Information Technology – Generation Y, Information Technology, and Performance at Work

Information Technology – Generation Y, Information Technology, and Performance at Work

Generation Y is the group of individuals born from about 1980-1999, and is sometimes referred to as the “Millennials” or “Echo Boomers”. Having been born in 1988, I am right centre of this generation. This generation is defined in many ways by changes in the information technology era. While generation Y – from a sociological perspective – can be deeply analyzed from several angles, I will focus on the attributes directly associate with technology – although the indirect influences of technology on this generation are monumental. Specifically, I will discuss how technology has shaped generation Y and effect this has in the environment of the workplace (as this generation moves into the workforce).

As the first generation whose childhood was media and technology driven, we are tuned very differently. We grew up in a generation with completely different working conditions and environments than our parents. To accomplish assignments and essay, trips to the library were few when we were trained –almost instinctively- with the skills to sift through the vocabulary we knew to find one or two key words that entered by our fingertips in a query, which would result in the exact information required to accomplish our task. All of this while chatting on msn, listening to music, talking on the phone, checking email on an ongoing basis, working on another assignment and having multiple browser windows open. Furthermore, the age of infromatio9n technology has provided far-reaching amounts of media and communication, allowing ideas of this generation to travel fast and be further developed.

These working conditions are not only new, but often necessary for us to function most productively. The debate is raised on matters of concentration and focus and masses of distraction – but the inevitable is here – it’s the way we have been wired to work, and for many the way we are most productive. Our brains and behaviors have developed with necessity of constant stimulation. Social structures of production and working conditions do not reflect the changes in individuals due to the information technology phase that has hit.

While our behaviors may be consequences of modern culture or of the modern economy inherently created by past generations, their sensitivity and initiatives in adapting environments to support what they have created are both weak and few. To get the most from future employees, companies will have to deeply consider the social behaviors, with respect to technology, of today’s up and coming workforce and be flexible in adapting the structure of working environments in order to get full potential from employees.

The product of the baby boomers, Generation Y, is already posing challenges to working environments and much has been written about changes in management in dealing with and working with a generation with such unique character, motivations, history, and overall way of working. In fact, an article from fortune magazine is quoted as saying, “[this]has led to a whole new industry — or epidemic — of consultants, experts they allege, in how to motivate, train and, yes, sometimes nanny the extraterrestrials who’ve taken over the workplace.” Furthermore in an interview on 60 minutes, the interviewer asks “To what extent are you having to tell the boomers, the bosses, the 50 to 60 year olds, ‘The people who got to change are you guys, not them?’”

Generation Y has an “nearly intimate connection” to technology. We are tech savvy with an innate ability to multitask. Having grown up with technology, it is an important element to out work. Managers must leverage this idea, by providing new forms of technology, or projects involving its use, to stimulate productive work from employees. By connecting to this creativity and knowledge employers can make needed changes to businesses. Moreover, managers should embrace their need to multitask, by providing a scope of different work and many visuals in the training and learning process.

While there are high expectation for the achievements of generation y, it may be the structural changes they make to workplaces and the frameworks of how management teams function that will be most noticeable.

Sources:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033934/

The Age Of The Millenials”. 60 Minutes. 2007-11-08.

http://www.sideroad.com/Customer_Service/generation-y.html

Population and Health- Migration

Population and Health- Migration:

Population, Demography, and Immigration in my hometown – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The population of Metro Vancouver is 2,249,725 – the third largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is an ethnically diverse city with over half of residents having a first language other than English. Its development followed quickly after the building of the transcontinental railway in the late 1800’s, built mainly by new immigrants. It has an internationally significant port, exporting more than any other port in North America. It has the highest one of the world’s worst street drug problems. Vancouver is frequently ranked one of the three most livable cities in the world and has the third highest quality of living in the world.

This is just an overview of Vancouver. A few simple facts demonstrate the diversity, conflict, and contrast that are reflected by this city. Exploring some of the demographic changes, immigration facts, and health concerns helps explain the face of Vancouver today. Its liberal outlook, combined with social conditions and its economic structure, face two social issues – one immigrant related, the other drug related.

