement in Ireland to repeal the laws which tied Ireland to Great Britain.</p>
<p>Into the autumn and winter months of 1843, Rebecca and her daughters appeared less frequently. Although a Carmarthenshire land agent, Thomas Herbert Cooke, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Land_Agent/dy5JEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">wrote</a> in late November how “an incendiary fire however occurs now and then to let people know that Rebecca is still alive, and sometimes awakes from her slumbers”.</p>
<h2>Government inquiry</h2>
<p>During this time, a government <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Report_of_the_Commissioners_of_Inquiry_f.html?id=W5Z7YgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">inquiry</a> was conducted into the causes of the riots, reporting its findings in the spring of 1844. Although the tollgates survived, the findings of the inquiry led to greater regulation of the Turnpike Trusts in Wales. New county police forces were also <a href="https://journals.library.wales/view/1386666/1423395/118#?xywh=-1917%2C-209%2C6097%2C3912">established</a> in the wake of the riots. </p>
<p>In total, around 250 tollhouses and gatehouses were <a href="https://museum.wales/stfagans/buildings/tollhouse/">destroyed</a> by Rebecca. In the aftermath, those captured and accused were punished by transportation to the penal colonies in Tasmania. Those such as <a href="https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/hughes/john/72743">John Hughes</a>, known as <em>Jac Tŷ Isha</em>, were never to return to their native Wales. Others took on an almost mythical identity among local people, such as <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/In_Pursuit_of_Twm_Carnabwth/irhAzwEACAAJ?hl=en">Thomas Rees</a>, or <em>Twm Carnabwth</em>, remembered as the leader of the first Rebecca attack at Efailwen.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wooden sculpture showing a horse flanked by two women leaping over a gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562391/original/file-20231129-19-8ksnxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A wooden sculpture depicting the Rebecca riots in St Clears, Carmarthenshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wooden-sculpture-depicting-rebecca-riots-1839-517024174">James Hime/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Rebecca did not disappear entirely, and instances of protest and threatening letters sent in her name appear later in other parts of Wales. During the 1870s, Rebecca and her daughters appeared in protests concerning salmon poaching on the river Wye in mid Wales, <a href="https://journals.library.wales/view/1326508/1326739/35#?xywh=-1863%2C-216%2C6676%2C4285">described</a> as the “second Rebecca Riots”. </p>
<p>In the 20th century, the concept of Rebecca was invoked once more. In 1956, Welsh language newspaper, <em>Y Seren</em>, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Tryweryn_New_Dawn/zxn5zwEACAAJ?hl=en">inferred</a> that “the spirit of Beca” was once again needed to campaign against the flooding of Cwm Tryweryn in Gwynedd to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64799911">create a reservoir</a> to provide drinking water for Liverpool. </p>
<p>And Rebecca continues to resonate in Wales to this day, inspiring <a href="https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-village-to-stage-re-enactment-of-historic-tollgate-attack-that-sparked-rebecca-riots/">re-enactments</a> and community <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2721666-students-and-academics-take-cardiff-university-to-the-urdd-eisteddfod">engagement</a> – it shows that the fight for justice and the tradition of protest continues to play a powerful part in Welsh society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lowri Ann Rees does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Rebecca riots saw Welsh farmers disguised as women destroy tollgates as a way of challenging what they believed was an oppressive taxation system.Lowri Ann Rees, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170462023-11-28T23:49:49Z2023-11-28T23:49:49ZPolicing is not the answer to shoplifting, feeding people is<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561622/original/file-20231124-19-hilwzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=150%2C66%2C3875%2C2752&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The social and financial costs of policing food theft are higher than the costs of addressing poverty and income inequality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/policing-is-not-the-answer-to-shoplifting-feeding-people-is" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Big businesses like to tell us that, as consumers, <a href="https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/business/sylvain-charlebois-we-all-pay-for-grocery-theft-100812369/">we all pay for food theft</a>. We’ve been sold a narrative that as consumers who don’t steal, we pay for the theft of food by others on our grocery receipts. </p>
<p>Reported increases in food theft in Canada are <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/grocery-shoplifting-on-the-rise-in-canada-amid-inflation-industry-insiders-say">linked to pressures from rising inflation</a> along with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/staffing-cuts-recreation-libraries-winnipeg-budget-1.6742002#:%7E:text=%22We%20see%20cuts%20in%20community,staff%2C%20while%20libraries%20lost%2011.">diminished investment in social supports</a> such as housing, mental health, transit and crisis and community supports. </p>
<p><a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/police-budgets-praire-cities.pdf">Research has shown that in Prairie cities municipalities disproportionately fund police</a> over essential services like housing and mental health support. But instead of increasing social supports, the response to food theft has been surveillance, security and policing in our grocery stores.</p>
<p>Retailers would have us believe that the cost of food theft is limited to retailers passing on their losses to consumers. However, retailer investment in surveillance, security and special duty police officers are costs that are also passed on to consumers: we pay for the surveillance systems that surround us.</p>
<p>The social cost of policing food is much higher, and deeply concerning because it produces unequal community impacts. </p>
<h2>Food theft</h2>
<p>Food theft is framed as a threat to paying customers. That furthers the divide between those who can still afford groceries, and those who cannot. Media coverage of food theft often focuses on exceptional examples of theft to emphasize that the crisis is an issue of worsening crime. But that framing ignores the broader economic conditions that perpetuate the problem. </p>
<p>In response to media coverage of grocery theft, some have tried to highlight the connection between rising theft and unaffordable food prices. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9425322/toronto-legal-firm-pro-bono-defence-shoplifting/">A Toronto-area law firm has even offered pro bono support for those charged for stealing groceries</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a supermarket surreptitiously placing a product in a backpack." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561623/original/file-20231125-20-qxiiqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reported increases in food theft in Canada have been linked to pressures from rising inflation and diminished investment in social supports.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When food theft is disconnected from social conditions, it also collectively distracts us from the underlying issue of rising food costs.</p>
<p>Following calls from the Canadian government to stabilize prices as food inflation outpaces general inflation, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-major-canadian-grocers-yet-to-confirm-discounts-price-freezes-federal/">grocers have submitted preliminary plans to lower food prices but have yet to implement them</a>. </p>
<h2>Policing food theft</h2>
<p>Buying into the food theft moral panic, divorced from its broader social conditions, has resulted in increased surveillance, security and policing. Retailers and police rely on these <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8604171/canada-grocery-store-shoplifting-rise/">extraordinary accounts of food theft</a> to create moral panic to be managed through securitization and policing. </p>
<p>We are emerging from a global pandemic that severely impacted unemployment rates, as cities grapple with underfunded social services and inflated police budgets. In these contexts, thinking about food theft through a lens of criminality limits interventions and responses.</p>
<p>In 2020, the Manitoba government established a <a href="https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=49281">Retail Crime Task Force with the goal of “reducing the number of thefts.”</a> The press release announcing the partnership was held in front of a Winnipeg grocer — sending a strong message that food theft will not be tolerated. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/retail-crime-task-force-manitoba-government-1.5733988">Project Stop Lifting</a> is another initiative between the Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Justice, and in a two-month period in 2020 it led to 74 arrests and 592 total charges were laid. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/vancouver-police-arrest-258-people-in-shoplifting-crackdown">Vancouver Police have been cracking down on theft</a> and between Sept. 11-26, 258 shoplifting arrests were made. </p>
<p>These arrests and charges raise important concerns about how increased policing is being used as a purported solution to food theft.</p>
<h2>Impacts on racialized people</h2>
<p>Increased policing will disproportionately impact racialized and other marginalized people who are most vulnerable to over-policing and criminalization.</p>
