Globalization and Labor Conditions Quiz

Health & Mental Health Lecture Notes

• Introduction to Sociology course, Lecture 4, focusing on health and mental health.

Schedule & Deadlines

• AM Quiz #1 & #4 are due on September 22nd.
• Lecture 4 (Health & Mental Health) is on September 22nd, from 12:10 PM to 2:00 PM.
• Debate Paper 1 is due on Friday.
• Tutorial 3 is next week.
• Week 5 AM Quiz #5 is due on October 1st.
• Lecture 5 (Social Class & Economic Inequality) is on October 2nd, from 12:10 PM to 2:00 PM.
• Week 6 AM Quiz #6 is due on October 9th.
• Lecture 6 (Environmental Problems) is on October 9th, from 12:10 PM to 2:00 PM.
• Midterm is on October 14th, from 12:10 PM to 2:00 PM.

External Requests to Share Info

• The Toronto Experimental Economics Laboratory (TEEL) seeks student participants for economic experiments.
• Participation is open to all U of T students.
• Payment includes a show-up fee, plus a payment based on decisions during experiments.
• Sign up at http://teel.economics.utoronto.ca.

House Keeping

• Make-up midterm application form and practice tests will be released early next week. 
• Past essays cannot be used as examples for essays.
•  A paper template, 18 pages of instructions, FAQs, a writing guide, grading rubric, and writing tips are available.
• Students are encouraged to use the 30 pages of resources to write a high-quality 3.5-page double-spaced essay.
• Delay in release of AM Quiz #5 and lecture 5 material until the next morning.

Office Hours

• Office hours are available (link on home page).

Finishing - The Sociology of Education - Part 2

• Lecture related to the sociology of education as pertaining to topics such as Race, Ethnicity and education.

Race, Ethnicity & Education

• Indigenous communities underperform in education in Canada.
• Significant differences in education rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.
• Lower graduation rates and fewer degrees for Indigenous students.
• Lower incomes and employment rates often result from these educational disparities.
• The negative impacts of residential schools on Indigenous education.
• Residential schools operated from 1830’s to 1996 had the goal of cultural genocide. 
• Children were forcibly removed from families, cultural traditions were suppressed, and stripped of their identity.

Symbolic Interactionism & Education

• Immigrants often sacrifice to provide better opportunities for their children.
•  Challenges immigrants may face include adapting to a new culture, language, and losing their social network.
•  Facing racism and anti-immigration discrimination and/or lack of credential recognition.
•  Children in immigrant families commonly pressure themselves to honor their parents' sacrifices and succeed in education.

Health & Globalization

• Globalization increases interconnectedness amongst societies.
• Global communication makes monitoring and controlling disease easier, sharing scientific findings is also positive.
• Globalization poses three challenges to health: increased travel risk of spread of disease, reduced government power to tax corporations and the wealthy, reduced work conditions in poor countries.

Health & Globalization: Challenge 1

• Increased travel increases the threat of spread of communicable diseases.
• The Rio Olympics and the Zika virus infection, the current corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic and the spread of antibiotic resistant sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are examples.

Health & Globalization: Challenge 2

• Globalization reduces government ability to tax corporations and the wealthy.
• Corporations can threaten to relocate to other countries.
• This trend can lead to reduced revenue for public services and difficulties funding social programs as well as affect healthcare budgets.

Health & Globalization: Challenge 3

• Globalization has reduced working conditions in poor countries.
• Countries may offer reduced environmental and labor laws to attract businesses.
• Workers in these countries may accept low wages.
• This dynamic is often called the "race to the bottom".

Health & Globalization: Challenge 3 cont

• Globalization's impact during the coronavirus pandemic.

Health & Globalization: Challenge 2

• Governments rely on borrowing as a result of limited tax revenue from corporations.
• This can cause increased national debt, which future generations must repay.
• Impacts on health systems from less funding and insufficient resources.

Health & Globalization: Challenge 1

• Increased travel has increased the risk of communicable diseases.
• Examples include the Zika virus at Rio Olympics and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The spread of disease is also dependent on factors such as climate, living conditions, and health care quality.

Part 2: Universal/Free vs. Privatized Healthcare

• Saskatchewan was the first Canadian province to adopt universal healthcare in Canada.
• Tommy Douglas was the founder of free medical care.

The Start of Universal Medical Care

• Tommy Douglas the founder of free medical care in Canada.
• He preached in Weyburn Saskatchewan.
• Weyburn is a huge farming community.