Canada is the third largest “net receivers” of migration with 190,000, many of them coming to Vancouver. The ethnic mix of Vancouver is demonstrated in its distinct neighborhoods, each reflecting a distinct cultural group, and often bilingual signs. While eastern Canada struggles with the debate on maintaining a bilingual country with a French heritage, Vancouver struggles on how to integrate a multitude of ethnic groups while maintaining the valuable culture they provide the city with. The Chinese are the largest visible ethnic group and Vancouver hosts one of the most diverse Chinese-speaking communities and largest concentrations of Chinese residents in North America 9needless to say I don’t feel too far away from home here in Singapore!). Interestingly, I have spoken to many Chinese-Canadians, who are looking to move away from Vancouver so that they will be able to learn English; the ease of which they can continue with Chinese lifestyle prevents them from learning new Canadian traits as simple as the language.

The high concentrations of low-income households among racially visible populations and Aboriginal peoples typically experience great difficulty in accessing employment. Vancouver faces typical problems of an again population, and its growth is from mainly from immigration The threat of social and economic exclusion is high for these groups, and if issues are not addressed growth and changing demography may further compound these social challenges. There currently exists much debate on how much to open borders to immigration to bring in younger workers and how doing so will effect societies and economies. Immigrants bring wealth and prosperity but also additional strain on social services such as healthcare and Vancouver’s welfare services. Vancouver must either change immigration policies, or address social issues in its city.

To touch on the subject of disease and health, drug issues plague the city of Vancouver, with many health problems stemming from this. Its centre for trade and port, liberal policies, physical location, high levels of immigration, and moderate climate all foster the drug trafficking and consequent drug addicts, homeless, and health problems. Controversial, supervised injection sites along with prevention and treatment centers have been implemented to reduce health concerns such as the endemic HIV and Hepatitis C so prevalent among drug users. To consider socio-economic factors, the area of heavy concentration of these diseases and drug addicts – the downtown east side- is characterized by poverty, mental illness, many immigrants, a large aboriginal population and the sex trade. My opinion is that Vancouver must drive to the root of this problems and deal with crime and trafficking to stop the growth of growing health concerns then deal with treatment. This involves rigid changes in laws to enforce and reduce crime. Zero tolerance to drug crime is necessary to prevent this beautiful city – rated a top place to live in the world – from being destroyed

In order to continue to be a top rated city, Vancouver must –ironically- attend to and address the very social dynamics that make it so wonderful. The liberal ideas, openness, and flow of information, and cultural influences brought about by a moderate coastal city, metropolitan hub of trade, and destination offers as many threats as opportunities.

Urbanization – Rural Urban Migration

Urbanization – Rural Urban Migration

Cities are growing. Surprisingly to some, the largest urban agglomerations are not necessarily in the USA, Europe, Russia, or China. In fact, estimations of the largest cities for 2015 do not include no countries from Europe and none of the countries just mentioned except New York. One characteristic of the current wave of globalization is the willing participation of developing countries. This is evident when looking at urbanization; there is a trend of urbanization in the developing world. Many developing countries are witnessing higher rates rural-urban migration and the resulting growth of megacities and urban slums.

Major social problems and development issues arise from this pattern of urbanization, more specifically the rural urban migration happening in developing countries. UN estimates that by about 2025 80% of the world’s urban population will be in the least developed countries. While extreme population growth rates and poverty contribute to the growth of these cities, the causes stem from greater issues. While cities typically have advantages with externality benefits, large problems can result in poorer countries from congestion and overloading of cities infrastructure, resources, and social services. This has also generated slum within cities, with problems of no source for clean water, poor sanitization, any sewage systems, pollution, and high crime rates.

Countries have no restrictions on migration – with the exception of China- and consequently are being forced to deal with serious influx of people to cities. Urban bias is creating incentive for more migration from rural to urban centers. Here arises another problem of a flooded job market in the formal sector and the resulting creation of a huge informal sector of the economy. Furthermore, migrants are often uneducated, and no skills to contribute to the formal sector. Governments need to address policy changes in order to cope. Unfortunately, despite the circumstances and conditions, opportunities in informal sector are viewed as better than those in rural areas, only further encouraging migration.

Despite high urban unemployment, there is high migration because urban wage is greater than rural wage, but the probability of getting a job is not taken into consideration. Socio-economic factors surrounding this decision need to be addressed.The structure of rural communities is based heavily in agriculture. The implementation of labour intensive technologies and factories in rural areas will reduce the wage distortion as a motivating factor of migration. Furthermore, development of a range of towns – less extreme in differences will also help reduce migration.

