Social Problems in the World and Mexico

Social problems, also called social issues, affect every society, great and small. Even in relatively isolated, sparsely populated areas, a group will encounter social problems. Part of this is due to the fact that any members of a society living close enough together will have conflicts. It’s virtually impossible to avoid them, and even people who live together in the same house don’t always get along seamlessly. On the whole though, when social problems are mentioned they tend to refer to the problems that affect people living together in a society.

The list of social problems is huge and not identical from area to area. In the US, some predominant social issues include the growing divide between rich and poor, domestic violence, unemployment, pollution, urban decay, racism and sexism, and many others. Sometimes social issues arise when people hold very different opinions about how to handle certain situations like unplanned pregnancy. While some people might view abortion as the solution to this problem, other members of the society remain strongly opposed to its use. In itself, strong disagreements on how to solve problems create divides in social groups.

Other issues that may be considered social problems aren't that common in the US and other industrialized countries, but they are huge problems in developing ones. The issues of massive poverty, food shortages, lack of basic hygiene, spread of incurable diseases, ethnic cleansing, and lack of education inhibits the development of society. Moreover, these problems are related to each other and it can seem hard to address one without addressing all of them.

It would be easy to assume that a social problem only affects the people whom it directly touches, but this is not the case. Easy spread of disease for instance may tamper with the society at large, and it’s easy to see how this has operated in certain areas of Africa. The spread of AIDs for instance has created more social problems because it is costly, it is a danger to all members of society, and it leaves many children without parents. HIV/AIDs isn’t a single problem but a complex cause of numerous ones. Similarly, unemployment in America doesn’t just affect those unemployed but affects the whole economy.

It’s also important to understand that social problems within a society affect its interaction with other societies, which may lead to global problems or issues. How another nation deals with the problems of a developing nation may affect its relationship with that nation and the rest of the world for years to come. Though the United States was a strong supporter of the need to develop a Jewish State in Israel, its support has come at a cost of its relationship with many Arabic nations.

Additionally, countries that allow multiple political parties and free expression of speech have yet another issue when it comes to tackling some of the problems that plague its society. This is diversity of solutions, which may mean that the country cannot commit to a single way to solve an issue, because there are too many ideas operating on how to solve it. Any proposed solution to something that affects society is likely to make some people unhappy, and this discontent can promote discord. On the other hand, in countries where the government operates independently of the people and where free speech or exchange of ideas is discouraged, there may not be enough ideas to solve issues, and governments may persist in trying to solve them in wrongheaded or ineffective ways.

The very nature of social problems suggests that society itself is a problem. No country has perfected a society where all are happy and where no problems exist. Perhaps the individual nature of humans prevents this, and as many people state, perfection many not be an achievable goal.

 

Mexico is characterized by sharp class and social divisions. A small upper class controls much of the country’s property and wealth while the majority of Mexicans live in poverty. In 1989 the top 20 percent of Mexico’s income earners received 57 percent of the national income. The poorest 20 percent received only four percent of the national income, while the middle 60 percent earned the remaining 37 percent. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), only six countries outside of Africa have a more unbalanced income distribution than Mexico.

Compared to the United States, Mexico’s middle class is relatively small, making up a little more than one-third of the population. Many middle-class Mexicans have lifestyles similar to those of middle-class families in the United States—living in homes or apartments with modern amenities such as electricity and running water, owning one or more automobiles, and having access to educational and health-care facilities.

Most Mexicans, however, live in varying degrees of poverty. Although the Mexican government does not issue official poverty figures, several national and international organizations have issued studies that attempt to paint a picture of the extent of poverty in Mexico. Many of these organizations use a “Basic Basket of Foodstuffs” to determine whether families are able to satisfy their minimum needs for nutrition, housing, clothing, and health care. This basket of goods and services is given a monetary value and those households whose daily income is not enough to afford this basket are said to be living in “extreme poverty.” Those households whose daily income is more than the value of the basic basket, but not greater than twice the value, are said to be living in “poverty.” A 1996 study by Mexico’s National Autonomous University put the value of this basket at U.S.$5.39 a day and said that 51 percent of Mexican families could not afford this basket and were therefore living in “extreme poverty.” This was up from 32 percent in 1993 and 16 percent in 1989. A World Bank report, also from 1996, said that one-fourth of Mexicans earned less than U.S.$2 a day and that 17 percent of Mexicans earned less than U.S.$1 a day.

