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afghanibanani:

Child poverty in the US is double the average of the 30 OECD countries.

(9 Myths)

Related: …we looked at life expectancy, mental illness, teen birthrates, violence, the percent of populations in prison, and drug use [in relation to income (in)equality; Richard Wilkinson - GOOD]

Income Inequality, Regression, and Understanding the Residual

Customers stormed the Kentucky Fried Chicken at the China World Tower in Beijing on Tuesday evening, flipping chairs and tables and refusing to leave after their coupons were denied, the branch’s manager said Wednesday.

The anger stemmed from a national coupon promotion gone awry. It also resulted in KFC scrambling to do damage control after customers were told at counters that the discounts they had printed out from online weren’t valid. Some customers refused to leave without an explanation, believing they had been deceived.

The promotion involved KFC branches across China, but it was abruptly canceled after it began Tuesday morning. Electronic coupons had been sent to the first 100 people who registered for a new “Super Value Tuesday” deal.

In an attempt to address consumer outrage, KFC Wednesday made an apparently vague pledge to honor the half-price coupons that had been downloaded from its official website.

[…]

According to the terms of the promotion, customers with the printed-out or copied e-coupons are entitled to a 50 percent discount if they buy the take-away family-serving Bucket, Chicken Strips, Extra-Tasty Crispy Burger, or Nuggets on particular days. The normal prices for the items range from 11 to 64 yuan ($1.60-$9.30).

According to the original plan, special discount vouchers were to be sold at a mere 0.01 yuan at taobao.com , a popular online auction and shopping website in China, at three intervals - at 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm - each for a different type of coupon.

I first heard of this story from a coworker. Details were lacking and it was one that piqued my interest. I like to keep one eye on China (the other’s on tumblr) but as you may have heard it can be a challenge to find a variety of views from native sources.

I’ll share some details I’ve heard personally from coworkers (who admittedly may be no more reliable than any other online news source) and wikipedia (please share sources if you have radically different numbers. Numbers interest me. Some of them anyways). And I think some background got lost in translation.

First, from a coworker, I heard that this was happening at KFCs across the nation and this was not just a few isolated incidents. 

from the article: KFC has been operating in China since it opened its first restaurant in Beijing in 1987. It has more than 2,100 outlets across 450 cities in the country.

coworker: KFC prevalence in China (in nonrural regions) is similar to that of McDonald’s in Canada (and I’m guessing the States; e.g. three down a street just a couple of blocks apart). KFC is actually more than just fast-food in China. It’s actually considered somewhat of a luxury. And because of the prohibitive costs (see below) it’s actually the type of treat that some (particularly rural) families might indulge in but once a year. So for some of them, it is kind of a big deal (I think the best comparison I can think of is like going to The Keg or something along those lines here). Yeah, they’ll be giving a lot of free chicken away.

Poverty numbers:

From wikipedia:

Poverty in China refers to people whose income is less than a poverty line of $1.25 per day (PPP) set by the World Bank benchmark.

China has been the most rapidly growing economy in the world over the past 25 years. This growth has led to an extraordinary increase in real living standards and to an unprecedented decline in poverty. The World Bank estimates that more than 60% of the population was living under its $1 per day (PPP) poverty line at the beginning of economic reform. That poverty headcount ratio had declined to 10% by 2004, indicating that about 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty in a generation.

From Facts and Details.

There are three degrees of poverty: 1) extreme, or absolute, poverty defined by the World Bank as a household that gets by on less than $1 a day, not enough to support the basic needs of survival; 2) moderate poverty, defined as living on $1 or $2 a day, where basic needs are met but just barely; and 3) relative poverty, as defined by income below a certain level of the national average.

About 13 percent of China’s population—about 203 million people— live on less than $1 a day. About 42 percent of China’s population—about 593 million people— live on less than $2 a day. Most are in the countryside.