While urban slums reduce affects of education and promote unsanitary conditions leading to health issues and other problems, there are also problems that result in rural areas from migration to cities. Shortages in young people working in villages leads to low production and a drop in agricultural output. Possible positive effects include the potential for remittances to be sent home, therefore improving rural life.

Despite some efforts to reduce the problems created by rural urban migration, not enough is being done to slow it down. The pace of migration is as fast as globalization and so far nothing great enough has been implemented to control it. Developing countries will host the world larges agglomerations and mega cities. I believe countries need to take actions now before the negative effects of urbanization become too large and permanent to cope with. Growth of the informal sector will only lead to reliance. Expansion of slums will only lead to poor living conditions, putting citizens in arrangements significantly worse than rural alterative. Investments in development factors such as health and education will yield lower results.

While inequality is rising, developing countries need to take the opportunities globalization presents to help in their positive development. Addressing the concerns of rural –urban migration needs to be a priority.

Global Identity: Extreme Religious Identities – Preserving Fundamentals

Global Identity: Extreme Religious Identities – Preserving Fundamentals

Rises in the “highly conservative, traditional, and literal expression of faith” are a reaction mechanism to defend the core values of their religion against a globalizing world. These groups are resorting to extremist methods of preserving what they believe are necessary fundamental, not only to their religion, but also to a society or a nation as a whole. While the media has been abuzz with Islam extremist groups and nations, mostly due to terrorist action, religious fundamentalism is not unique to Islam.

Some religions often receive a skewed view of the basis of their belief by member of other societies, due to extremist groups within. Although they may only represent a very small portion of all those who identify with a religion, their actions have a high level of impact on perceptions towards that religion. Strong feelings of identity of Christian Fundamentalists are becoming evident in this time of rapid globalization, where ideas are being spread faster and acceptance of new ideas, cultures, and backgrounds is becoming commonplace. There strong attachment to a Christian identity is rejecting these changes.

Such extremist groups believe they must be at the forefront of turning America towards conservative Christian values, which they believe is necessary. This is becoming an imminent issue to these groups due to the process of world globalization. Christians who hold fast to their identity are reacting against modern movements, advancements for women, education on diversity, globalization, and social acceptance back to the traditional values that once defined them. They often involve themselves in politics because they see the state as failing to preserve their values against modernization. I believe this feeling of entitlement to the identity of a nation, based on their religion, is erroneous. While it is clear that some nations represent core value of their prominent religion, the state and religion are separate identities, representing different factors.

Christians who hold fast to their identity are reacting against modern movements, advancements for women, education on diversity, globalization, and social acceptance back to the traditional values that once defined them. They often involve themselves in politics because they see the state as failing to preserve their values against modernization. I believe this feeling of entitlement to the identity of a nation, based on their religion, is erroneous. While it is clear that some nations represent core value of their prominent religion, the state and religion are separate identities, representing different factors. Mix of religion and politics can cause conflicts with the constitutional ideals of state.

Christian Fundamentalists, argue a connect with nationalism; fundamentalists who identify strongly with both their religion and nation, feel it is necessary to preserve the US’s Christian values, and often use this as a motivation for voting in conservative leaders. Religion has a huge power to influence political actions. It also has a huge power to influence those who stongly associate themselves with an identity based on religion. I myself identify as Christian, but my beliefs and values are very different than those of any fundamentalist group. It is interesting how when one word “Christian” is used as an identifier – the range of conflicting value, actions, beliefs, and pereceptions- can be so different. In a similar way, it is by this using these single word identities that individuals and groups- namely polical- may create an association to many people and leverage this connection for unrelated power.

People entitled to own beliefs, but when involves the lives and being of others, it is no longer right. Fundamentalist Christians pose cultural threats rather than violent ones. While their practices are questionable, and camps exist that aim to influence children – the future of their religion, there exist no violent terrorizing way of achieving their objectives.

Globalization is an unstoppable force. While drawing ties between identities of religion and politics is a strategy, the inevitable social changes are difficult to stop. While few stand in the way of these fundamentalists from believing what they want, it is possible that with an ever globalizing future, their extremist views and actions will only become that – more extreme .