<p>A charge for theft under $5,000 may not result in incarceration for some, but we know Indigenous and other racialized people are more likely to be arrested for minor offences. In Manitoba, Indigenous people are subject to overpolicing, racial profiling and over incarceration. <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/gladue/p2.html">Indigenous people represent 77 per cent of the provincially incarcerated population</a>. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/178-the-end-of-policing">increased policing</a> of grocery stores and pilot programs to increase arrests will <a href="http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/toc.html">disproportionately impact</a> Indigenous and racialized shoppers. This is disconcerting given the <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action No. 30</a> which calls upon federal, provincial, and territorial governments to eliminate the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody. The cost of food theft does not justify the impacts of increased incarceration for Indigenous Peoples, as well as other racialized and marginalized people.</p>
<p>Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has argued the province’s approach to cracking down on theft <a href="https://winnipegsun.com/news/crime/province-announces-new-retail-crime-task-force">fails to address the root causes of crime</a>, and that the underlying problems that lead to theft need to be addressed. Theft cannot be divorced from the social conditions that leave individuals with no other alternatives, especially for needs as basic as food. </p>
<h2>The cost of policing food</h2>
<p>The cost consumers pay for food theft when grocers offload costs to their customers may be significant. However, the cost of policing and incarceration is far more substantial. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510001301">In 2021-2022 the average cost to incarcerate someone in Canada was $119,355</a>. Beyond the cost of incarceration, <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/ccc2014/system-systeme.html">we have to consider the cost of responding to food theft within the criminal justice system</a> that results in police costs, court costs, prosecution costs, legal aid costs, correctional services costs, probation costs as well as the cost of incarceration.</p>
<p>The social cost of such measures is important to consider. Going through the justice system will compound financial distress, subject individuals to police violence, and if incarcerated, will disrupt lives.</p>
<p>The costs associated with policing food, and incarcerating those who find themselves in a position of needing to steal food, should be redirected to feed people. Calls <a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/yes-city-councils-can-cut-the-police-budget">to defund</a> and <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/2571-a-world-without-police">abolish the police</a> have argued for the reallocation of police budgets towards life-sustaining social services and non-carceral alternatives to address crime. </p>
<p>The redistribution of public spending would address people’s struggles to afford food and reduce the high social and fiscal cost of criminalization and policing. By contrast, directing funding to surveillance, security and policing in response to food theft <a href="https://theconversation.com/defunding-the-police-is-a-move-towards-community-safety-181376">will compound harms</a>. </p>
<p>We have a serious problem if we would rather see people in prison than fed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merissa Daborn receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>The food theft crisis is framed as a threat to paying customers. This furthers the divide between those who can still afford groceries and those who cannot.Merissa Daborn, Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175862023-11-27T16:58:05Z2023-11-27T16:58:05ZHow AI ‘sees’ the world – what happened when we trained a deep learning model to identify poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559642/original/file-20231115-23-snwbk5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C7%2C864%2C524&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Visualising wealth and poverty through AI.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To most effectively deliver aid to alleviate poverty, you have to know where the people most in need are. In many countries, this is often done with household surveys. But these are usually infrequent and cover limited locations.</p>
<p>Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created a step change in how to measure poverty and other human development indicators. <a href="https://www.cell.com/patterns/pdf/S2666-3899(22)00225-2.pdf">Our team</a> has used a type of AI known as a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to study <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jid.3751">satellite imagery</a> and identify some types of poverty with a level of accuracy close to that of household surveys.</p>
<p>The use of this AI technology could help, for example, in developing countries where there has been a rapid change of land use. The AI could monitor via satellite and potentially spot areas that are in need of aid. This would be much quicker than relying on ground surveys.</p>
<p>Plus, the <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10302541">dreamy images</a> our deep learning model has produced give us a unique insight into how AI visualises the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two satellite images of a villages." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559609/original/file-20231115-27-o4k8xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two villages with different wealth ratings as seen from space. The ‘poor’ village is on the left, the ‘wealthy’ on the right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors/Google</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A DCNN is a type of advanced AI algorithm commonly used in processing and analysing visual imagery. The “deep” in its name refers to the multiple layers through which data is processed, making it part of the broader family of deep learning technologies.</p>
<p>Earlier this year our team made an important discovery using the DCNN. This network was initially trained on the vast array of labelled images from the <a href="https://www.image-net.org/about.php">ImageNet</a> repository: a <a href="https://qz.com/1034972/the-data-that-changed-the-direction-of-ai-research-and-possibly-the-world">huge pictorial dataset</a> of objects and living things used to train algorithms. After this initial phase, where the network learned to recognise various objects, we fine-tuned it using daylight satellite images of populated places. </p>
<p><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.08785.pdf">Our findings</a> revealed that the DCNN, enhanced by this specialised training, could surpass human performance in accurately assessing poverty levels from satellite imagery. Specifically, the AI system demonstrated an ability to deduce poverty levels from low-resolution daytime satellite images with greater precision than <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.08785.pdf">humans analysing</a> high-resolution images.</p>
<p>Such proficiency echoes the superhuman achievements of AI in other realms, such as the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aar6404?casa_token=1eQBH-8ZrRsAAAAA:4qQXVzp-45bhgMGGNXpEv6uewbihGzDkRzC4pc-k1-u2-lO5sjenv84TArnmw9YPYDlQwWpolndV-DU">Chess and Go</a> engines that consistently outwit human players. </p>
<p>After the training phase was complete, we engaged in an exploration to try to understand what characteristics the DCNN was identifying in the satellite images as being indicative of “high wealth”. This process began with what we referred to as a “blank slate” – an image composed entirely of random noise, devoid of any discernible features.</p>
<p>In a step-by-step manner, the model “adjusts” this noisy image. Each adjustment is a move towards what the model considers a satellite image of a more wealthy place than the previous image. These modifications are driven by the model’s internal understanding and learning from its training data.</p>
<p>As the adjustments continue, the initially random image gradually morphs into one that the model confidently classifies as indicating high wealth. This transformation was revelatory because it unveiled the specific features, patterns, and elements that the model associates with wealth in satellite imagery. </p>
<p>Such features might include (but are not limited to) the density of roads, the layout of urban areas, or other subtle cues that have been learned during the model’s training.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A block of four images, progressing from a satellite to more abstract AI versions of the original, explainer in paragraph below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559911/original/file-20231116-27-idgukm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Satellite image (left) of ‘poor’ village, then moves from left to right adding signs of wealth, like roads, progressing towards what the AI ‘sees’ as wealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors/Google</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sequence of images displayed above serves a crucial purpose in our research. It begins with a baseline satellite image of a village in Tanzania, which our AI model categorises as “poor”, probably due to the sparse presence of roads and buildings.</p>
<p>To test and confirm this hypothesis, we progressively modify each subsequent image in the sequence, methodically enhancing them with additional features such as buildings and roads. These augmentations represent increased wealth and development as perceived by the AI model.</p>
<p>This visual progression shows how the AI is visualising “wealth” as we add things like more roads and houses. The characteristics we deduced from the model’s “ideal” wealth image (such as roads and buildings) are indeed influential in the model’s assessment of wealth.</p>
<p>This step is essential in ensuring that the features we believe to be significant in the AI’s decision-making process do, in fact, correspond to higher wealth predictions.</p>
