>From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: SOCIAL-CLASS Digest - 13 May 1998 to 27 May 1998
>To: Recipients of SOCIAL-CLASS digests
<[log in to unmask]>
>
>There is one message totalling 258 lines in this issue.
>
>Topics of the day:
>
> 1. Elementary Facts
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 13:14:17 -0400
>From: Shawgi Tell <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Elementary Facts
>
>Greetings,
>
> The following data is mainly, but not entirely, for the United
>States. Actual U.S. population is about 270 million.
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>- "Between 1983 and 1989 the top 20% of wealth holders received 99% of the
>total gain in marketable wealth, while the bottom 80% of the population
>got only 1%" (Edward N. Wolff, "How the Pie is Sliced," 1995).
>
>- "The combined wealth of the top 1 percent of U.S. families is about the
>same as that of the entire bottom 95 percent" (Holly Sklar, Jobs, Income,
>and Work: Ruinous Trends, Urgent Alternatives, 1995, p. 9).
>
>- "The top 0.5% of wealth holders still own 32% of stocks - double the 16%
>share held by the bottom 90%. Bond ownership is even more top-heavy.
The
>top 0.5% holds 46% of the total, while the bottom 90% holds just 10%"
>(Unpublished Federal Reserve technical paper, analyzed by Left Business
>Observer, July 17, 1997).
>
>- "The United States is the richest country on the planet yet it has the
>greatest income disparity.... Sixty percent of all U.S. jobs created since
>1979 pay less than $7,000 a year" (Fian Fact Sheet, Welfare by
>Corporations is Corporate Welfare, http://www.foodfirst.org/corpwell.htm).
>
>- "Over one in nine persons in the labor force during 1993 were living
>below the poverty line. Of these nearly 12 million workers, 70 percent
>(8.22 million workers) fit the category of working poor" (Denny Braun, The
>Rich Get Richer, 2nd ed. 1997, p. 238. Based on BLS data).
>
>- "The wages of the average non-college-educated male fell 10.1% from 1979
>to 1989 and another 7.2% between 1989 and 1995" (The State of Working
>America 1996-97, Economic Policy Institute, 1996).
>
>- "The wages of a young male high school graduate dropped 21.8% in the
>1980s and another 6.9% in the 1989-95 period" (Ibid).
>
>- "A young female high school graduate earned 18.9% less in 1995 than in
>1979" (Ibid).
>
>- "While 10.3% of Hispanic families were unemployed in 1996, 19.0% were
>under-employed" (J. Bernstein, "The Challenge of Moving from Welfare to
>Work," Economic Policy Institute, 1997).
>
>- "Among blacks 16-25, about 35% were under-employed in 1996"
>(Ibid).
>
>- "For most families, increases in net income have come from more hours of
>work, not increases in hourly pay" (Congressional Study: "Families on a
>Treadmill: Work and Income in the 1980s," January 17, 1992).
>
>- "Real hourly pay of wives increased for most families, but for 60
>percent of families, the decline in hourly pay of husbands was greater
>than the increase in wives' hourly pay" (Ibid).
>
>- The total wages of all people who earned less than $50,000 a year -
>about 85% of Americans - increased an average of 2 percent a year from
>1980 to 1989, which did not even keep pace with inflation. By contrast,
>the total wages of all millionaires shot up 243 percent a year (Internal
>Revenue Service).
>
>- "The cost of a college education rose more than 70% for private schools
>between the years 1977-1993, and more than 50% for public schools" (U.S.
>Center for Educational Staistics; Figures are inflation-adjusted).
>
>- "Of the 82 women serving in statewide elective executive positions, 3
>(3.7%) are women of color" (Center for the American Woman and Politics,
>1998).
>
>- Percent of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools
>from the federal level averaged 7.0% between 1970-71 and 1994-95 (NCES,
>"Mini-Digest of Education Statistics," 1997, p.51).
>
>- More than 50% of today's college students will graduate in debt
>(National Association of Graduate-Professional Students).