Mexico’s recent economic problems have hurt middle- and lower-income families much more than they have hurt wealthy families. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mexico’s highest income groups increased their overall wealth, while the earnings of poor Mexicans declined significantly. For lower- and middle-income families, this often meant that they had to reduce their already limited spending on food and other basic necessities.

Many poor Mexicans have little or no access to health care and live in housing that lacks one or more basic amenities such as electricity, running water, or sewerage. Although the quality of housing has improved considerably since 1970, in the mid-1990s approximately 12 percent of Mexican households remained without electricity, 11 percent lacked running water, and 26 percent were without sewer facilities. Many children also suffer from malnutrition and drop out of school early in order to begin earning money for their families.

In addition, Mexico’s rapid population growth has severely strained government services, especially education and health care. This growing population has placed tremendous pressure on the government and economy to create new jobs. The economy in the 1980s and 1990s has not been able to create enough jobs to keep up with population growth. Economic conditions have prompted thousands of skilled and unskilled workers to migrate north to the United States in search of employment.

Mexican cities suffer from many of the same social problems found in urban environments around the world. Poor economic conditions, however, have significantly increased the levels of urban crime in the country, especially in Mexico City. Drug abuse and juvenile crime have also increased in major cities in recent years.

Poverty in Mexico is characterized as the lack of access of its citizens to basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter; it extends to the overall infrastructure of its society to include education, health care, social security, quality and basic services in the household, income and social cohesion as defined by social development laws in the country.^[3]

The government currently uses a multidimensional system to measure the poverty threshold in the country: extreme poverty, moderate poverty, and overall poverty.^[4] The first measures the minimum amount of monetary means required to afford nutrition, also known as the basic goods basket, for all members of the household. The second combined with the first, measures the minimum required to afford basic health care and education as well. The latter adds to the first two, the minimum required to afford a dwelling, transportation, and overall basic expenses in the household.^[5]

Current figures indicate that as much as 44.2 percent of the Mexican population (over 49 million) lives below the poverty line as defined by the country's National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation (Spanish: Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social, CONEVAL).^[1] In 2008, 33.7% of the population lived in moderate poverty and at least 10.5% suffered from extreme poverty.^[6]

Historically, Mexico's development has fallen behind of other developed nations and this restrain has been linked to tardiness in establishing social development as a national priority along with inadequate production models set by the Mexican government, bias politics, and corruption.^[7] In modern times, Mexico's heavy dependency on foreign influences, particularly its northern neighbor the United States and foreign trade policies that do not favor the common citizen have been cited as contributors to poverty.^[8][9] In general, decades of neglect have led to social enigmas like a high percentage of the population lacking formal education, unemployment, and an overall uneven distribution of opportunities.^[10] Only in recent years, after various economic setbacks, has Mexico recovered to a level where the middle class, once virtually nonexistent, is beginning to flourish.^[11][12]

Mexico's positive potential and the result of millions in poverty is always a topic of discussion among opinion-makers.^[13][14] Some economists^[15][16] have speculated that in four more decades of continuous economic growth, despite common trends in Mexico such as emigration and violence, Mexico will be among the five biggest economies in the world, along with the China, the United States, Japan, and India.^[17]

In recent times, extensive changes in government economic policy^[18] and attempts at reducing government interference through privatization of several sectors,^[19] for better^[20] or worse,^[21] has allowed Mexico to historically remain the biggest economy in Latin America,^[22] until 2005 when it became the second-largest;^[23] and a so-called "trillion dollar club" member.^[24] Despite theses changes, Mexico continues to suffer great social inequality and lack of opportunities.^[25] The current administration has made an approach at reducing poverty in the country, to provide more opportunities to its citizens such as jobs,^[26] education and health care.

