So, the term “economic opportunity” piqued my curiosity in all that it entailed. It is nice sounding but what does it really mean? Usually something that sounds socially positive has a negative underlying interpretation like the affordable care act which is just an extension of Obamacare. Sounds nice, but if you have tried to see a doctor or get adequate care even with the increasing cost of insurance has resulted in longer wait times, fewer doctors, drive-through type of healthcare, and a drug that will fix any physical or mental ailment.
That’s the difference between capitalism and a welfare mentality. When you buy something, you put money in people's pockets, and give them dignity for their skills.
When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self worth.
Capitalism is freely giving your money in exchange for something of value.
Socialism is taking your money against your will and shoving something down your throat that you never asked for.
I typed in Economic Opportunity in different states to see if there was a theme so here are highlights of what I found. You can do your own research and see if you come up with what this “economic opportunity” means for your state. Look for terms like “root causes” , “cohesive communities”, “structural racism”, “ethnic disparity”, “social biases”, “social justice”, “cultural cohesion”, “resource disparities”, “systemic oppression”, “historical trauma.”
What does economic opportunity mean?
Exposes the inequity of generational wealth
Informs society on the root causes of generational inequality
Root causes of being Oppressed vs. Oppressors
Mandated regulations and policies through the lens of racial inequality
Cohesive communities through the lens of social and cultural justice
Inequity is unfair and avoidable through educating society on generational trauma and social biases
Economic equity empowers communities
Economic Opportunity:
Home ownership is one of, if not the best way for families to build generational wealth. Unfortunately, not everyone has equitable access to home loans, which are often a first step in building wealth.
The ideal of the American Dream—that hard work should provide for your family and allow for economic mobility—is no longer equitable
-Income as an indicator of racial and ethnic disparity
-It isn’t enough just to have the training and background to get a good paying job, it requires physical access to employment that doesn’t require long, unhealthy commutes to work.
Ex. Data on mortgage originations shows racial disparities
-Structural racism continues the legacy of redlining and segregation
Ex. Mortgage origination and denial rates are a common proxy measure for a community’s underlying entrenchment of racial residential segregation.
Ex. people of color are far less likely to build generational wealth through access to home ownership than their white counterparts.
Affordable Quality Housing:
Communities that cannot offer diverse housing options to meet resident needs are headed down a slippery slope of denying access to foundational physical and social supports that drive well-being, security, stability and resiliency.
Fix it Examples:
-On-time payments improve the borrower's credit score and allow the entrepreneurs to gain more capital and grow. This is especially important to stem the tide of predatory lenders who target Latinx communities with high-interest
-Provide down payment for 1st home owners
-Subsidized housing units are a critical lifeline
-Effective policies remove barriers to healthy housing.
-removal of substandard and dangerous houses
-housing units reducing vulnerability to environment risks and establishes stable living situations
Empowering through Health Equity:
-A focus on health equity informs all of the social elements of a healthy community, not just health care
-Treating the symptoms of generational trauma and social biases instead of addressing the root causes of health inequities is like putting a band-aid on a broken arm
- We must come to terms with historic injustices and power imbalances, we are destined to be trapped in a cycle of poor health and shorter lives.
Health is more than healthcare:
-When we recognize where health is created, we can't help but realize how we improve it
-If health is everywhere, then improving it takes everyone - working together, from a shared understanding of the root causes and broader issues that affect health
-every child born today deserves the same opportunity for a long and health life
Ex. assets: beautiful landscapes, hard-working people, and a determined spirit.
Ex. communities are rallying to understand and address the policies, systems, and structures that contribute to shorter lives
-They are engaging challenging dialogues stemming from health disparity data by race, income, gender expression, and opportunity
-Perhaps the most constructive starting point for those dialogues has been from the perspective of a child - one whose race, zip code, gender identity, or community circumstances no longer unjustly constrain that child's opportunities to thrive.
Empowering healthy choices:
Ex. Food: supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries
who spend $1 on SNAP eligible health foods to receive another $1 match as incentive (Arizona)
Ex. transportation: policies that reduce the number of road deaths (more bikes less cars)
Ex. Healthcare: remove barriers that influence cost of insurance
Ex. Parks and Recreation = green spaces
Community Design:
If we fail to pay attention to the design of the built environment, these assets will only exist in certain communities, and barriers will be created that can lead to poorer physical and mental health, environmental quality and fewer interactions with our social supports.
-walkability empowers people: It’s about creating places where it’s possible. Walkable neighborhoods encourage people to be outside, be physically active, and connect with neighbors.
Fix it Examples:
-community safety : travel to these destinations without injury or death. Safe community design will reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes.