<p>So by repeatedly adjusting the image, the resulting visualisation gradually evolves into what the network “thinks” wealth looks like. This outcome is often abstract or surreal.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Abstract image created by AI portraying poverty." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559639/original/file-20231115-23-rxgd5r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What a neural network ‘thinks’ wealth looks like.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The image above was generated from a blank slate when we asked the DCNN what it associated with “high wealth”. These images have an ethereal quality and don’t closely resemble typical daytime satellite photos. Yet, the presence of “blobs” and “lines” suggests clusters of homes interconnected by roads and streets. The blue hue might even hint at coastal areas.</p>
<h2>Dreamy images</h2>
<p>Inherent in this method is an element of randomness. This randomness ensures that each attempt at visualisation creates a unique image, though all are anchored in the same underlying concept as understood by the network.</p>
<p>However, it is important to note that these visualisations are more a reflection of the network’s “thought process” rather than an objective representation of wealth. They’re constrained by the network’s training and may not accurately align with human interpretations. </p>
<p>It is crucial to understand that while AI feature visualisation offers intriguing insights into neural networks, it also highlights the complexities and limitations of machine learning in mirroring human perception and understanding.</p>
<p>Understanding poverty, particularly in its geographical or regional context, is a complex endeavour. While traditional studies have focused more on individual aspects of poverty, AI, leveraging satellite imagery, has made significant strides in highlighting regional poverty’s geographical patterns.</p>
<p>This is where the real value of AI in poverty assessment lies, in offering a spatially nuanced perspective that complements existing poverty research and aids in formulating more targeted and effective interventions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ola Hall receives funding from Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Swedish Research Council and Formas. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hamid Sarmadi receives funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thorsteinn Rögnvaldsson receives funding from the Knowledge Foundation and from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.</span></em></p>Researchers fed an advanced AI algorithm with satellite photographs to see if it could identify areas of poverty and it interpreted the data through abstract images.Ola Hall, Head of the Department of Human Geography, Lund UniversityHamid Sarmadi, Assistant Professor, School of Information Technology, Halmstad UniversityThorsteinn Rögnvaldsson, Professor, School of Information Technology, Halmstad UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178412023-11-27T12:16:08Z2023-11-27T12:16:08ZHaving a single parent doesn’t determine your life chances – the data shows poverty is far more important<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560401/original/file-20231120-19-5r5dhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=580%2C0%2C3150%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-rides-child-bicycle-sunset-happy-2292524307">Valery Zotev/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Numerous research studies have suggested that children from a single-parent family are worse off than those who have two parents at home. These findings chime with decades of stigma that have painted coming from a single-parent home as undesirable. </p>
<p>Understandably, <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us/news/single-parents-are-more-risk-anxiety">you may find this worrying</a> if you are a single parent – or if you’re thinking of embarking on parenthood alone. But it’s worth looking at the detail behind the stats. I reviewed the most up-to-date evidence for my book <a href="https://pinterandmartin.com/products/why-single-parents-matter">Why Single Parents Matter</a>, and found that conclusions that suggest significant negative outcomes as a result of coming from a single-parent family are often not supported by strong data.</p>
<p>For example, a 1991 <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/divorce_paper.pdf">meta analysis</a> – a research paper that reviews the findings of numerous scholarly studies – is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240051/">often cited as evidence</a> of a negative impact. However, the study <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/divorce_paper.pdf">concludes that</a> the “effects are generally weak, with methodologically sophisticated studies and more recent studies tending to find even smaller differences between groups”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/should-i-have-children-148388?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=InArticleTop&utm_campaign=Parenting2023">Should I have children?</a> The pieces in this series will help you answer this tough question – exploring fertility, climate change, the cost of living and social pressure.</em></p>
<p><em>We’ll keep the discussion going at a live event in London on November 30. <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-conversation-should-i-have-children/london-tottenham-court-road">Click here</a> for more information and tickets.</em></p>
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<h2>Small differences</h2>
<p>Other studies report differences that are unlikely to have any significant real-life impact. For example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201193/#:%7E:text=Mean%C2%B1SD%20of%20self,respectively%20(P%3D0.034).">one study concluded</a> that “adolescents’ self-esteem in single-parent families was lower than that in the two-parent nuclear families”. The average score for children from two-parent families was 39 and for those from one-parent families 37.5 – but a score of 25 and above indicated high self-esteem. </p>
<p>Other research has found small differences in rare outcomes such as <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/59/2/152.full.pdf">school expulsion</a>, which do not affect the majority of children regardless of family structure. Further <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X15001118?casa_token=4T8kUVlO1joAAAAA:no7QZyv8E3WIL7CzK7LbV5bwroOZ7HJYKZJG2BV13esmJPrco-INdg5aXFhdiwf2Rd948V7XOg">research</a> finds no differences in children’s educational achievement at all. </p>
<p>What’s more, when research takes into consideration important factors such as poverty, the differences often disappear. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/67/2/181.short">Millennium Cohort Study</a> looked at differences in the health and wellbeing of over 13,000 seven-year-olds. It found almost all children were healthy: 0.4% of children living in two-parent households had poor health, compared with 0.9% in single-parent households. Other small differences were found for mental health, obesity and asthma. However, once poverty was taken into consideration, almost all significant differences disappeared. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="group of happy children outside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560808/original/file-20231121-17-sgp640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The differences between children from one- and two-parent household are smaller than research conclusions might suggest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kids-playing-cheerful-park-outdoors-concept-419185651">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a critical finding because single-parent families are far more likely to be living in poverty than two-parent families (62.7% versus 17.8% in the study). And data from other countries shows us that this issue should be fixable. One global study found small differences in educational outcomes for children from single-parent families. However, these almost all disappeared in countries that had <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2003.00681.x">more supportive social policies</a>, such as family and child allowances and parental leave. </p>
<p>Another angle that illustrates how context matters is research focused on mothers who become single parents by choice through IVF or adoption. These mothers tend to be older, have a higher income and feel ready for parenthood. Reflecting this, one study found <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1037/0002-9432.75.2.242">no difference in bonding between mother and baby</a> for single and married women who had IVF treatment.</p>
<p>Furthermore, when the researchers <a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/20/6/1655/748804">followed these families up</a> when the children were two years old, the single mothers showed greater joy and lower levels of anger towards their children, and their children had fewer emotional and behavioural problems. </p>
<p>It’s also important to note that factors within a two-parent household can affect child outcomes. One study found no differences in the quality of parenting that children from one- or two-parent families experienced – except that when <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9586218/">parent conflict in two-parent homes was high</a>, or parents in a two-parent household had “lower levels of love for each other”, children were more likely to have behavioural problems. </p>
<h2>Stereotyping and wellbeing</h2>
<p>Differences are sometimes found between single parents and those with a partner when it comes to maternal wellbeing. Single mothers are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-006-0125-4">more likely to experience depression</a> compared with mothers with a partner, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260515591278">exacerbated by</a> financial pressures, challenging relationships with ex-partners, and a lack of social support. </p>