Democracy and Human Rights

Democracy and Human Rights

With society being increasingly influenced by factors rooted all over the world, individuals within states are facing challenges in democracy. Globalization is changing democracy, a structure supported by capitalism, while capitalism is feeding the speed and expansion of globalization. I will focus on the cultural dimension of globalization as discussed by Cunningham in the article “Democracy and Globalization”. Economically strong cultures like the United States are dominating the spread of media and consumer products, resulting in diverse countries growing together based on this American sameness. Media and products reflect the overarching cultures, and attitudes of a given country; the American culture is being spread at the pace of globalization.

While I agree emerging global culture is apparent, I do not believe as strongly as cosmopolitans who see society as bound by shared values, human rights, democratic participation, laws etc. The world is far from being bound by shared values; a shared culture is emerging and exists, but core values are still widespread, conflicting and diverse. For example, issues of women rights, sexuality, religion, and family vary to extremes. It is evident that that the idea of and “global civil society” presents many challenges to the views of cosmopolitans.

Generally speaking, American attitudes are heavily focused on materialism; success is difficult to measure, but material objects help provide a metric for many. Knowledge, power, talent and influence are equated to material items. I believe this concept reflect well with Macpherson’s “possessive individualism” theory, which argues that skills are viewed as a market commodity and encourages constant increases in consumption. I think this culture of consumption is based heavily on this need to equate skills and achievements to something. The link between this idea, and capitalism with globalization – as mentioned before – are driving this culture of consumption to a global level. This culture is unsustainable, especially in countries far from the economic level of the United States. The culture of consumption will only spread problem of inequality.

I believe that the American culture, spread by entertainment, has become (maybe unwillingly) a fascination of societies in different countries. Spending most of my life in Canada, I would reject the idea of the United States having this sort of influence. However, in my travels through the less developed parts of South East Asia, I encounter time and time again, reflections of a materialistic culture and the entertainment which brings it about. Friend’s episodes playing 15 hours of the day in streets of Laos, American rap music playing as I take off on a flight, Christina Aguilera blaring in my cab rides through rural areas, American “Cosmopolitan” magazine laying in restaurants in villages, and copies of US box office hits sold everywhere. The effect are there too – the way people dress, speak, and where they spend their money.

I agree with Macpherson’s premise that the concept of possessive individualism prevents individuals from developing “uniquely human capacities”. I believe these are the exact qualities (rationality, moral judgment, friendship..) needed to globalize effectively, but are the ones being smothered instead. The materialistic attitude restrains any development of human qualities and growth. Globalization seems to be restricting the expansion of tradition customs and views and replacing them with sameness in culture. The forceful cycle of capitalism, globalization and changing democracy is evident and strong.

War and Terror: Nationalism

War and Terror: Nationalism

It is always challenging to fully understand the reasons one would take part in a war (aside from mandatory enlistment). While I can come up with many reasons that seem to make legitimate, it is still difficult to try to understand the inner thought process of someone choosing to fight, kill and likely die. Nationalism seems to be the overarching answer providing rationale for one’s actions. How does a sense of nationalism develop, then grow to a point of motivation to fight in war? Does the type of unity of citizens and outlook on immigration affect the strength of nationalism? Looking at three different countries – Canada, the USA, and Singapore may help answer this point.

With the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, Canada is a country defined by its multicultural society. In fact, to support economic policy and socio-cultural views Canada passed the “ Multicultural Act”. The term cultural mosaic is often used to describe the mix of ethnic groups, languages and cultures that co exist within Canada. While many may argue this focus on multiculturalism concept encourages immigrant communities to remain concentrated and segregated in certain areas, or that it implies that they should never be considered Canadian, and dilutes any sense of national pride, as a proud Canadian citizen I disagree; there is a unique Canadian identity that lies within its multicultural strength.

However, unlike the nationalism of many other countries, including the United States, I would argue that the differences in the nationalistic ideology would cause Canadian nationalism not to be a driving factor in wartime motivation. In many cases, war would mean opposition to many of the backgrounds and heritages that exist in Canada. It would mean opposing their people and family, or similar ideologies as their own. If there are still thousands of military personal willing to fight for Canada – then how does one explain it. While ideologies and family may be fought against, there is a joint pride in the opportunity, freedom, and acceptance that Canada represents. While not one identity, the values of Canada is something most people are proud of and would fight for. I think this existent but not arrogant nationalism is what make Canada more of a peace keeping nation rather than an aggressor.