Children in textile and garment factories often work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and sleep by their machines. Boys in Green Mountain City gets paid about 18 cents a load for carrying 55 pound bags of coal up a mountain. Even in the cities, a school teacher with a salary of $50 a month—good by Chinese standards—might have to save for two years to be able to afford a bicycle. Married couples often live apart, sometimes in opposite corners of the country, working at different places. They only time the get to see each other is during holidays, three weeks a year.

I have no sympathy for KFC in this matter.

The second and third rounds of the promotion were set to begin later Tuesday, but the chain ordered the deal stopped when it found that “coupons were already in circulation before the official releases,” according to a statement issued by the company’s headquarters in Shanghai and e-mailed to the Global Times Wednesday.

According to the terms of the promotion, customers with the printed-out or copied e-coupons are entitled to a 50 percent discount if they buy the take-away family-serving Bucket, Chicken Strips, Extra-Tasty Crispy Burger, or Nuggets on particular days. The normal prices for the items range from 11 to 64 yuan ($1.60-$9.30).

According to the original plan, special discount vouchers were to be sold at a mere 0.01 yuan at taobao.com, a popular online auction and shopping website in China, at three intervals - at 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm - each for a different type of coupon.

So apparently they were going to issue these coupons anyways, but they were released prematurely. It’s 50% off. To provide these folks with a special treat many might only get to enjoy once a year at most otherwise. 

KFC is still charging $1.60-$9.30 there, similar to what they`re charging here. 

About 42 percent of China’s population—about 593 million people— live on less than $2 a day.

Give them a fucking break. I’m not going to condone the rioting. I’m just saying think of the headaches you could just save yourselves sometimes, corporations. Especially given the significantly greater profit margin they make in the region with the lower costs (if you want me to show specific examples of more relaxed health and safety standards and employee costs which lead to cost savings I will, but I think you’re pretty confident of my claim on this).

I will be trying to update this post should additional details surface.

(Note: I`m hoping you would focus more on the rates of poverty than the rioting of KFCs, though we should work together to eradicate both)

nhaler:

<snip>

[beginning of this discussion can be found here]

————————————————————

My point is, that to back up what, so far, is entirely opinion: with “facts” and “figures”, you have to provide the actual facts…and figures. She goes on to say, “A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery.  The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.”

The “mass imprisonment” of black fathers could certainly be a contributing force - but again, she gives no raw numbers and doesn’t cite any studies, nor does she consider the greater, overall imbalance of marriage deterioration across all cultures within America: approximately 40% in total are winding up in divorce. Phrased the same way, white/asian/native youth could be equally construed to be victims in an era that is “post-slavery”: A native child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a native child born during the Revolution.  The recent disintegration of the Native American family is due in large part to the mass subjugation/persecution/other discriminatory verb of Native fathers.

She also claims that 80% of Chicago’s black population are “marked”, branded as life-long felons. She doesn’t mention any other cities, but uses it as a report of the Black American Male’s plight. Aside from obvious socioeconomic management issues that could - and likely are - at fault in this specific case, touting the (possible) results of gentrification and the alienation of a local population as a National Crisis indicator is purely irresponsible. (Secondarily, I have yet to find a study that matches or approaches the level she claims.)

She then goes on using militant (and banal) phrasing like, “people of color rounded up en masse” as though it were genocidal, replete with allusions to ghetto invasions imbued with the striking visuals of, crazily enough, tanks, bazookas, and grenade launchers. Her vague use of phrasing like, “nearly a quarter” of Black Americans live below the poverty line doesn’t give justice to the actual numbers across America. Similarly, over a quarter (26.6%) of all single-parent households live below the poverty line; this doesn’t diminish the socioeconomic imbalance: it just exaggerates it. Wikipedia’s most recent source indicates that 8.3% of married black persons,^[19] and 5.4% of white persons lived below the poverty line in 2008, compared to  15% of Hispanic Americans. The poverty grows but the disparity shrinks when one considers those who are single: 20% of white people, 27% of black people, and 27% of Americans of latinic origin are also living below the poverty line.