<p>While single fathers may <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4175544/Heartwarming-photographs-single-dads-children.html">often be praised</a>, there are many <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-in-four-children-grow-up-in-a-single-parent-family-so-why-is-there-still-a-stigma-126562">stigmatising sterotypes</a> of single mothers. These often perpetuate the image of a younger mother, instead of considering the broad range of <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/our-work/single-parents-facts-and-figures/">single-parent family set-ups</a> in the UK today. </p>
<p>Historically, in the UK, pregnancy outside marriage was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/4862?login=false">viewed as shameful</a>. Women and girls were thrown out of families, forced into workhouses, or made to give their baby <a href="https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2021/january/report-on-mother-and-baby-homes-and-magdalene-laundries-in-northern-ireland">up for adoption</a>. Although financial support for single mothers was eventually introduced, governments were anxious that this might <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/your-community/stories/single-parent-history-the-history-of-gingerbread/">encourage single motherhood</a>. </p>
<p>I do not wish to downplay the challenges and difficult emotions that children can experience during or after separation. But this is different to claiming that single parenthood directly harms children in the long term. Any differences are fixable by ensuring <a href="https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/">better support</a> for <a href="http://www.familylives.org.uk/">single families</a>, rather than exacerbating harmful stigma.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Brown has received funding from the ESRC, MRC, NIHR, HEFCW, UKRI, Infant feeding charities and Public Health Wales</span></em></p>Single parents need support, not stigma.Amy Brown, Professor of Child Public Health, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176892023-11-20T14:35:51Z2023-11-20T14:35:51ZAntibiotic resistance causes more deaths than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. What Africa is doing to fight this silent epidemic<p><em>Each year <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance">antimicrobial resistance</a> – the ability of microbes to survive agents designed to kill them – claims more lives than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. Africa bears the brunt of this development, which thrives on inequality and poverty. Nadine Dreyer asked Tom Nyirenda, a research scientist with over 27 years’ experience in infectious diseases, what health organisations on the continent are doing to fight this threat to medical progress.</em></p>
<h2>What is antimicrobial resistance?</h2>
<p>Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines (including antibiotics). This makes infections harder to treat and increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. </p>
<p>In Africa, drug resistance is already a documented problem for <a href="https://africacdc.org/document-tag/amr/#:%7E:text=In%20Africa%2C%20AMR%20has%20already,%2C%20meningitis%2C%20gonorrhoea%20and%20dysentery.">HIV, malaria, tuberculosis (TB), typhoid, cholera, meningitis, gonorrhoea and dysentery</a>.</p>
<h2>How big a problem is antimicrobial resistance?</h2>
<p>It is one of the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10317217/#:%7E:text=Antimicrobial%20resistance%20(AMR)%20has%20been,threats%20facing%20humanity%20%5B1%5D.">top 10</a> global public health threats, and threatens to undermine years of medical progress.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-resistance-microbiologists-turn-to-new-technologies-in-the-hunt-for-solutions-podcast-217615">Antibiotic resistance: microbiologists turn to new technologies in the hunt for solutions – podcast</a>
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<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/news/global-burden-of-bacterial-antimicrobial-resistance">5 million deaths</a> were associated with antimicrobial resistance in 2019. </p>
<p>The African continent bears the heaviest burden. </p>
<p>The first <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext">comprehensive assessment</a> of the global burden of antimicrobial resistance has estimated that in 2019 over 27 deaths per 100,000 were directly attributable to it in Africa. Over 114 deaths per 100,000 were associated with it. </p>
<p>In high-income countries, antimicrobial resistance led directly to 13 deaths per 100,000. It was associated with 56 deaths per 100,000 people.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext">study</a> showed that young children were particularly at risk. Half of the deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 were among children under the age of 5.</p>
<h2>How do inequality and poverty come into it?</h2>
<p>In many African countries, poverty and inequality propel the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance.</p>
<p>Access to clean running water, proper sanitation and safe water management is a big challenge in many hospitals and clinics in African countries. </p>
<p>And there is often a dire shortage of health workers. Wards are often overcrowded. As a result, infections spread faster. Some of these infections are resistant to antibiotics. </p>
<p>Inappropriate use of antibiotics, inadequate health resources and limited access to the right medicines has also fuelled antibiotic resistance in sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14787210.2023.2259106">Substandard and falsified</a> medicines, due to their inferior doses, can allow bacteria to adapt, persist, develop and spread. Studies show that the African continent is affected by such medical products. </p>
<p>Global antibiotic shortages also encourage the use of inferior medicines.</p>
<p>With weak regulation, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14787210.2023.2259106">over-the-counter</a> prescription of antibiotics is highly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The highest rates of over-the-counter antibiotics have been found in Eritrea (up to 89.2%), Ethiopia (up to 87.9%), Nigeria (up to 86.5%) and Tanzania (up to 92.3%). In Zambia up to 100% of pharmacies dispensed antibiotics without a prescription. </p>
<h2>Is there any good news?</h2>
<p>While tackling antimicrobial resistance on the African continent may be tougher than in other regions, many deaths are preventable. </p>
<p>There have been some encouraging moves to protect health systems and communities against antimicrobial resistance.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The African Union has established the <a href="https://africacdc.org/download/african-union-framework-for-antimicrobial-resistance-control-2020-2025/">African Union Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance Control</a>. It aims to strengthen research; advocate for policies, laws and good governance; enhance awareness; and engage civil society organisations.</p></li>
<li><p>Fighting antimicrobial resistance involves developing new antibiotics and making sure they reach the people who need them. This is what organisations like the <a href="https://gardp.org/">Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership</a> were created to do. We are seeing encouraging progress for an antibiotic against drug-resistant gonorrhoea, a <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/22-06-2023-who-outlines-40-research-priorities-on-antimicrobial-resistance">high priority pathogen</a>. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Six South African sites were involved in the clinical trial.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Measuring and monitoring antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use has an essential role. Here too there’s progress. The <a href="https://africacdc.org/download/mapping-antimicrobial-resistance-and-antimicrobial-use-partnership-maap-country-reports/">Mapping AMR and AMU Partnership</a> consortium has recently published 14 new country reports on the situation across Africa. </p></li>
<li><p>The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials <a href="https://www.edctp.org/">Partnership</a> is funding clinical research for medical tools to detect, treat and prevent poverty-related infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. The vital field of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531478/#:%7E:text=Neonatal%20sepsis%20refers%20to%20an,middle%20and%20lower%2Dincome%20countries">neonatal sepsis</a> is included.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s crucial to shift attitudes towards antibiotics so that they are used wisely. Organisations such as <a href="https://www.reactgroup.org/news-and-views/news-and-opinions/2023-2/react-africa-conference-2023/">ReAct Africa and the South Centre</a> have made good progress on this front. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>They advocate for responsible use of antibiotics as well as ways to prevent and control bacterial infections. </p>
<p>In Kenya and other African countries, antimicrobial resistance champions raise awareness in schools, universities, clinics and communities. </p>
<ol>
<li>A bold <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/regional-director/speeches-messages/strategic-imperative-boosting-local-pharmaceutical-production">move</a> by African countries to establish and expand local manufacturing of medical products requires strict regulation so that it does not fuel drug resistance with sub-standard or fake products. </li>
</ol>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>The antimicrobial resistance challenges in African countries are huge. But momentum to counter it is building. </p>
<p>Crucial steps include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>greater investment</p></li>
<li><p>expansion of infection, prevention and control programmes, including good clinical prescription practices</p></li>
<li><p>improving access to essential antibiotics and diagnostic tools</p></li>
