Find and read the article, Why Poverty Threatens Us All, found in Society links. Comment on the message of the article and include any statistics or information that you think explains this issue.
msshistory
Discover our past to help understand the present and future
- Home
- About
- Videos
- West and the World
- 10 Canadian History
- 12 Society
- Resources
- Louis XIV
- WW 2: Remembrance Day
- Gandhi: Non-violence vs Violence
- Social Psychology Studies
- D-Day Sacrifices
- Juno Beach - Canadians at D-Day
- Patch Adams
10 History Blog
10 HISTORY LINKS
12 Society Blog
12 Society: Challenge and Change
- 12 Society: Course Outline
- Anthropology: Timmy's commercial
- APA Referencing
- Glogster: Who Am I Posting Page
- Harlem Children's Zone
- Multiple Intelligences Test
- Psychology: What Would You Do?
- Rant: I am Canadian
- Rant: Lost Generation
- Social Psychology Studies
- Society: Handouts and Resources
- Sociology: Harlem Children's Zone Documentary
- Why Poverty Threatens Us All: Toronto Star Article
12 WEST AND THE WORLD LINKS
12U West and the World Blog
Blogroll
MSS Flickr Photos
|
Recent Posts
Calendar
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
After reading this article i was shocked at the poverty level in Canada when it’s supposed to be the best place in the world to live. We are a modernized country, unlike places such as Indonesia, yet we are roughly at the same level of poverty as them. When Harper made a speech and adressed issues in Canada he devoted a generous 98 words- thats 3% percent- to the topic. 2.8 million families, thats 1 in 5 five now live below the low income cut off of poverty, which is embarassing compared to the amounts of money that is wasted on things that should be of less proirity.
Kyra
After reading the articles that we have looked at in class and completing the recent poverty case study, I find it hard to believe that Stephen Harper is so seemingly ambivalent about the issue of poverty in our country. We pride ourselves on being the best of the best: a sound, safe place to live; a rich country that emphasizes equality; one that pays attention to pressing issues at hand, and that never drowns out the voice of the masses. This, however, all seems to end concerning the issue of poverty.
A fact that I would assume to cause national uproar is that 1 million children in our country are living in poverty. Our prime minister, however, neglects to devote more than 98 words to the issue. We continue to cut our spending and taxes, as ‘that’s what the public wants’, while meanwhile we could be devoting that money to raising millions above the LICO line, which so many are currently below.
The article raises the issue of our gap between the rich and poor being at a three decade high. This, to me, is an obvious indicator that we should at least consider the idea of graduated taxation: if even only the very richest are taxed a minimal amount to go toward the issue of poverty in our country, it could still make a phenomenal difference, allowing many to get off what so many of our (unenlightened) citizens deem as ‘fraudulent and unnecessary’ – welfare.
It’s clear that the tax cuts the government is enforcing don’t ease or decrease the poverty level – in fact, it’s forcing it to go up! – from 1.96 million families to 2.04 million, from 2001 to 2005. It’s clear, in my eyes, that what needs to be done is not to cut, but to re-allocate those taxes to the issue of poverty in our country. Canada should not trail Pakistan when the issue of poverty is concerned.
I found the information in this article very surprising. It is almost shocking that we are on par with that of Indonesia when it comes to the widening gap between rich and poor people. It is unfortunate that the government of Canada doesn’t seem to take poverty across the contry very seriously. It was stated in the article that Stephen Harper only used 98 words out of 4,000 in a speech to talk about poverty. More has to be done across Canada to decrease poverty. The estimated population of Canada right now is said to be 30,100,000. The estimated number of people suffering from homelessness in Canada is 150,000, even though that number is not close to half of the population at all, it is still a large number. 2.8 million famillies are living below the low-income cut off line, now considered the poverty line. 2.8 Is a large number and it seems to me that poverty and homelessness are becoming more and more common thoroughout Canada.
This article surprised me. I didn’t expect our povery levels to be as high as they were, and I definitly didn’t expect us to be on par with Indonesia with the gab between our rich and poor. It’s unbelievable that 1 and 5 Canadian families are sitting below LICO and that our governement doesn’t seem to be doing much about it. Our country should be embarassed of this because of the amounts of money we put into many pointless things instead of social programs, especially because we claim to be one of the best places to live in the world.
Just like everyone else I was pretty shocked too! I can’t believe we are almost par with Indonesia. I find it every upsetting that Canada doesn’t take poverty very serious. It was stated in the article that Stephen Harper only used 98 words out of 4,000 in a speech to talk about poverty. Poverty is becoming a larger factor in our society and we as Canadians have to do more to help those in need. 1 in 5 families are sitting below LICO in Canada. That’s pretty high, our government should be doing more about it. I agree with Shayna and I think we should be embarrassed about this. Not be embarrassed about people living in poverty because they can’t help it, but be embarrassed because our country isn’t helping much.
Let me start by saying that in Canada poverty is something that we should be ashamed of. It is a blemish on Canada’s generally clean track record, and the Canadian government should step forward with measures that will correct it.It makes sense that the government should reallocate money from places such as “Promotional Campaigns” (which received $7 million in the recent budget), and apply it to elimination of poverty. Another idea would be taking a tenth of the budget that goes towards military action and apply it to affordable housing. There are so many places that money is wasted, if we could start being a bit more frugal I truly believe that everyone could have a place to call home.
However, I would like to denounce some parts of the article. In defense of Mr. Harper, the throne speech is used to address his constituents and set the plan for the next four years of his government. Looking back on his campaign, he was not voted in on the promise of eliminating poverty. In fact, the parties that did pull the social equality card lost. Just from that it is clear that social equality wasn’t very dear to Canadians’ hearts, and therefore it makes sense that Harper wouldn’t focus on poverty in his address. The shock effect of us being on par with Indonesia is also ridiculous, solely because Indonesia has over 230 million people, and mass corruption within their government.