Very different than policies and outlook on multiculturalism and nationalism in Canada is the United States of America. The USA supports and encouraged through policy cultural assimilation whereby members of ethic communicates and immigrants are integrated into a larger community and take o n the customs and ideology of this group. This absorption results in a loss of language, customs and identity. It also promotes a very strong nationalistic attitude. I believe more so than in Canada, American citizen take greater initiative to both defend and promote their countries attitudes in a more outward way, sometimes by war. American’s take pride in defending criticisms of the “American Dream” and this strong sense of nationality makes them more aggressive in taking revenge or action against countries that threaten any of the ideas of The United States. Because individuals grow up with a strong sense of these principles one can better understand their commitment to defending The USA.

Singapore is a society that is new to me. Since I have been here I have tried to determine if Singapore is more like Canada or the United States, in terms of attitudes on nationalism and multiculturalism. Inevitably I have come to the conclusion that it is a society unique to itself. There are distinct Malay, Chinese, and Indian groups within Singapore but none is so dominant as to assimilate the other members of society. On the other hand, there is fusion of these groups and integration seen in certain dynamics. More like Canada, it seems to have different groups respectfully living together and sharing their customs and ideologies; however, unlike Canada there are fewer large ethnic groups and a greater encompassing national unit. I believe the public policy and government in Singapore also represents a more solitary unit compared to that of Canada. While I am not deeply educated in it, I believe the history of Singapore’s independence also contributes to a sense of Nationalism. Mandatory national service for males arguably strengthens a sense of duty to one’s country, which may prove to be a motivating factor in joining potential war efforts. While some may argue that this compulsory service creates a false sense of national pride, coming from different backgrounds, maybe this service unites and gives a common experience that one can relate to a sense of nationalism.

Every country has different factors which contribute to a sense of nationalism. I agree that nationalism is the ideology that drives motivation in war. But that ideology comes from a different place within each country. It could be one’s history, economic policies, and types of immigration or progress of a society. In this way, while nationalism drives the motivation, the motivating factors are different. This may offer an explanation of the different stances and attitudes countries take on war

Crime: Terrorism and Fear

The article “Sociology of Terrorism” by Austin Turk, presents some key points regarding the fundamentals of terrorism from the social construction of it to the social control. I will focus on the the communication and social control aspect as I feel this is where my personal experiences and opinions lie.

In the discussion of the Social Control of Terrorism, the article seemingly concludes “the politically dominant approach is to persuade the general public to accept the necessity of militizing and delegalizing the effort to counter terrorism.” In regards to the USA PATRIOT ACT
(and similarly, but closer to home, the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act), it seeks to support intelligence gathering and surveillance powers to help control terrorism. However, in order to this, countries must convince the people it is necessary and this is done through fear. From the above quote from the article it is possible to suggest that governing officials of targeted and likely democratic societies intend to create fear of terrorism to legitimize the actions the governing bodies deem necessary. Whether these actions are right or wrong remains to be debated, but the point to consider here is that this is arguably the means they use to control terrorism.

The media plays a huge role in the proliferation of terrorism as well the societal response. In the discussion of censoring media coverage of terrorist events, points are given in support and against censorship actions. When reviewing the reasons for both, it is clear that the decision to censor or not had an impact on the structure, views and responses of society and therefore the opinions of what a country should do to control it.

One of the reasons for censorship of terrorism is that an acute goal or terrorism is to achieve a level or psychological impact on the target society; widely broadcasting coverage of such terrorism helps increase this desired psychological impact. This can be seen with the example of the United States and even Canada, because of its proximity and sharing of media channels. If the goal is to create fear then terrorists have achieved it. As the media presses images, ideas, security, action and responses on all channels – magazines, newspapers, television – it only further instilling the impact of the initial attack, on a mass scale.

Censorship is a way of using the communication of terrorism to control terrorism. However, within the methods of controlling terrorism exists other options. As mentioned earlier, governing bodies will use media as means of control, by utilizing it create a level of fear and to convince society that forgoing certain securities and privacy rights is better for society. These are only some objectives, but it may be argued that the media could convince the public of most anything the governing body needs in order gain support for the actions they feel necessary. However, this raises an interesting question.

If one accepts a common definition, that terrorism which involves carrying out actions intended to create fear to achieve an ideological goal, then it is possible to argue to an extent that they (the governing bodies) are using terrorism. (The idea is that that the governing body will use media to create fear to achieve the ideological goal for support)This would suggest that in order to control and combat terrorism, it itself must be used to a certain degree. Sociologically, this means that the structure of the society must be based upon education from media sources such that the message of fear can be portrayed and instilled in the minds of the people so the government or body combating terrorism can justify the actions it believes important to achieve its goals.