<li><p>the development of new antibiotics that can treat infections that are multi-drug resistant. </p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-we-still-have-antibiotics-in-50-years-we-asked-7-global-experts-214950">Will we still have antibiotics in 50 years? We asked 7 global experts</a>
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<p><em>This article is part of a media partnership between The Conversation Africa and the 2023 Conference on Public Health in Africa. The author acknowledges valuable input from Carol Rufell of the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership Africa.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Nyirenda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Africa bears the heaviest burden of antimicrobial resistance, a phenomenon fuelled largely by poverty, But there are encouraging signs that the continent is taking action to fight it.Tom Nyirenda, Extraordinary Senior Lecture in the Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180482023-11-17T16:36:02Z2023-11-17T16:36:02ZSouth Africa’s police are losing the war on crime – here’s how they need to rethink their approach<p>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzyqFKC2x1Q">crime statistics</a> for the third quarter of 2023 show that people continue to face a serious problem of violent crime, especially murder and attempted murder. The country’s <a href="https://issafrica.org/events/understanding-escalating-levels-of-murder-in-south-africa">per capita murder rate for 2022/23</a> was the highest in 20 years at 45 per 100,000 (a 50% increase compared to 2012/13).</p>
<p>In response to this crisis, the South African Police Service has reconfigured its <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/37753/">policing strategies and plans</a>. Yet, these approaches offer very little innovation. They mostly reaffirm the way the police have typically pursued policing for the past three decades – fighting a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2018.1503831">“war” on crime</a> and <a href="https://ewn.co.za/topic/operation-fiela">“sweeping away”</a> criminals. </p>
<p>In my view the police have adopted unsuitable crime fighting strategies. This is a “war” the police can’t win on their own, because violent crime is a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462816_WHY_IS_CRIME_IN_SOUTH_AFRICA_SO_VIOLENT_Updated_Rapid_Evidence_Assessment_on_Violent_Crime_in_South_Africa">complex phenomenon</a>. It requires <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC47702">whole-of-government</a> and <a href="https://www.csir.co.za/sites/default/files/Documents/Making%20South%20Africa%20Safe.pdf">whole-of-society</a> approaches. Government departments, civil society groups and the private sector should pool resources and <a href="https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/7/e009972">work together</a> in a co-ordinated manner. They must be guided by a common plan. Otherwise crime prevention efforts will be piecemeal, lacking effectiveness.</p>
<h2>Determinants and complexity of violent crime</h2>
<p>The scholarly literature on violent crime in South Africa, including <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462816_WHY_IS_CRIME_IN_SOUTH_AFRICA_SO_VIOLENT_Updated_Rapid_Evidence_Assessment_on_Violent_Crime_in_South_Africa">my research</a>, indicates that interpersonal violence is typically the outcome of a combination of risk factors over time. </p>
<p>One of them is the idea that violence is a legitimate means to resolve conflict between people. </p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462669_Towards_a_more_comprehensive_understanding_of_the_direct_and_indirect_determinants_of_violence_against_women_and_children_in_South_Africa_with_a_view_to_enhancing_violence_prevention">childhood experiences</a> of violence.</p>
<p>Socio-economic elements, such as poverty, unemployment and inadequate living conditions, underpin violence, mainly for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X17696171?journalCode=jmma">younger men</a>. Feelings of stress, frustration and humiliation, combined with substance abuse (chiefly alcohol), inequitable gender norms and the availability of weapons, especially <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-spike-in-gun-crime-angers-citizens/a-64903654">firearms</a>, often results in violent behaviour.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-wont-become-less-violent-until-its-more-equal-103116">South Africa won't become less violent until it's more equal</a>
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<p>Given what studies say about the determinants of violence, I predicted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that South Africa would soon face a <a href="https://www.saferspaces.org.za/blog/entry/the-coming-crime-catastrophe">crime catastrophe</a>. The pandemic and lockdown regulations had increased poverty, unemployment and food insecurity. This would exacerbate existing risk factors for violence, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>domestic abuse </p></li>
<li><p>learners dropping out of school </p></li>
<li><p>diminishing prospects of meaningful jobs, especially for young, marginalised men. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2021/22 there was a significant <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/downloads/Annual-Crime-2021_2022-web.pdf">increase</a> in all categories of violent crime. </p>
<p>Since then there’s been no reduction in these risks, especially <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-10-06-eight-million-hungry-children-new-report-about-the-shocking-impact-of-poverty-on-young-south-africans/">food insecurity</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sa-sees-job-growth-but-its-cold-comfort-for-millions-of-unemployed-youth-left-behind-20231115">youth unemployment</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/press-releases/crime-statistics-devastating-violence-against-children-and-women-continues">child abuse</a> and the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/723902/south-africas-shocking-school-dropout-rate-revealed/">school dropout rate</a>. The <a href="https://issafrica.org/events/understanding-escalating-levels-of-murder-in-south-africa">murder rate per capita</a> has increased from 33.5 per 100,000 during the COVID-19 period (2020/21) to 45 per 100,000 in 2022/23. </p>
<h2>Police and the prevention of violent crime</h2>
<p>Even though the police are <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/police-work-social-organization-policing">not able</a> to do anything directly about many of the underlying risk factors for violence, <a href="https://www.police1.com/chiefs-sheriffs/articles/law-enforcement-strategies-to-reduce-violence-wItHuxvLO0IHLEEk/">studies</a> have shown that specific policing interventions can make a difference in reducing violent crime. </p>
<p>The police can work closely with communities to devise <a href="https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/community-oriented-problem-oriented-policing">cooperative solutions</a> to crime problems. They can also collect and use relevant <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/d/3/327476.pdf">intelligence</a> to design and implement <a href="https://issafrica.org/crimehub/analysis/research/evidence-based-policing-for-south-africa-an-introduction-for-police-officers-researchers-and-communities">evidence-based</a> crime prevention actions. These should focus on the areas where criminal offending is most <a href="https://time.com/6227552/hotspot-policing-crime-effectiveness/">concentrated</a>, and on the <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/works-reduce-crime-summary-evidence/pages/6/">situations</a> that tend to drive that behaviour. </p>
<p>Interventions require a <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/successfully-reducing-violent-crime-with-multimodal-community-and-police-engagement-interventions/">competent, adequately resourced and professional</a> police organisation and a fair and effective <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/effectiveness-and-fairness-of-judicial-systems_5jfrmmrhkcs2.pdf">criminal justice system</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 1990s the work of the police has included community-oriented approaches. <a href="https://www.police.govt.nz/resources/2008/community-policing-lit-review/elements-of-com-policing.pdf">Best practice</a> is for police to treat community safety groups as equal partners. Solutions to crime problems are <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-crisis-to-community-policing/">co-created</a>. </p>
<p>But the police’s approach has been the converse. They have <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/community-policing-forums-should-be-holding-police-accountable/">co-opted</a> community safety groups, such as <a href="https://crimehub.org/iss-today/are-south-africas-community-police-forums-losing-their-impartiality">community police forums</a> and neighbourhood watches, to be <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=45270">force multipliers</a>. Studies have shown that such a method is often <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/171676.pdf">ineffective</a>.</p>
<p>For the past three decades, South African police have prioritised <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2018.1503831">militarised policing approaches</a>, such as <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=47240">Operation Shanela</a> (“to sweep” in isiZulu). They encourage police to be more <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2023-11-12-cele-doubles-down-on-cops-right-to-use-deadly-force/">forceful</a> in their interactions with alleged criminals.</p>
<p>There is very <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1805161115">little evidence</a> to suggest that militarised policing brings down violent crime rates. Instead, it can erode public trust in the police. This is certainly evident in South Africa, where only <a href="https://hsrc.ac.za/press-releases/dces/feeling-blue-changing-patterns-of-trust-in-the-police-in-south-africa/">27%</a> of the population view the police as trustworthy (from 47% in 1999). </p>
