1st

• Personal Problem


  Something that affects you as an individual such as being unemployed, getting ill, addiction and loneliness. There are solutions to these problems such as getting a job, getting treatments, rehab and find or make a friend
• Social Problem


  Something that affects large number of people such as high unemployment rate, widespread exposure of illness, creation of high demand for drugs and isolation to other people and these problems can be solved by creating more jobs, having control of illness exposure, remove drugs and create place where people can interact
• Reasons why problems become social problems

  • Numbers: the more people affected, the more it will likely to be a social problem
  • Nature of Problem: the more horrendous the consequence of a problem, the more it is a social problem
  • Who is affected: more victims are either powerful or emotionally sympathetic, the more it becomes a social problem
  • Amount of mobilization: for something to be considered a social problem, people that are affected or people acting "on their behalf" must work to "make it an issue"
• There were 2,411,535 committed crimes in Canada, year 2022
• In SK, there were 156,269 committed crimes in 2022
• In AB, 393,027 committed crimes in the year of 2022
• Issue #1: Numbers vs. Rates

  • More crimes committed in Edmonton than Lloydminster
  • And more crimes were committed in Lloydminster than Maidstone
• There were about 20% drop of crime rates in Canada, and AB and SK has higher crimes rates than Canada as a whole and SK has higher crime rates than AB
• Issue #2: Are all crimes the same?

  • The "crime rate" counts them as the same
  • Statistics Canada developed a "Crime Severity Index" which attempts to measure both numbers of crimes and the severity
• The bottom line: we have no idea how much "crime" there is in Canada
• • Measure what we can define and count and counting is done for reasons other than just counting
  • Definitions and data collections are consistent and comparison is made over time or with different geographical areas
• Measurement and the process of defining a series of personal problems as a "social problem"


  1. Some people experience a problem

  2. The problem is given a name

  3. Operational definitions are established, so cases can be deemed as an example of the problem or not. (definitions are often broader over time)

  4. People starts to count the number of cases of the problem and compare the counts over time, whether it is getting worse or getting better
• • Changes in definitions change counts
  • Those defining and counting have interest in increasing or decreasing the count
  • Some are hard to count
• Creating Wave 1: Creating Addictions

  1. US established "Social Security" which is a pension plan in 1935, similar to Canada's CPP and GIS/OAS

  2. The social security became accessible to the "disabled" as well as the old in 1956

  3. In 1965, disability payments started if a person was temporarily disabled

  4. In 1986, "chronic pain" was listed as a disabling medical condition
• Creating Wave 2: Death from heroin

  1. Late 1990's, US had several million opiate addicts

  2. These people started to die of drug overdoses

  3. The response was to attach "over-prescription" of opiate pain medication

  4. Many people looked for alternatives after being cut off from prescribed opiates

  5. Heroin was cheap and accessible

  6. From public health, the problems with illegal heroins are taken intravenously and the quality was erratic

  7. Which results to an increase in heroin overdose deaths
• • Causes of problems can be complex and long term
  • Solving one problem often creates other problems
  • Every positive has an (at least potential) downside
• Problems became social problems when there is some mobilization demanding solutions
• Who gets called upon to "solve" social problems

  • Government- broadly defined
  • Voluntary organizations
  • Corporations and other economic enterprises
• What tools does the government have to solve problems?

  • Provide services such as health care, education, roads and airports
  • Give people organizaation money such as pensions, employment insurance, welfare payments, and subsidies to businesses
  • Pass laws and regulations telling people and organizations
  • Exhorting to change individual behaviour such as drinking and driving, littering, exercise, etc
• • The primary, manifest function of taxation is to raise money for governmental activity
  • Tax system is often used "solve" social problems
• Poverty


  People don't have enough for the physical and cultural necessities of life
• Inequality


  Some people have more than others
• Equality of Opportunity


  Everyone starts the race of life at the same time form the same point, and reward could be distributed based on talents, amount of work and level of deferred gratification
• Equality of Outcome


  Everyone crosses the finish line at the same time, where everyone gets the same rewards based on their talents, amount of work and gratification
• Absolute Poverty


  A person does not have "enough", for significant period of time, they are; hungry, cold, no shelter
• Relative Poverty


  A person does not have as much as someone else. Poverty is comparative; choice of reference group (who do you compare yourself to?). With relative measures, unless you get to equality of outcome, some will always have "more" ("the poor will always be with us"), even if they are "affluent" in absolute terms
• "Being Broke"


  Don't have money, have other economic resources (clothes,shelter, vehicle), no necessary relationship with the amount of "social capital", can get credit, short-term problem and an inconvenience
• "Being in Poverty"


  Don't have money, lack of economic resources, often accompanied by lack of "social capital", credit are inaccessible (sometimes even non-credit financial services), seems endless (and hopeless), dominates life
• Income


  How much money you make in a certain period of time, by looking at income we can look at market income, revenue vs. net income, total income and after tax income
• Wealth


  Assets that you have accumulated over your lifetime such as money in the bank, pension plan credit, house or other property, stocks and bonds. Wealth can be drawn upon when income is low. Wealth is cumulative. It can be non-material (social capital, education or skills)
• In our society, the amount of money one has is a primary determiner about whether one is poor or not
• Market Basket Measure (MBM)


  Based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services representing a modest basic standard of living for a reference family. These cost are compared to the disposable income of families to determine whether or not they fall below the poverty line
• Low Income Cut Off (LICO)


  Income threshold below which a family will likely devote a larger share of its after-tax income on the necessities of food, shelter and clothing than the average family. Approach is essentially to estimate an income threshold at which families are expected to spend 20 percentage point more than the average family on food, shelter and clothing
• • What determines the level of poverty?
  • Incomes
  • Distribution of income
  • Cost of things like shelter and food
• Two views about "globalization" and poverty/inequality


  • Globalized production can make everyone richer
  • Globalized production inevitably means some get richer and some get poorer
• • People and countries with wealth and power will impose exchange that only benefits themselves
  • Rich countries will get richer
  • Poor countries will become more impoverished
• First wave of globalization had rich countries take natural resources from colonies and make colonies buy manufactures goods
• More recently, globalization means transfer of low value manufacturing (such as textiles) to low-wage countries
• Cheap products = low wages
• Two main periods of Globalization

  • International trade of non-luxury goods 1800s to 1914
  • 1950s to present