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Work
Activity
People
living on the edge easily face economic crisis.
What
most likely happens when their income declines is they lose their
job, lose essential public services, or lose valuable assets.
Put
these examples of income decline in the front of the room along
with the reasons and effects for income decline:
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1.
Loss of job:
reasons:
war, political crisis, inflation,
effects:
lower wages, less lucrative employment, fewer hours worked
2.
Loss of essential public services (health, nutrition, education
services):
reasons:
lower government spending
effects:
poor health, poor nutrition, lower education
3.
Loss of valuable personal assets
reasons:
bankruptcy of financial system, bankruptcy of public social
security system, or decline in prices of physical assets
(land, animals, stocks)
effects:
loss of assets many times means loss of savings - loss
of "safety net"
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During
economic crisis, poor use short-term "coping" strategies.
Have
the class brainstorm as many coping strategies as they can then
come up with:
examples
are...
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1.
Working longer hours and/or working a second job.
2.
Move from formal to informal sector employment.
3.
Taking children out of school go to work.
4.
Using or selling assets and savings.
5.
Having one or both parents leave the home to search for
work elsewhere (i.e. migration overseas)
6.
Restricting food for non-working family members.
7.
Combining/restructuring households (i.e. two families
living together in one home)
8.
Using social capital (i.e. using support from local communities
or families)
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Have
the class think of as many reasons as they can why these short-term
solutions are not good long-term strategies. Have the students
come up with 3-4 long term solutions to an economic crisis. Remind
the students of all the things they have up until now studied
about poverty that will help them think of good long-term solutions
(food, education, health, housing).
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