<p>Police effectiveness in combating crime has also been undermined by <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/37753/">declining personnel numbers</a>. In 2018, there were 150,639 police personnel, but this is now 140,048. There has also been a substantial decline in the <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/90-drop-in-police-reservists-devastating-to-high-crime-levels-20231114">police reserve force</a>. </p>
<p>High levels of crime have placed <a href="https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1991-38772020000100003">considerable pressure</a> on the criminal justice system too. Conviction rates for violent crime are very low. For example, between 2019/20 and 2021/22, police recorded 66,486 murder cases. Of these, only 8,103 (12%) resulted in a guilty verdict.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The good news is that the government does not exclusively depend on policing plans to tackle crime. It has also developed multi-departmental and evidence-based strategies and plans to prevent crime. These are derived from Chapter 12 of the <a href="https://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/assets/Documents/NDP_Chapters/devplan_ch12_0.pdf">National Development Plan</a>. It calls for: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>police to be more professional, demilitarised and work in partnership with communities</p></li>
<li><p>an improved criminal justice system </p></li>
<li><p>an integrated crime prevention strategy. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2022 the cabinet approved the <a href="http://www.policesecretariat.gov.za/downloads/reports/Final%20Approved%20Integrated%20Crime%20Violence%20Prevention%20Strategy.pdf">Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy</a>. It seeks to achieve a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach given the multi-dimensional nature of the risk factors that drive violent crime. Furthermore, this strategy encourages government and other elements of society to jointly address common crime problems and collaboratively determine prevention strategies, especially at the community level. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-feeling-more-insecure-do-ramaphosas-plans-add-up-176991">South Africans are feeling more insecure: do Ramaphosa's plans add up?</a>
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<p>There was also the recognition that various government departments (and not just the police) needed to work closely with civil society and the private sector to drive down crime levels.</p>
<p>The problem is that the implementation of strategy is in limbo. No government agency has been willing to take responsibility for it. That’s because there is no direct budgetary allocation, given the highly <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/budget-speech/664953/4-major-risks-that-godongwana-needs-to-address-in-the-2023-budget-next-week/">constrained government purse</a>. </p>
<p>High levels of crime and low levels of policing have substantial <a href="https://www.news24.com/citypress/business/the-crippling-cost-of-violence-20221125#:%7E:text=Violent%20crimes%20cost%20South%20Africa%20about%2019%25%20of%20GDP%20annually.">negative effects</a> on economic performance. So investing adequate resources to carry out the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy will not only reduce violent crime, but also contribute to economic growth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Lamb receives funding from Norwegian Research Council. He is a Commissioner on South Africa's National Planning Commission. </span></em></p>Government departments, civil society groups and the private sector should pool resources and work together in a co-ordinated manner to prevent violent crime.Guy Lamb, Criminologist / Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173052023-11-16T14:46:31Z2023-11-16T14:46:31ZThere are too few toilets in Africa and it’s a public health hazard – how to fix the problem<p>Imagine you are miles from the nearest restroom, and nature’s call is urgent – a situation that might raise a mild panic during a hike or at a music festival. Now, picture that same scenario, not as a one-off inconvenience, but as a daily reality. This is the case for about <a href="https://tropmedhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41182-022-00416-5">half a billion</a> people globally. </p>
<p>In African countries, the issue of open defecation often goes unaddressed by society and policymakers despite its negative impact on health, economic development, dignity and the environment. </p>
<p>Led from Queen’s University Belfast, a team of multidisciplinary researchers aimed to evaluate how prevalent the practice is in African countries and which social factors are driving it. We also aimed to establish which communities were in most urgent need of interventions. </p>
<p>We used demographic and health surveys, alongside World Bank data. In a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10668-023-03992-6">recent paper</a> we set out our findings. </p>
<p>Our main ones were that in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad, a large number of people engaged in open defecation. </p>
<p>We found that as few as ten countries could account for 247 million Africans defecating in the open by 2030 if critical and emergency actions are not taken.</p>
<p>The biggest driver is lack of access to proper sanitation facilities. The poorest individuals, particularly in rural areas, are more likely to resort to open defecation than people in urban areas. In regions with the most critical need, the poorest are 43 times more likely than the wealthy to resort to open toileting. </p>
<p>We recommend tackling poverty, and intervening in regions and communities that urgently need improved sanitation infrastructure and programmes. West Africa needs special attention since many of its communities are in the critical category.</p>
<h2>A systematic approach</h2>
<p>Sanitation has far-reaching implications for food safety. Contaminated water sources and unsanitary conditions can spread waterborne diseases, which can contaminate food and put millions at risk. Addressing open defecation is a step in ensuring the safety and hygiene of the food chain.</p>
<p>The link between poor sanitation and health is well <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation">documented</a>. But our study casts this relationship in a new, alarming light: the likely role of open defecation in antimicrobial resistance. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/antimicrobial-resistance">Antimicrobial resistance</a> is the ability of microbes, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, to resist the effects of medications that were once used effectively against them. It is a looming crisis, threatening to make antibiotics ineffective. Common infections could once again become deadly. </p>
<p>Our research suggests a probable link between open defecation and antimicrobial resistance. When people defecate outdoors, resistant bacteria from human waste can contaminate water and food. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taad069">often leads</a> to faecal-oral diseases and urinary tract infections.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gutter-to-gut-how-antimicrobial-resistant-microbes-journey-from-environment-to-humans-189446">Gutter to gut: How antimicrobial-resistant microbes journey from environment to humans</a>
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<p>However, there is a need for more research to clarify the relationship, its implications and prevention. A clear recommendation from our research is that data about antimicrobial resistance should be integrated into health surveys.</p>
<p>While the full breadth of the study’s findings is huge, its conclusions are clear: open defecation is a challenge in Africa that requires actions. Our research doesn’t just ring the alarm bell; it provides a blueprint for change, identifying specific regions where the practice is most prevalent and where interventions could have the greatest impact.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>Addressing open defecation across a continent as vast and diverse as Africa is no small feat. We made a number of recommendations in the study.</p>
<p><strong>A pragmatic three-tier priority system</strong> </p>
<p>This will categorise regions based on the urgency of need for intervention: critical, high, and medium. Regions marked as critical are those with the highest prevalence of open defecation (more than 80% of the population) and the least access to sanitation facilities. These areas need immediate attention with the deployment of resources and sanitation infrastructure. The high priority regions have some access to sanitation. Here, the strategy is a combination of infrastructure development and community education. For medium priority areas (40%-59%), where some sanitation infrastructure may exist, the focus should be on sustainable practices, behavioural change and maintenance of existing facilities.</p>
<p>The system above is just to cut the high rates and inequalities among communities in a country. There is also a lot to do in communities with an open defecation rate of less than 40%. The goal is to reinforce positive behaviour and ensure facilities are maintained and improved. </p>
<p>Policy support, such as incentives for building private toilets or community sanitation blocks, may also help. This tiered strategy hinges on continuous assessment and reallocation of resources. Interventions should respond to the changing landscape as regions improve or decline. </p>
<p><strong>Support sanitation projects and policies</strong></p>
<p>Advocacy is important to increase awareness and donations to organisations that build toilets and provide sanitation programmes in affected areas. </p>
<p><strong>Educate and spread awareness</strong></p>
<p>Learning about the cultural and socio-economic factors that contribute to this practice must be encouraged and the knowledge shared with others. Campaigns that focus on the importance of sanitation for health and the environment are key.</p>