Women and the Family

Women and the Family

The movie viewed in class, “Juggling Work and Family,” by Henrick Smith, exposed many of the realities of accelerating ones career or making ends meet, and maintaining a stable family home. Whether it was about lack of time or finances it is clear there is a common theme of not feeling like one is doing enough with or for their children and the family unit is suffering because of it. How we work is at the core of the issues we face today in this 24/7 economy. Smith proposes that it is possible that a greater social change must occur for the family unit to survive and even suggest that is is a structural problem; we must rethink how we work and how we organize work as an economy and society in order to protect the family.

I agree. I believe the social changes occurring in society are so drastic that necessary adjustments must be made in the structure of how things are done in order for these social changes to be beneficial rather than detrimental. I believe this concept of problems lying at the structure can also been seen with women in the work force. While socially, people changed and to some extent practices changed in order to accommodate women professionals, the structure of how business takes place within an organization has not. Furthermore, institutions have not changed the organizations practices in the light of women working in a gloablized context and internationally. As a business student, soon to enter the workforce, and hoping to work internationally, this is a concern.

Worldwide, women hold a very low percentage of management positions, even proportionately lower than the number of women in management overall. Based on female styles of leadership, women make excellent global managers; however, gender biases and barriers from within organizations limit women in these positions. More specifically, at the emergence of gender discrimination and international business, exists the concept of ‘glass borders’. This metaphor refers to the obstacles women face in achieving key international positions due to both socio-cultural backgrounds and from barriers within organizations (Van der Boon, 2003).

The structure within a business – the formal assessment of employees, selection, hiring and business processes- reflects the discrimination that exists within many organizations. Although in recent years businesses have adopted an equity approach, where there is emphasis on equal representation of the genders, the underlying objective was to assimilate women to male management which does not allow females to perform to their highest capability. Women are judged against the male model of career development and differences are deemed detrimental to women’s abilities to manage successfully and therefore to successfully contribute to the company’s performance. This systematic discrimination continues to be revealed through objective recruitment and human resource procedures existing within organizational policies (Van Der Boon 2003). These structural barriers explain the low participation rates of women as international managers.

The root obstacle faced by females seeking roles as international managers is in the existence of gender discrimination from barriers within organizations, not the actual effectiveness, skills, and attitudes of females working in a global environment. I believe that the suggestion made by Henrick Smith in the movie regarding work and family – that how we organize work, the structural problem, is at the root os family issues- can be transferred to the issue of women managers in the international workforce. Social conditions of changed, and discrimination will continue if the root of the problem – the structural organization of companies- does not change.

Van Der Boon, Mary. 2003. “Women in international management: an international perspective on women’s ways of leadership.” Women in Management Review 18(3)132-146.

Work and Trade

After completing the online lecture and readings, I was reminded of a novel I read a few years ago – “Confessions of an Economic Hitman,” by John Perkins. While a factually controversial book it aims to expose the underlying motives of such organizations outlined by the “The ABC of Global Economy “ article. The book tells stories of John Perkin’s roles and experiences as an “economic hitman” within a consulting firm he worked for which was confidentially linked to institutions such as World Bank. By coming forth with his actions, he exposes the corruption within these organizations. Put simply, he was selected as an economist to present data, which would persuade political leaders and financial institutions of developing countries to take on loans from organizations such as World Bank in order to fund infrastructure projects. As mentioned in class, many of these projects resulted in only benefiting larger developed nations such as the United States and left these countries worse off. The novel exposes the negative results of such projects – increased inequality, poverty and downturns in economies. Within the book, Mr. Perkins attempts to stress the point that the projects actually direct money back to the United States and multinational corporations. Furthermore, the book also touches on the initiative of G8 to forgive the debt of many developing nations. It goes on to explain that this action is conditional on the privatization of many social services and maintenance of regulations that benefit MNC and large countries.

The behind the scenes actions of the United States, other large neoliberal countries, and institutions such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization have immeasurable consequences during this time of globalization. I believe the implications of these actions drastically change the perspective one takes when considering how to manage the economic growth of developing nations in the global economic arena. With leadership coming from these institutions, how will people of developed nations change in order to end this cycle?

