ECN 203 1nd Edition Lecture 24 Outline of Last Lecture II Consumption III Sources of consumption spending a Consumption function IV Investment V LTCM VI Supply and Shift Factors Outline of Current Lecture VII Trade Balance VIII Foreign Exchange Markets IX Analyzing the Foreign Exchange Market X The Relationship XI Changing Exchange Rates XII International capital flows Current Lecture Lecture 3 16 15 Unit 5 Poverty Problems of Inequality How does the U S compare to other Western democracies o According to UN Human Development Reports out of 17 high income countries the U S scores the worst on the Human Poverty Index o Among the industrialized nations the U S has the highest rate of child poverty o but it ranks 1st in military spending 1st in Gross Domestic Product and 1st in the number of billionaires o The U S stands out as spending the lowest amount on social welfare and having the highest child poverty rate o The rate of exit from poverty is lower in the U S than in Sweden Germany Canada and the Netherlands In 1937 President Franklin D Roosevelt identified one third of our nation as ill housed ill clad and ill nourished These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute The condition of poverty can be described as a standard of living below the minimum needed for the maintenance of adequate diet health and shelter How is poverty measured in the U S o The official poverty line is set by the Social Security Administration based on what it considers a minimal amount required for a subsistence level of life o It is calculated on the cost of a basic nutritionally adequate diet multiplied by three o This multiple is based on 1955 research which showed that poor people spend a third of their income on food Since then the poverty level has been readjusted annually to account for inflation The government procedure is arbitrary and it minimizes the extent of poverty in the U S o It does not keep up with o Inflation o Housing costs o Regional variations in cost of living o Health cost demands of individual families o Also the poor are more likely to be missed by the U S census living in ghettos migrant labor camps remote rural areas or as homeless transients
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