>
>- Rate of tuition increases before 1978 was 1% below the inflation rate;
>since 1978 the rate has been more than twice the inflation rate (Ibid).
>
>- The student loan default rate in 1977 was 11%; in 1992 it was 22%
>(Ibid).
>
>- American students since 1990 have borrowed as much as the total volume
>for all of the 1960s, '70s and 80s combined (The Education Resources
>Institute, "College Debt and the American Family," 1995).
>
>- "Gaps in the academic performance of black and white students appear as
>early as age 9 and persist through age 17" (National Center for Education
>Statistics, "The Educational Progress of Black Students," 1995, p. 3>.
>
>- "Hispanic children start elementary school with less preschool
>experience than white children, and this gap has widened over time" (NCES,
>"The Educational Progress of Hispanic Students," 1995, p. 2).
>
>- "Bankruptcies increased by 19 percent in 1997 to a record high of 1.4
>million filings" (American Bankruptcy Institute, 1998).
>
>- "11.3 million children age 18 and under are uninsured - the largest
>number ever reported by the Census Bureau" (Children's Defense Fund,
March
>14, 1998).
>
>- "Approximately 13.6 million children under age 12 in the United States -
>29 percent - live in families that must cope with hunger or the risk of
>hunger during some part of one or more months of the previous year"
>(Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project).
>
>- "33.1% of all African Americans, 30.6% of Latinos and 18.8% of other
>non-whites live in poverty, as compared to 9.9% of White residents"
>(Cynthia Taeber, The Statistical Handbook on Women in America, 1996, p.
>145).
>
>- Hunger in the U.S. has increased by 50% since 1985 (Center on Hunger,
>Poverty and Nutrition Policy, Tufts University, 1993).
>
>- Between 20 and 30 million Americans suffer from hunger (Congressional
>Hunger Center, 1995).
>
>- Approximately 20% of American adults do not have a high school diploma
>(U.S. Census Bureau, 1990).
>
>- "Each year, almost 5,000 young people, ages 15 to 24, kill themselves.
>The rate of suicide for this age group has nearly tripled since 1960"
>(National Mental Health Association, 1997).
>
>- Over 1.4 billion people in the world live in abject poverty, surviving
>on less than $1 US a day. Another 3.3 billion people live in extreme
>poverty (United Nations Human Development Report, 1997).
>
>- By 1996, 36.5 million Americans lived in poverty (U.S. Bureau of the
>Census, 1997a).
>
>- Despite its recent increase, the minimum wage remains 15% below
>its average purchasing power in the 1970s, after adjusting for inflation
>(Kaufman, 1997).
>
>- In 1996, approximately 41.7 million Americans had no health insurance
>(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997b). Another 40 million had only limited
>coverage.
>
>- The average income of families in the middle fifth of the income
>distribution fell in 25 states between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s"
>(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Pulling Apart: A State-by-State
>Analysis of Income Trends, December 16, 1997,
http://www.cbpp.org/pa-1test.htm).
>
>- White, black and Latina women, respectively, earn 75, 65 and 56 percent
>of white male wages (The International Association of Machinists and
>Aerospace Workers, 1996).
>
>- Ninety-six percent of top executives are men (Ibid).
>
>- "Women make up nearly 70% of the world's poor and more than 65% of the
>illiterate" (International Labour Organization, "Women Swell Ranks of
>Working Poor," 1996).
>
>- "In industrialized countries, much of the growth in women's labour force
>participation has been in part-time jobs. Women make up between 65% and
>90% of all part-timers in OECD countries" (Ibid).
>
>- "Everywhere, women are paid less than men, and there is no indication
>that this will change soon. The majority of women continue to earn on
>average about three-fourths of the male wage outside of the agricultural
>sector" (Ibid).