<p><strong>Encourage sustainable sanitation practices</strong></p>
<p>This includes using toilets properly, not littering, and understanding local challenges. The use of compostable toilets and other sustainable waste management practices where traditional toilets are not feasible must be encouraged.</p>
<p><strong>Foster global partnerships for sanitation</strong></p>
<p>Global partnerships can amplify efforts to end open defecation. Collaborations between governments, NGOs, private sector stakeholders and international organisations must be encouraged. Pooling resources and sharing knowledge can lead to more effective and sustainable solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The struggle with open defecation is a silent emergency, undermining the continent’s efforts towards sustainable development goals.Omololu Fagunwa, Research Fellow, Queen's University BelfastHelen Onyeaka, Associate Professor, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2138202023-11-15T13:23:03Z2023-11-15T13:23:03ZPoor men south of Richmond? Why much of the rural South is in economic crisis<p>For a brief moment in the summer of 2023, the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/artist/oliver-anthony-music/chart-history/hsi/">surprise No. 1 song</a> “Rich Men North of Richmond” focused the country’s attention on a region that often gets overlooked in discussions of the U.S. economy. Although the U.S. media sometimes pays attention to the rural South — often concentrating on guns, religion and opioid overdoses — it has too often neglected the broad scope and root causes of the region’s current problems.</p>
<p>As economic historians <a href="https://history.unc.edu/faculty-members/peter-a-coclanis/">based in North Carolina</a> <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/faculty/louis-m-kyriakoudes">and Tennessee</a>, we want a fuller version of the story to be told. Various parts of the rural South are struggling, but here we want to focus on the forlorn areas that the U.S. Department of Agriculture refers to as “<a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/october/rural-manufacturing-survival-and-its-role-in-the-rural-economy/">rural manufacturing counties”</a> — places where manufacturing is, or traditionally was, the main economic activity.</p>
<p>You can find such counties in every Southern state, although they were historically clustered in Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. And they are suffering terribly.</p>
<h2>Yes, the South is actually in crisis</h2>
<p>First, let’s back up. One might be tempted to ask: Are things really that bad? Hasn’t the Sun Belt <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-become-a-nation-of-suburbs-101501">been booming</a>? But in fact, by a range of economic indicators — <a href="https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/stgdppi4q22-a2022.pdf">personal income per capita</a> and the proportion of the population <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/">living in poverty</a>, for starters – large parts of the South, and particularly the rural South, are struggling.</p>
<p>Gross domestic product per capita in the region has been <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807873359/a-way-forward">stuck at about 90%</a> of the national average for decades, with average income even lower in rural areas. About 1 in 5 counties in the South is marked by “<a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2023/comm/persistent-poverty.pdf">persistent poverty</a>” — a poverty rate that has stayed above 20% for three decades running. Indeed, <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2023/acs/acs-51%20persistent%20poverty.pdf">fully 80%</a> of all persistently poor counties in the U.S. are in the South.</p>
<p>Persistent poverty is, of course, linked to a host of other problems. The South’s rural counties are marked by <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?eid=391444&rid=330">low levels of educational attainment</a>, measured both by high school and college graduation rates. Meanwhile, labor-force participation rates in the South are <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?eid=784070&rid=446">far lower</a> than in the nation as a whole.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, these issues stifle economic growth.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, financial institutions have fled the region: The South as a whole <a href="https://banks.data.fdic.gov/explore/historical/">lost 62% of its banks</a> between 1980 and 2020, with the decline sharpest in rural areas. At the same time, local hospitals and medical facilities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12655">have been shuttering</a>, while funding for everything from emergency services to wellness programs has been cut. </p>
<h2>Less wealth, less health</h2>
<p>Relatedly, the rural South is ground zero for poor health in the U.S., with <a href="https://americaninequality.substack.com/p/life-expectancy-and-inequality">life expectancy far lower</a> than the national average. So-called “<a href="http://deathsofdespair.princeton.edu">deaths of despair</a>” such as suicides and accidental overdoses are common, and rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke are high – much higher than in rural areas in other parts of the U.S. and <a href="https://www.countyhealthrankings.org">in the U.S. as a whole</a>.</p>
<p>Manufacturing counties in the rural South are particularly unhealthy. Residents there die about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/deaths.htm">two and a half years younger</a> than the average American, which to demographers is a staggeringly high differential.</p>
<p>These things, of course, didn’t happen in a vacuum. The Obama-era Affordable Care Act encouraged states to expand Medicaid coverage, but Southern states largely refused to do so. That left <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2021-07/rural-health-rr.pdf">large portions</a> of the low- and lower-middle-income population in the rural South uninsured. This has pushed many medical facilities in the region into a death spiral, as their business models — predicated on governmental insurance of one kind or another — became untenable.</p>
<p>Given all this, is it any wonder that rates of upward mobility in the rural South are among <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/path-rural-resilience-america/">the lowest in the country</a>? Alas, probably not — certainly not to residents of rural North Carolina, a state where more than half of its counties <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/databases/article253546964.html">lost population</a> between 2010 and 2020. </p>
<h2>It wasn’t always this way</h2>
<p>Although some people think that these areas have <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2015/11/what-went-wrong-with-the-south.html">forever been in crisis</a>, this isn’t the case. While the South’s agricultural sector had fallen into long-term decline in the decades following the Civil War — essentially collapsing by the Great Depression — the onset of World War II led to <a href="https://lsupress.org/9780807121221/the-new-south-1945-1980/">an impressive economic growth spurt</a>.</p>
<p>War-related jobs opening up in urban areas pulled labor out of rural areas, leading to a long-delayed push to mechanize agriculture. Workers rendered redundant by such technology came to constitute a large pool of cheap labor that industrialists seized upon to deploy in low-wage processing and assembly operations, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2018.1543070">generally in rural areas and small towns</a>. </p>
<p>Such operations surged between 1945 and the early 1980s, playing a huge role in the region’s economic rise. However humble they may have been, in the South — as in China since the late 1970s — the shift out of a backward agricultural sector into low-wage, low-skill manufacturing was an opportunity for significant productivity and efficiency gains.</p>
<p>This helped the South steadily <a href="https://doi.org/10.5149/9780807872895_gitterman.6">catch up to national norms</a> in terms of per-capita income: to 75% by 1950, 80% by the mid-1960s, over 85% by 1970, and to almost 90% by the early 1980s.</p>
<p>Although today the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2008.tb00856.x">rise of the Sun Belt</a> is often associated with, if not attributed to, climate, low housing costs and the growth of the South’s booming metropolitan areas, all those rural sweatshops and humble-looking processing sheds opening up in the early postwar era mattered a lot. They elevated the living standards of countless once-desperate and impoverished farmers.</p>
<h2>The origins of the rural crisis</h2>
<p>By the early 1980s, however, the gains made possible by the shift out of agriculture began to play themselves out. The growth of the rural manufacturing sector slowed, and the South’s convergence upon national per capita income norms stopped, remaining <a href="https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/stgdppi4q22-a2022.pdf">stuck at about 90%</a> from then on. </p>
<p>Two factors were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2018.1543070">largely responsible</a>: new technologies, which reduced the number of workers needed in manufacturing, and globalization, which greatly increased competition. This latter point became increasingly important, since the South, a low-cost manufacturing region in the U.S., is a high-cost manufacturing region when compared to, say, Mexico.</p>
<p>Like Mike Campbell’s bankruptcy in Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” the rural South’s collapse came gradually, then suddenly: gradually during the 1980s and 1990s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2018.1543070">and suddenly</a> after China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in December 2001.</p>