“Confessions of an Economic Hitman” is an example of how even after a national bestseller exposes the motives, actions, and government relationships of many companies – nothing changes. I am the perfect example. I remembering reading the book and beginning to question these governments, my actions as a consumer (which progress the cycle), and future goals. After some time though, these ideas and convictions are forgotten and one slips back into old routines that have been conditioned to perpetuate the cycle of support for these organization and increase the inequality gap between nations. Maybe every purchase is indirectly supporting the economic hitmen.

The leadership of such institutions is making it difficult for positive change to occur. While one may argue that citizens are unaware of the underlying motives and connections of these governments, organizations with multinational corporations, this is untrue. Even after such information is exposed, no change occurs. When considering the labour (production factor) and trade (consumption factor) dependency it is clear that unless people in industrialized, developed nations make significant changes, newly industrialized or developing nations will continue to suffer. Free trade and the search for cheap labour is perpetuated by the need overconsumption of developing nations, therefore the social conditions that drive consumerism need to change. It is difficult to see how this will happen. We study these problems at school and are educated on them. In fact, three of the four modules I am enrolled in as a business student have touched on these issue of division of labour, inequalities and the role of institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. Such education and exposure even to masses of university students seems hopeless in developing answers on how to control this problem. National bestsellers such as “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” provide insight but are perhaps only entertainment to most. Expose does not change the attitudes, values and goals of society today – especially in North America. The capitalist cycle, views of society and integration of government with multinationals is too strong.

Class and Inequalities: Income Distribution on a Domestic Scale

As globalization continues to polarize the gaps between countries, the focus of many is being absorbed into the related resulting issues. With the focus so often on a global scale, it is necessary to consider the issues of one’s own country, on a domestic level; this will enable one to better understand the role a country may have globally. Inequality and income distribution is widening globally; domestically, Canada follows a similar trend.

The statistics given in the reading mark the United States as having the highest ratio between the rich and the poor in industrial nations. As a country so close in proximity and in many ways economically tied to the US, it is interesting to review some of the Canadian statistics. In 2005 a report by Stats Canada indicated “income inequality in Canada is higher than in Europe but lower than in the United States”.

Economic expansion in the nineties is said to have benefited the higher income families and this is what spread Canada’s inequality. Furthermore, additional reasons for the growing gap included increases in immigration. I believe unresolved problems at the root of issues with Aboriginal peoples, the disabled, and Canada’s drug problems also contribute to a growing low income population.

The issues that caused income inequality in the past remain today and are joined with many others, which are continuing to widen the gap, making Canada a more unequal society. A recent study shows that in 2004, the average earnings of the richest 10 percent of Canadian families raising children were 82 times greater than those earned by the poorest 10 percent. This shows the gap between the earned incomes of the wealthiest 10 percent of Canadian families and the poorest 10 percent has almost tripled in the three decades (Statistics Canada, 2004).

As the inequality continues to increase in Canada, I considered some of the reasons and views discussed in the reading. Competition in the manufacturing industry is growing with the effects of globalization. As a result, many manufacturing companies are shutting down plants in Canada and moving overseas where labour is cheaper. This has led to an increase in unemployment of low-income Canadians and possibly can account for some of the inequality and the disappearing middle class. Another reason for the gap may be due to changes in government taxation policies, which while may not favour the rich, do very little to re distribute income. In many cases, taxes have been cut and government support programs removed.

Why is Canada’s inequality an issue, when there are millions of people living worse off than even the poorest Canadians? When we consider one of the central questions of the reading – how market oriented political economies might contribute more to reducing poverty, especially in the poorest countries – it allows us to see the importance of looking at Canada, which is generally a market-oriented political economy. We must consider its faults and successes and examine why there is still such great inequality within it before applying its strategy to other countries or questioning why it cannot help other countries more. Furthermore, Canada’s ability to help other nations depends on its ability to remain a successful capitalist nation. Increasing inequality will lead to social conditions unfavourable to the continuance of capitalism.

While Canada may be part of the wealthiest one fifth of the world’s people, controlling more than 85% of global income, it has much work to do in dealing with its own inequality domestically. Canada must balance attempts to narrow inequality on a global scale with continuing attention to what is going on nationally.

(For those who would like to respond to this blog and continuing with some of the points in the reading- is it possible that Canada could re asses its strategy at combating national inequality by examining the successes of those Asian countries who have reduced economic inequality?

Bibliography