-traffic can be socially isolating and lonely
-Driving alone isolates commuters and causes them to view other drivers as obstacles rather than peers or community members. In reality, all cars have people in them. If the drivers in this scenario were walking down the street, they might say 'hi' to each other, crack a smile, or bond
(ensuring healthy environments is to get rid of fossil fuels and gas guzzling cars in the name of reducing walker and biker injuries and death)
Environmental Quality:
In order to improve environmental quality, changes in policy, development practices, transportation options, waste reduction, and energy use can be made
-By ensuring the environments we live in are healthy, we can ensure that our communities are healthy as well.
-Components of outdoor air pollution are classified as cancer-causing agents (carcinogens), including diesel engine exhaust, solvents, metals, and dust
(fear-mongering = no clean air you get cancer from breathing)
Social & Cultural Cohesion:
-It is the “trusting network of relationships and shared values and norms of residents in a neighborhood that allow members to achieve shared well-being
-Cohesive societies are built on communities that protect people against risk, foster trust, and ultimately promote community health
-Studies show that community social cohesion can help improve family health, safety, and overall well-being while decreasing stress, poverty, and even racism.
-Conversely, poor social cohesion leads to poor childhood development, higher rates of chronic disease, and increased rates of mental health.
-Social cohesion is sustained when communities, and the individuals within them, are bound together by common attitudes and behaviors that rely on consensus, rather than pure coercion
Ensuring justice is a key aspect of practicing health equity:
Social Justice: social justice reflects the two “moral impulses” of public health–to advance human well-being by improving health and to do so by focusing on the needs of the most oppressed
-an unjust society is an unhealthy society so must advocate for equity
-Health opportunities, barriers, and privileges are all areas where social justice and health equity connect
-Because social justice and healthy equity are so connected, communities cannot begin to practice health equity without addressing social justice
-By increasing opportunities to address social justice, communities can improve their ability to improve health for all.
The key elements of social justice are as follows:
Addressing historical trauma and structural racism
Promoting restorative and transformational practices
Addressing incarceration policies and practices, including diversion programs
Resolving the social and physical differences adversely affecting socially disadvantaged groups
Pursuing fair distribution of resources.
Justice starts in the earliest years-school
When children miss school—due to health, transportation, housing, or school discipline policies—they miss crucial opportunities to lay a foundation for a long, fruitful life.
-Absences are not distributed equitably. They are more common among kids of color, low-income children facing housing instability, and kids with limited English proficiency.
-Racial inequities in incarceration traumatize the whole communities
-Inequitable rates of arrest and incarceration doesn’t just harm the justice-involved individual—it scars families and neighborhoods. It leaves vulnerable children without parents, partners without a second household income, and communities on a shaky economic base. Racial and ethnicity inequities
-Over policing in school systems continues to perpetrate inequity
Ex. Police on campuses promoting the "school-to-prison
Ex. Police are more likely present in school with high concentrations of people of color
Educational opportunity:
-The best hope we have for closing health gaps is to invest in our children
--Education empowers and equips individuals and communities for successful and healthy lives
-Increased education often leads to better wages, working conditions, health insurance, and access to resources that promote better health outcomes.
-Gaps in educational outcomes are present even in Kindergarten. In order to achieve 3rd grade reading proficiency—a benchmark many top education researchers agree is a major milestone for health across the life course—every family should have the opportunity to enroll their child in an affordable, quality early learning center
Ex. racial and ethnic inequities in reading proficiency are a failure of our system.
Ex. Inequities in outcomes are not natural or genetic—they are created by a system that does not offer every child the opportunity to excel.
-Reading gaps are an important window into deeper social and economic inequities at the family level that should offer a challenge to school administrators and policy makers to adopt best-practice methods for equity.
-racial and ethnic inequity is woven into many places within the education system
-for example: the disparate presence of police in schools with high concentrations of people of color, and the chronic absenteeism of students who have limited proficiency in English.
Ex. It is the responsibility of our state to ensure that youth are nurtured in the school system and incentivized to achieve their goals
COVID-19, Racial Inequity, and Social Justice
impacts of 2020's worldwide pandemic and the long-overdue issues of race.
COVID-19 has amplified the weaknesses in our economic, housing, food, education, and health systems. Communities of color have been experiencing high levels of unemployment, and have been disproportionately affected by the systemic failures resulting from the pandemic.
Communities of color have experienced inequity resulting from underlying systemic oppression in the form of structural and overt racism, lack of opportunities, resource disparities, and intergenerational and historical trauma. There is a newfound urgency to address glaring inequities within our systems.