<p>Between 2000 and 2010, for example, manufacturing employment in North Carolina, one of the South’s leading manufacturing states, fell by about 44%. Starting a bit earlier — in 1998, when the Asian currency crisis squeezed Southern manufacturers — we find that the Tar Heel State <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2018.1543070">lost 70% of its manufacturing jobs</a> in textiles and 60% in furniture between then and 2010.</p>
<p>Other states in the South’s “manufacturing belt,” such as South Carolina and Tennessee, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05775132.2018.1543070">lost about 40% of their manufacturing jobs</a> between 2000 and 2010. Although they have recouped some jobs since then, not one Southern state has as many manufacturing jobs as it did a generation ago. And most of the job growth in the southern manufacturing sector in recent decades has taken place in or near big cities. </p>
<p>The proportion of craftsmen and factory workers in the rural Southern labor force fell from <a href="https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V10.0">38% in 1980 to a little over 25% by 2020</a> — a trend that was particularly striking in rural manufacturing counties.</p>
<p>Factory jobs there increasingly gave way to low-level service-sector gigs, which generally paid less. As a result, median income per capita in rural manufacturing counties in the South has stagnated and is much lower than in rural manufacturing counties elsewhere in the U.S. </p>
<h2>The first step is recognizing there’s a problem</h2>
<p>Those parts of the rural and small-town South that were once heavily involved in manufacturing are in economic crisis today.</p>
<p>One might argue that the current mess is a legacy effect of the South’s historical dependence on a low-skill, low-cost growth “strategy” — beginning with slavery — that privileged short-term economic gains over patient investment in human capital and long-term development. That’s a big claim about a larger, more complex story. </p>
<p>For now, our aim is simply to call attention to the problem. One must first acknowledge it before there can be any hope of a remedy. Until then, the inhabitants of such areas will remain feeling, as the Southern writer Linda Flowers vividly put it, “<a href="https://utpress.org/title/throwed-away/">throwed away</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After a 20th-century manufacturing boom, the region has been in a decadeslong decline. Rural factory towns can blame technology and globalization for their woes.Peter A. Coclanis, Professor of History; Director of the Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLouis M. Kyriakoudes, Director, Albert Gore Research Center and Professor of History, Middle Tennessee State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166962023-11-10T17:27:15Z2023-11-10T17:27:15ZHow much income is needed to live well in the UK in 2023? At least £29,500 – much more than many households bring in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558812/original/file-20231110-27-om01ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=108%2C62%2C5067%2C3383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-holds-coins-over-old-empty-762606421">StanislauV/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You don’t have to look very hard at the moment to find evidence of the immense financial pressure on UK households. New figures from the Trussell Trust <a href="https://www.trusselltrust.org/2023/11/08/1-5-million-food-parcels-distributed-as-need-continues-to-soar/">show</a> that 1.5 million emergency food parcels were provided to people between April and September 2023. </p>
<p>The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s latest <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/destitution-uk-2023">report</a> on destitution in the UK shows that around 3.8 million people in 2022 were not able to meet their basic physical needs – staying warm, dry, clean and fed – more than double the amount in 2017. </p>
<p>And the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, has accused the UK government of failing to provide a welfare system that ensures an adequate standard of living for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/05/uk-poverty-levels-simply-not-acceptable-says-un-envoy-olivier-de-schutter">everyone</a>.</p>
<p>But what does it mean to have an adequate standard of living?</p>
<p>For the last 15 years, we have been researching this exact topic, trying to identify what kind of living standards we as a society agree everyone should be able to achieve. We call this the <a href="https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/minimum-income-standard/">Minimum Income Standard</a> (MIS). </p>
<p>Unlike poverty measures, which focus on what people lack, either in terms of income or material goods, MIS establishes what is needed to reach a defined living standard, and how these needs can be met.</p>
<h2>A minimum standard of living</h2>
<p>We’ve talked to hundreds of groups of people from different backgrounds and types of households, to determine a minimum standard of living that includes more than just food, clothes and shelter. </p>
<p>This minimum is about having what you need in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society. As a participant early in our research said: “Food, clothes and shelter keep you alive, but that’s not living”. </p>
<p>Living with dignity is about more than just survival, it’s about being able to participate in the world around you. MIS describes in detail what households require to meet material and non-material needs, establishing baskets of goods and services that combine to provide an adequate living standard. </p>
<p>From these baskets, we calculate how much different households need to spend to reach this level, and the income required to enable this <a href="https://www.minimumincome.org.uk/">spending</a>. </p>
<p>In 2023, we have calculated that a single person needs to <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/minimum-income-standard-uk-2023">earn £29,500</a> to have an acceptable standard of living, up from £25,000 in 2022. A couple with two children need to earn £50,000, compared to £44,500 in 2022.</p>
<p>Our latest <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/households-below-minimum-income-standard-2008-21">analysis</a> shows that 19.2 million people (29% of the population) in the UK are living in households bringing in below the minimum standard, and don’t have the income they need.</p>
<p>This is the result of the significant pressures on household incomes and inflation, particularly for food and domestic fuel.</p>
<p>And while costs have increased rapidly, people’s incomes, both in and out of work, have not kept up. A single person, out of work, receives only 30% of what they need to reach MIS. </p>
<p>Even working full-time at the national living wage they only have 73% of what they need, falling well short of an adequate living standard. As of April 2023, the total annual salary for working full-time (37.5 hours a week) at the national living wage is £20,375.</p>
<p>A couple with two children, receiving out-of-work benefits, have half of what they need, and with both working full-time at the national living wage, they still fall short of MIS, having 95% of what they need to have an acceptable standard of living.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo of a smart meter on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558800/original/file-20231110-19-rrhi3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fuel prices have been one driver of the higher cost of living.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-circa-october-2020-shallow-1835665705">Nick Beer/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What the government should do to fix it</h2>
<p>The government’s recently announced <a href="https://theconversation.com/kings-speech-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter-217159">legislative plans</a> provided very little, if anything, to support those most at risk of living below – and far below – a minimum adequate standard of living. Addressing this substantial challenge is critical to the nation’s economy and health, as well as people’s dignity and human rights.</p>
<p>Over the last ten years, benefits have been increased inconsistently, and overall have not kept pace with the rising cost of living. With the upcoming autumn statement, the government has a chance to commit to uprating benefits in line with inflation. This would remove uncertainty for people who receive benefits, and improve the state safety net.</p>
<p>The government must also remove the two-child limit, which stops families from receiving additional support for their third or subsequent children. In April 2023, 1.5 million children lived in families affected by this limit, missing out on up to £3,235 each <a href="https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/Six_years_in_two_child_limit-final.pdf">year</a>. </p>
<p>Child Poverty Action Group estimates that removing this limit would lift around a quarter of a million children out of poverty. Neither the current government or the opposition have outlined plans to do this. </p>
<p>We also need longer-term thinking and bolder ambition, focused on creating a society in which fewer people fall below the MIS. We need a social security system that doesn’t depend on food banks and charities to catch those falling though the growing holes in our safety net, and a benefits system that guarantees a minimum income for all – rooted in robust research and evidence. </p>
<p>We need proper, long-term investment in housing, and we need to find ways of reducing the cost – and improving the quality – of key services like transport and childcare. Until we do this, many people will continue to exist on incomes that don’t meet their minimum needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Matt Padley is a member of the Labour Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abigail Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Working full time at the national living wage only earns a salary of £20,375.Matt Padley, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough UniversityAbigail Davis, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.