Government involvement

Social development began to take place in the form of written policy in the early 1900s.^[33] The Mexican Constitution, approved in 1917, outlined the basic social protections citizens are entitled to, including the right to property, education, health care, and employment; and it establishes the federal government responsible for the execution and enforcement of these protections.^[34]

Map of Mexican states indicating HDI (2004)

0.80 and higher DARK GREEN

0.750–0.799      LIGHT GREEN

0.70–0.749        YELLOW

The global economic crisis of the late 1920s and forward slowed down any possibility of social development in the country. Between the 1920s and the 1940s, poverty levels remained between 53 to 48 percent while illiteracy levels range between 61.5 to 58 percent.^[35] Between the 1930s and 1940s, the government focused on establishing social protection institutions. By the late 1950s, 59 percent of the population knew how to read and write.^[33] By the 1960s, individual involvement of some states to increase social development, along with the country's economic growth, as well as employment opportunities and greater income, and the migration of people from the rural states to the urban areas, helped reduced poverty nationwide.^[33] The 1970s and 1980s saw the transformation of government and economic policies. The government gave way to flexible foreign trade, deregulation and privatization of several sectors. After the economic crisis of the 1990s, Mexico recovered to become an emerging economic power; however, the amount of poor nationwide has remained constant even with the country's overall growth.^[36][37]

Regional segregation

As reforms have taken place, the southern states remain forgotten. These states have taken little part in establishing their infrastructure.^[vague] The country's government has not focused on providing an even level of development and growth throughout the country.^[38] As citizens of the least fortunate states have noticed growth and improvements in others states, many have simply left seeking better opportunities.^[39][vague] Historically, southern states like Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero have remained segregated from the rest of the country.^[40] Their implementation of infrastructure, social development, education, and economic growth has been poorly accounted for. These states hold the highest levels of illiterates, unemployment, lack of basic services such as running water and sanitation, overall urban infrastructure, and government establishment.^[41]

Causes of poverty

The reasons for poverty in Mexico are complex and widely extensive.^[42] There is a consensual agreement that a combination of uneven distribution of wealth and resources sponsored by economic and political agendas to favor the rich and powerful is a major contributor to the millions left behind.^[43][44]

Individual condition

In the economic sense, access to insufficient monetary means to afford goods and services becomes the immediate reason to be poor. Because a person's personal income dictates what he or she can afford and what he or she will remain deprived of, the first common cause of poverty is the individual condition.^[45] This means, a person's individual circumstances and possibilities create their opportunity for access to goods and services. This condition is triggered by a person's income, education, training or work experience, social network, age, health, and other socio-economic factors:

• Lack of and unavailability of education

As population has grown, the number of students enrolled in schools throughout the country has grown tremendously since the 1950s.^[46] At the same time, government efforts to accommodate the growing student population, improving the quality of instruction and promoting prevalent school attendance has not been enough and therefore education has not remained among priorities for families who must struggle with poverty.^[47][48] 700,000 students grades 1-9 dropped out of school in 2009 in all of Mexico.^[49] 7.9 percent (almost 9 million) of the population is illiterate.^[49] 73% of Mexican households have at least one member without education or education below the 7th grade.^[49] 40 percent of people in the states of Chiapas, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Oaxaca and Guerrero have education below the 7th grade.^[50] There are virtually no opportunities for people without education in Mexico. With daily minimum wages so low, individuals without the training or education beyond high school are unable to compete in an economy where even the educated struggle with laborer-scale wages, unable to afford a minimum standard of living.^[51]

• Underemployment

Getting an education does not immediately translate to landing better paying jobs or overcoming unemployment in Mexico.^[51] As compared to other countries, such as the United States where a college degree can be the difference between a minimum wage position and a higher-paying job because higher education is required or appreciated.^[52] There are only a few better paying jobs in Mexico for university and other well-educated graduates. In fact, many^[quantify] college degrees holders find themselves earning wages too low to support themselves and their families.^[53] Situations like this have cause the standard of living among the urban middle class to deteriorate and as a consequence brings on emigration from this sector to other countries, mainly the United States and Canada.^[54]