I agree, the lack of statistics is disappointing. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt (at this point) to the author though since I’m assuming she cites proper references in the book (I know, I may be giving her too much credit here, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt). I agree with you that using “the alienation of a local population as a National Crisis indicator is purely irresponsible” but you haven’t cited any references to the contrary either. I think we really need someone who’s actually read the book to fill us in on what stats she actually does cite.

I’m glad you do cite Wikipedia as your next source because it illustrates so well how easily one can pick and choose their data set to make a point.

The numbers you cite for those living below the poverty line:

Married couples:

8.3% of married black persons

5.4% of married white persons

15% of Hispanic Americans

If you actually go to the source, the census bureau survey [1-Whites,2-Blacks,3-Hispanics], what you find is ithe numbers cited on Wikipedia are only for married-couple families. If you look at the actual numbers for people in all families (same sources), these are the actual numbers [also note at least one of the Wikipedia reference links is just plain wrong, with the cited reference for Blacks actually linking to the results for Hispanics]:

29.1% of married black persons

8.7% of married white persons

20.6% of Hispanic Americans

Also, looking at the same tables, you will see that ~80% of white people in families have married couples while only ~50% of black people are in families with married couples. (re: your comment earlier re: marriage disintegration)

Her point is that you’re all closeted racists, subtly (subconsciously?) holding back and targeting African Americans; my point is that America has a fundamental misunderstanding of the management of disenfranchised classes of people, and that her florid, sensationalist writing style denies any objective credibility to be had.

I agree with your point but not your assessment of her point. What I took away from that excerpt was that a policy sold to the public as an attempt to eradicate some problem is actually making it worst. And that there is some bias in those implementing said policy that actually exacerbates the very problem they claim to be trying to eliminate. Even if she is suggesting that some police/prosecuters are racist, I don’t see how you can interpret that as implying that we all are racist.

But then again, I’m just a Canadian— what do I know?

Ditto. I wonder what the Americans around here think…

Dude, we need go out and grab some beers some day and work on solving problems closer to home. Like what the hell to do with the Leafs.

I also would have liked to have used more nuanced terms than black & white but this is what the US Census Bureau has given us to work with.

calltoaction:

givemesomethingtoread:

A Detroit neighborhood fights for its life, and an ex-cop leads the way

More from the Metro Times article:

“It’s a great neighborhood. Lots of good people live around here, been around here for years,” Jackson says. “Where else can you get this close to the water? Just five blocks down the road it costs half a million, three-quarters of a million to live,” he says, pointing toward Grosse Pointe. By contrast, many homes on this side of Alter Road, the border of Detroit, sell for less than $10,000 nowadays.

But there’s a war going on here. On one side are longtime residents trying to maintain a safe, desirable neighborhood. On the other side is their enemy: the drug dealers, the burglars, the petty thieves, the lifelong criminals who prey on the regular folks here. Some invade from bordering neighborhoods; a few live right within it. Though they’ve always been a problem, there appears to be more of them since the economy tanked.

It’s a war of little battles. The residents fight by lighting their yards, videotaping drug deals, harassing scrappers and chasing off thieves.

Their enemy attacks in shocking ways. Like taking over the homes of bedridden old people. Like recruiting kids as dope-house spotters and runners. Like killing people’s dogs.

abbyjean:

For low-income mothers in Oregon in the state’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, buying most organic, hormone-free, or cruelty-free items is simply not allowed. The reason for these products’ exclusion from Oregon WIC’s list of approved foods isn’t exactly clear. The list is a confusing hodge-podge of arbitrary rules: mothers in the program can buy organic fruits and vegetables but not organic milk, grains, legumes, eggs, cheese, peanut butter, or infant foods and cereals. They can buy soy milk but not rice milk or raw milk, white eggs but not cage-free or those with higher Omega-3 or Vitamin E. Cheese options are slim — only six varieties are permitted. Moms can’t even purchase low-fat peanut butter for their families. Not all of these rules appear to be based on concerns about nutrition or high prices.

meaghano:

heh.