poverty L. 2

  • poverty is the condition of lacking sufficient income or resources to meet basic needs such as food, housing, clothing, and healthcare

  • poverty isn’t just money, also affects opportunities and quality of life

  • 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings → budgeting

  • to afford market-rate rent or mortgages/financial stability, 30–35% net income on housing

  • LICO = low income cutoff

↳ established by Stats Canada, determines if households in Canada are spending a large amount of income on necessities

↳ in Whitby the LICO was $23,500 after tax for one, family of 4 is $40,450

  • LICO numbers aren’t a great indicator, a little inaccurate → based on 1992 not 2026

  • LICO adjusts for population but not differences in cost of living based on location

  • LICO is solely income not wealth/assets

  • affected by poverty: children/youth, single parent families (single mothers), Indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees, disabled, older seniors

  • causes of poverty: low wages and pensions, unemployment/underemployment/unstable employment, high cost of housing/living, lack of access to education, systemic discrimination, intergenerational poverty

  • poverty is linked to limited educational opportunities, poor health outcomes, food insecurity, social exclusion → creates a cycle difficult to escape, reinforces existing inequalities in society

  • difficult to differentiate between needs and basic necessities, dependent on context of the society

Digital divide

  • internet removes barriers → but internet access isn’t equal for everyone

  • digital divide → refers to the divide between users/non-users of the internet, correlation between wealth and access to the internet

  • generally the more affluent someone is, the more likely you are to have home internet access (however is also true)

  • having access to the internet is a vast amount of information and resources, social interactions, opportunities, online medical advice, legal help, government access forms can be accessed through online portals

  • correlation between the levels of education and internet use, the more educated someone is, the more likely they are to have internet access

  • second level divide → those who would like access but can’t afford it, those with no interest in accessing it

  • in 2022 only 67.4% of rural households and 55% of northern households had internet versus 99.1% of urban areas (89% Canadian households had access to the internet)

  • strong link between household income & connectivity (59% of the lowest income quartile households having access to high-speed internet compared to 97.7% in the highest income quartile)

  • half of First Nations lack access to high-speed internet

  • distinctions between people who use the internet vs. people who do not

  • internet access: access to information, cultural beliefs and information, economic success, access to government services

  • access will not solve poverty, but will decrease the divide between the “haves” and “have nots”