• Other challenges

Mexico does not promote equal opportunity employment despite established laws forbidding most socially-recognized forms of discrimination.^[55] The government doesn't become sufficiently involved to promote opportunities to all citizens; including reducing discrimination against middle-age and elder citizens. Over a million of the unemployed face age discrimination and 55% of all unemployed face some form of discrimination when seeking employment.^[56] There are virtually no opportunities for individuals with special requirements such as the disabled.^[57] As job seekers become older, it is harder for them to get employed as employers tend to seek candidates within the "younger than 35 range". Social security (IMSS) is insufficient and there is a huge gap in proportion to the entire population (50% covered), the work force (30% covered), and the retired (33% covered).^[58] There is no unemployment insurance in Mexico.^[59]

Insufficient infrastructure

Mexico is a country where investment on infrastructure has remained as unequally distributed as income, specially in rural areas and in the southern states.^[60] Became many people establish in rural areas, without government permission, and without paying property taxes, the government does not make significant efforts to invest in overall infrastructure of the entire country, yet it has started to do so until the 1990s.^[61] Communities often face a combination of unpaved roads, lack of electricity and potable water, improper sanitation, poorly maintained schools, vandalism and crime, and lack of social development programs.^[62][63] The government did not begin to focus on improving and modernizing the federal highway system up until two decades ago when it was composed of two-lane roads; often deathtraps and the scenarios of head-on collusions between truckers and families on vacation.^[64] A tour of any major city in Mexico is sufficient to see the uneven distribution of resources and public investment.^[65] City and state governments often face challenges providing every community and citizen with the basic services of urbanized life.^[66] Often citizens must provide for the development of their own neighborhoods as there is no clearly visible government agency in charge of providing regular city management and maintenance services, including tax collection and/or distribution of funds to places of most need.^[67] Because of this, higher income communities will invest in the development of their own communities while lower income communities will be deprived of the basics such as running water and drainage.

• Geography and poverty

The concentration of poverty and distribution of wealth and opportunities is clearly visible from a geographic perspective.^[68] The northern region of the country offers higher development while the southern states are the most impoverished. This is clearly the result of states equipped with better infrastructure that others. The states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero are among the least developed in the country. These states hold the highest numbers of indigenous population. As a result, 75 percent of the indigenous population lives below the poverty line and 39 percent under extreme poverty.^[69] Their infrastructure is broken to the basics such as lack of roads, access to education, health services, and employment sources.^[70]

Map of Mexican states indicating levels of overall poverty (2005)

62.4-75.7     DARK GREEN

35.8-41.9     LIGHT GREEN

9.2-22.5       WHITE

 Unemployment

Unemployment in Mexico has been continuous.^[25][51] In 2009, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.5 percent (over 2.5 million).^[71] In spite of splendid macroeconomic indicators that currently exist: continuing low levels of inflation and stability in the nation’s currency exchange rate; a sufficient number of formal jobs- at least one million every year to keep up with the growing population- have not been created in over ten years.^[72] With the abundance of natural resources in the country- as well as its petroleum wealth, these benefits don't seem to reach many of the people of Mexico who lack job opportunities and the means to raise their standards of living out of poverty and marginalization.^[73]

In order to improve present day employment opportunities in Mexico, existing laws and regulations must be replaced for efficient instruments with greater legal certainty; encourage private investment; increase the collection of taxes; stimulate the productivity of businesses and the training of workers; and create more and better jobs.^[74]

• Inequitable distribution of income

Mexico’s inequitable distribution of wealth is among the highest in the world.^[75] Eighty-five percent of the national wealth is concentrated in a few families of entrepreneurs, corporate magnates, and politicians.^[76] Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico and in the world has a personal fortune equal to 4 to 6 percent of the country's GDP.^[77][78] In spite of efforts by government officials during the past three administrations; transition to globalization,^[79] the NAFTA agreement;^[80] Mexico has been unable to create efficient public policies in order to compensate for the distortion of its market and the poor distribution of national income.^[81]