After I read the article I was shocked and confused. Shocked because of the high number of homeless Children in Canada. Confused because of the many numbers and different meanings of them. All are facts but does the columnist have first hand resources? Did he witnessed homelessness with his own eyes? I didn’t witnessed homelessness in Canada but I witnessed “Refugee-Homelessness” in Germany. That was during my ca. 2 years of work in the Refugee Camp in Dortmund, Germany where I run the Kindergarten / Family room. The people had no-where to go, so the Camp was a kind of shelter connected with a kind of organization to help the people to get started and away from the street. In the end I have to say that I agree with all of my classmates and especially with Richard that Canada should be ashamed of the high number of 1 million homeless Children. “The children are our future”, say the politicians but do they do something to ensure it?
After reading this article I find it embaressing how it seems like homelessness isn’t a very big priority in Canada when we are seen as one of the best places to live in our world if not the best. Finding out that Stephen Harper only had 98 words to contribute to the homelessness subject in one of his speeches makes it seem like although we say we are working towards trying to stop homelessness we keeping putting it off because of other more “important” priorities.
This article has been an eye opener the fact that Canada’s poverty levels are at par with Indonesia is embarrassing. How can the third best place in the world to live fail so miserably at helping the supposedly 1 in 5 families who live in poverty. Plus with rising house prices and with rising prices in general it’s becomeing much harder for the average person to get by. For example the average cost of a home in Vancouver is $700,000 which is ridiculous but it’s obviously not like that everywhere. It does show though that in many parts of the country rising house prices can it make very difficult for someone will a lower income to afford decent housing for their familles. These problems should be getting fixed now with increased spending on social programs and affordable housing, otherwise we’re just dooming millions of Canadians and future generations to lives of hardship and poverty.
This article made me realize that poverty in Canada is a lot worse then people believe it is. this is because we “sweep it under the table” and ignore that something needs to be done. for example, the fact that stephan harper only dedicated 3% of his speech on this issue shows that our country does not care enough. there’s an average of 150,000 homeless people out there right now that truly need our help and yet we do barely anything compared to what we are capable of doing. the fact that 1 in 5 families are below the LICO line opened my eyes that there is a lot of families out there that struggle. i believe that Canada needs to start fixing this problem or the future of our country is not going to be so great.
I was just as surprised as everyone else. Canada doesn’t seem to as big of an issue as it should be. Canada is said to be one of the best places to live but 1 in 5 families are living below the LICO line. Stephen Harper only used 98 words in his speecfh about homelessness, which neglects the issue. More than this needs to be done in order to decrease poverty and our government should agree. An average of 150,000 homeless people are in need of help and there is nothing being done about it. This should be made into a more important issue which will help decrease the high poverty rate. Equality isn’t very apparent in our society after all. Its hard to believe that Indonesia and Canada are almost at par. This should open Canada’s eyes and end the poverty that is right in fornt of us.
I, too, was very surprised by what I read. The fact that our gap between the rich and the poor is as drastic as in Indonesia is something we as Canadians should humiliated about. It’s ridiculous that Stephen Harper is unwilling to dedicate any real amount of time to discuss the matter. The future of over one million children that are living in poverty in Canada looks very bleak- something that effects not only them, but Canada as a whole. As Taylor mentioned, we all consider Canada an amazing place to live, but for many people- 2.8 million families- it’s not. For those families, every day is a struggle to get by and provide for their children. Children who do not get to live as privaledged lives as most of us are used to. Although these statistics don’t affect all of us, they could one day, and therefore Canadians should be prioritizing this issue better or it’s just going to get worse from here.
I was very surprised that so many people are in poverty or close to it. The biggest eye-opener is that we were at a ‘three-decade high’ between rich and poor. This was in 2007 and I would only hope that the numbers have decreased in 2012. And even a tax cut in 2000 did not decrease poverty, but actually, the poverty did increase in 2005. Reading this makes me lucky about what I have right now. My family is not well off, but we can pay our bills, buy food and have a roof over our heads. Since this article was done in 2007, I could only hope that Stephen Harper did actually help the poverty line to start decreasing in numbers in 2012, to make Canada the best place in the world to live in.
This article was quite surprising but what shocked me was that our Prime Minister seems to breeze over the issue of poverty as if it isn’t an important issue for Canada, I mean after all, were only trailing Egypt and Pakistan as far as income equality goes! With 2.8 million families (1 in 5) below the low-income cut-off, or LICO, you think our government would invest more time and money into the proposed “1 billion dollar housing budget” in Mr.Harpers speech, leading me to wonder if our Prime Minister understands the severity of poverty in this country. In 2001 tax reductions began, there were 1.96 million families living below the poverty line and four years later in In 2005, that number was 2.04 million…..Finance Minister Paul Martins plan to ease poverty failed incredibly, shaking the trust and support of many Canadians.
My disappointment briefly seized a bit as I read about Dalton McGuintys poverty reduction strategy for Ontario, but of course, this is only a hope,
one of many in the next steps to ending Canada’s poverty. -Myles varriano
Canada is said to be one of the best places to live in the world, however when you have 1 in 5 families living in poverty, that is debatable. Although I understand Richards point when referring to Stephen Harper’s campaign, that he was not elected to eliminate poverty, I still believe that we should be aware of this problem more than what we already are. That being said, I do believe it is worth more than 98 words of 4000 when talking about his plans for the next 4 years while he is in power. Since this is such a big deal within our country, there should be more awareness and the government should try to implement something more and try to find some money to put towards this cause.