>
>- "In 1978, corporate CEOs, or chief executive officers, were paid
>60 times what the average worker earned. By 1995, CEOs had increased
>their pay to 173 times the average worker's income" (Abid Aslam, U.S. Rich
>Benefit at the Expense of the Poor, Third World Network).
>
>- Percentage of persons below the poverty level was 12.6% in 1970, 13.0%
>in 1980, 13.5% in 1990, and 14.5% in 1994 (U.S. Census Bureau, Current
>Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 188, 1995).
>
>- "In the United States, where overall violent crime against women has
>been growing for the past two decades, a woman is physically abused by
her
>intimate partner every nine seconds" (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations,
>1997).
>
>- "The US, with just 5 times the population of Italy, has 150 times more
>children in detention" (Ibid).
>
>- Share of global income going to richest 20% and poorest 20% of world's
>population:
>
>year share of richest 20% share of poorest 20% ratio rich/poor
>---- -------------------- ------------------- ---------------
>1960 70.2% 2.3% 30 to 1
>1970 73.9% 2.3% 32 to 1
>1980 76.3% 1.7% 45 to 1
>1989 82.7% 1.4% 59 to 1
>
>[UN, Human Development Report, 1992]
>
>- The U.S. has the highest infant mortality, AIDS, road accident,
>pesticide consumption, homicide, reported rapes, imprisonment and
>hazardous waste production rates among Switzerland, Japan, Sweden,
>Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria, France, Finland and Canada
>(The World Bank, World Development Report, 1994 and UN, Human
Development
>Report, 1994).
>
>- Military Budgets, 1996/97 ($billions)
>
>U.S. $260 Germany $42
>Russia $82 U.K. $34
>Japan $50 China $32
>France $48 Italy $20
>
>[The International Institute for Strategic Studies: The Military Balance,
>1996/97]
>
>- "Between 1979 and 1994, the total number of unemployed in the G7 -
>Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United
>States - rose from 13 million to almost 24 million, along with 4 million
>unemployed who have stopped looking for work, and 15 million who work
>part-time but would rather work full-time" (International labour
>Organization, 1996).
>
>- "Since 1990, an additional 300 million people are making do without
>decent sanitation" (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations, 1997).
>
> It is essential to recognize that income inequality, wealth
>inequality, poverty, unemployment, under-employment, hunger, job
>insecurity, suicides, homelessness, student debt, violence, etc. are
>inter-related problems which continue to worsen here and worldwide.
> All this and more is happening as a result of the international
>financial oligarchy's demand that its narrow and self-serving claims
>be put in first place. If this means to hell with everyone else, then so
>be it.
> These facts only further underscore the urgent need for moving
>society forward.
> The key to solving these interconnected problems is taking up
>the politics of empowerment. This means consciously rejecting the Old and
>thinking and acting in an entirely New way. It means abandoning the
>status quo and taking up discussion on ending the political
>marginalization of the working class and people in an extremely serious
>and honest way.
> All illusions about capitalism overcoming its ills must be
>dispensed with and replaced by fresh, modern and progressive ideas.
>Modern definitions, up-to-date information and enlightened views need to
>be put forward to help guide the people in their struggles for a better
>society.
> No-one can remain aloof at this time. No-one can pretend
>that their daily life is unaffected by political and economic realities.
> The anti-social agenda of the world bourgeoisie and reaction only
>obstructs the creation of a society fit for humans. Without taking up the
>practical task of vesting supreme decision-making power in the broad
>masses of the people absolutely nothing will be solved.
>
>Shawgi Tell
>Niagara County Community College
>[log in to unmask]
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of SOCIAL-CLASS Digest - 13 May 1998 to 27 May 1998
>*******************************************************
>
David Coburn
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Toronto Tel: (416) 978-7513
Toronto, Canada FAX: (416) 978-2087
M5S 1A8
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
******************************************************************
Canalising a river
Grafting a fruit tree
Educating a person
Transforming a state
These are instances of fruitful criticism
And at the same time instances of art.
-Bertolt Brecht
******************************************************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Acting Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice: (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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