• Obsolete regulatory framework

The absence of basic agreements among Mexico’s main political parties for more than ten years has caused a serious backwardness in needed legislation in a number of areas.^[82] As a result of structural reform failures on labor, fiscal, energy and legal matters, Mexico has fallen behind reducing poverty and encouraging development comparable to Latin American countries like Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica.^[83][84] The current economic framework needs adjustment on virtually all levels including business development opportunities, fair competition, tax collection and tax law; commerce, trade and finance regulations.^[85]

• Absent competitive principles

The Mexican economy does not support unprivileged businesses, considering its current standards regarding monopolies, both in the public and private sectors.^[86] By law, there are public monopolies: government-owned companies controlling oil and gas, electricity, water, etc.^[87] Private sector monopolies are found in the media, television, telecommunications, and raw materials.^[88] There have been a lot of loop holes in Mexican antitrust laws and only recently^[when?] has the Mexican congress taken action.^[89] For this reason, clear principles of competitiveness that offer incentives to private investment, both national and foreign, are needed in order for jobs to be created.^[90]

Government and politics

Mexico's rampant poverty, lagged social development and general public welfare is strongly tied to its politics.^[91] Historically, the political system of Mexico has not favored the general population, mainly because it focused to become and be a single-party system of government, largely dubbed "institutionalized" where those in charge had a one-voice, unquestionable plan of action mainly focused to favor the few elite while ignoring the welfare of the rest of population. From the 1800s to the end of the 20th century, as presidential administration came and went, the forms of government has been described as authoritarian, semi-democracy, centralized government, untouchable presidencies, mass-controlling, corporatist and elite-controlled.^[92] As each administration took turn, some changes have occurred, sometimes as to contribute to the welfare of the least fortunates but, overall, the political framework behind the economic and social structure of the country continues to be the greatest contributor to inequality.^[93]

• Foreign Trade Policies and Foreign Dependence

While the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico's economic performance, foreign trade policies have been heavily criticized by activists such as Micheal Moore (in Awful Truth) as not doing enough to promote social advancement and reducing poverty.^[93] To remain competitive in the international market, Mexico has had to offer low wages to its workers while allowing high returns and generous concessions to international corporations.^[94] The words "palancas" and "favores" are part of Mexican economic culture where high-ranking policy makers and private entrepreneurs are accused of promoting their own bottom line while ignoring the necessaries of the working class.^[95]

Current recessionary trends in the United States have an even greater impact on Mexico because of the great economic dependence on the northern neighbor. After crude oil export sales, remittances sent home by Mexicans working in the United States are Mexico’s second largest source of foreign income.^[96][97]

• Government Efforts and Economic Policies

Administration after administration, economic policies and social development programs have been targeted at decreasing poverty and increasing development in the country. Even with the best of intentions, friction between the "special interests" of decision-makers and the general public welfare, makes it difficult for clear goals in the benefit of the public to be accomplished.^[98]

Cancun is an excellent example of where the government failed to promote general welfare. While known for its crispy white beaches, fancy hotels of international renown, and spring break; Cancun is a faraway reality for most Mexicans.^[99] One only needs to step away from the exclusive hotel strip to discover how even in one of the most touristic destinations in the world, an uneven distribution of wealth and development remains.^[100] As many other projects^[which?] in Mexico, Cancun was envisioned to promote economic growth but while it contributes significantly to the Mexican economy, it falls short to boost social development and reduce poverty either regionally or nationwide.^[101]

• Transparency and Corruption

The lack of political transparency in Mexico has led to bureaucratic corruption and market inefficiencies, and as explained below, income inequalities.^{[102][103][104]} The ability to exercise civil rights has been increasingly displaced by the control of official authorities, including access to vital information that can capture the misappropriation and mis-allocation of funds, and public participation in state and municipal-level decision-making.^[105] This opens up a channel for corruption. Evidence of this can be derived from the Corruption Perception Index 2010: Mexico received a low score of 3.1, on a scale of 0 to 10 (lower scores represent higher levels of corruption).^[106] The result is a diffusion of corruption, from the state to the municipal level, and even right down to local security.^[107][108]

While it can be difficult to quantify the costs of corruption with pinpoint accuracy, a report from the UN estimates that the cost is about 15 percent of Mexico’s GNP, and 9 percent of its GDP.^[109][110] Such higher costs have adversely affected the growth of the economy, for instance deterring foreign investments due to uncertainty and risk. A study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers reveals that Mexico had lost $8.5 billion in foreign direct investments in 1999 due to corruption.^[111] Business companies admit to spend as much as 10 percent of their revenue in bureaucratic bribes.^[110] 39 percent is spent on bribing high-ranking policy makers and 61 percent on lower-ranking bureaucratic-administrative office holders.^[112] At least 30 percent of all public spending ends up in the pockets of the corrupt.^[112]

Even the domestic impact of corruption is no less severe, incurring additional expenses on firms and households. A family on average pays 109.50 pesos as bribes to authorities; households have also reported paying up to 6.9 percent of their income as bribes. In total, the cost of corruption in terms of GDP was estimated to be about $550bn in 2000.^[113]

The situation is still problematic in spite of recent initiatives by the state to become more transparent to the public.^[114] Over the years, there has been an effort by the government to reduce opacity, but even so, these initiatives often do not realize their full potential. In June 2003, under Vincente Fox’s presidency, the implementation of the Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Public Government Information (IFAI) offered civic organizations and members of the public to acquire previously undisclosed information. This reform has led to the exposure of previous under-the-radar activities, such as the government’s misappropriation of 200 million pesos that was intended to combat AIDS.^[115] And yet, censorship is still prevalent: in 2008, changes were proposed to increase the subjugation of IFAI’s decisions to state control, so that the distribution of information would become more centralized.^[116] A number of vertical subversions were also carried out at the time, including the merging of offices that handled information requests with less important agencies.^[117] This violated the earlier progressive changes to the constitution, including Article 6, so that transparency was threatened.

Opacity is therefore a major player as a determinant of inequality, especially in effecting the welfare of lower-class households.^[118] When resources are misallocated and official funds pocketed by illegitimate parties, the true quality of public services such as healthcare tend to be lower than expected;^[119] similarly, the secrecy of the government’s budget allocation prevents public scrutiny, so it is difficult to establish financial accountability.^[120] As well, from a broader perspective, vital infrastructure from projects, especially those aimed at facilitating social mobility, will also have to deal with the potential impediments caused by the overpricing effect and unnecessary risks of corruption, thereby reducing the accessibility of infrastructure for the poor, especially in rural areas where such infrastructure is less established than in urban areas.

Discrimination is acting towards someone or something with partiality or prejudice.Contrary to what we have achieved over the years as far as human rights and equalbenefits for everyone, we still face discrimination and prejudice in our day to day living.In today's contemporary society minorities play a huge role in every aspect of the social

world. They play a part in the economical, educational, entertainment, sports, and manymore aspects of which makes our society complete. Due to the existence of discrimination against these minorities, there are a lot of conflicts and difficulties which makes our contemporary society more complex to some extend.

Many times the skin color, country of birth, religious differences, social status and other factors have made life difficult and complicated for these minorities. Minorities have faced many difficult challenges in the past in order to become a part of the social world.In many cases they have been challenged to make extreme changes in their ordinary livesto overcome their apparent differences and become accepted as a part of theirenvironment. There are vivid examples of prejudice for racism that shows how the minorraces have to struggle much more than major ones to get what they deserve.

Consequently due to the existence of discriminatory actions against minorities there are many different conflicts in our contemporary society. These conflicts can be seen in different areas of family(like the preferring boys over girls), schools ( not paying attention to how is their grades but what is their race and etc.) workplace (not rating working based on their fulfilling their duties but something else), neighborhoods, and etc.Prejudice has caused too many wars between countries throughout the history, like the one in Palestine and Israel.