The Start of Universal Medical Care cont

• Pure meritocracy is not something truly real.
• Children born into wealthy families have more advantageous opportunities. 
• Those who come from poor families may find it difficult to succeed because of limited opportunities and resources.

The Start of Universal Medical Care cont.

• Meritocracy was not a powerful belief in Saskatchewan.
• Farming and weather conditions made this region particularly vulnerable to hardship and poverty.

ASIDE: The Role of Framing

• Meritocracy and responsibility are significant components in today's healthcare debates.
• Framing of issues and how they are presented in the media can influence public perception.
• Opioid crisis example: 75% of addiction began due to physician-prescribed opioids

The State of Canadian Care

• Healthcare costs in Canada have increased due to advances in medical treatments and technology.
• This increase in costs leads to conversations about the sustainability of free healthcare or the affordability of privatized options.
• The push for privatization is linked to declining tax revenues from businesses and corporations, which impacts government funding for public services.

The State of Canadian Care cont

• The U.S. is the only major wealthy nation without universal healthcare.
• Data on healthcare costs in the U.S. shows the U.S. government spends more per person on healthcare.

The State of Canadian Care cont.

• Overall quality of care is worse in the U.S. than in Canada and Europe.
• Higher-income individuals in the U.S. have better healthcare outcomes than lower-income individuals.
• This difference in healthcare is linked to the role of free market economics and the difficulty of affording healthcare without insurance.

The State of Canadian Care cont.

• Reasons for higher U.S. healthcare costs.
• Difference between private and public healthcare funding models.

The State of Canadian Care cont

• Private healthcare models often allow more power and choice among options to consumers.
• Cost of health and healthcare prices in different markets.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic

• Mental health refers to healthy functioning.
• Mental illness refers to abnormal thinking, mood, and behavior in a person's health that causes significant distress and/or difficulty in their daily functioning.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont

• Untreated mental health issues can lead to various societal problems, such as poor educational achievement, unemployment, violence, and even death.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont.

• The effects of mental illness are widespread, impacting individuals, families, friends, and loved ones.
• Challenges in understanding and addressing mental health. There are three primary challenges for defining mental health in relation to modern day society, the concept of a 75-year-old definition of mental illness, stigma and prevalence.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont

• Mental illness is often tied to cultural norms (such as extreme work ethic) and morality that can be more difficult for some to overcome if they conform less to these views.
• Mental illness can cause behaviors that may be different from societal norms, and this can cause fear or anxiety from those around them in society. 

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont

• Mental illness is a hidden epidemic because mental problems discourage people from talking about them.
• Fear of judgment or discrimination can lead people to suffer in silence.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont.

• There are three significant challenges in trying to understand and deal with the mental illness epidemic.
• Mental illness is a social construct defined by consensus, not just by biology.
• Cultural norms influence how mental illness presents and is perceived.

Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic cont.

• Societal norms regarding mental illness often tie into different interpretations of morality.
• For example, actions that are viewed as morally reprehensible (such as suicide bombing), might also be seen as abnormal behavior rather than a mental illness.

Part 5: Corporations & Bad Science

• Corporations prioritize profit above all else, sometimes at the cost of ethical considerations.
• The fundamental goal of any company is to make as much money as possible, and so companies prioritized profit over other goals. 

The Problem with Corporate Influence (Who holds corporations responsible?)

• Governments and other relevant authorities are supposed to hold corporations accountable.
• This is problematic since governments are influenced by lobbyists and political donations.
• This can often give corporations vast amounts of influence and power especially when it comes to legal battles.

Costs of Doing Business

•  Corporations often face few significant penalties for actions that can be harmful to society.
• This can lead to more unethical actions and more negative effects.

When Science is Dismissed for Opinion

• Bad science is a problem all across fields of health, society, and environment.
• The food industry often funds their own studies on their products, and often times these studies can be misleading.
• A good example is the dispute on whether or not sugar or vaccines cause harm to human health.

When Science is Dismissed for Opinion (Academic vs. Private Industry Science)

• Academic science is more trustworthy and has processes to verify findings.
• Private industry science is less trustworthy as their results might be biased or influenced by factors for their employers' interests.

When Science is Dismissed for Opinion (Spurious causes)

• The spurious causal argument is when a false statement of cause and effect is made, it is critical to not assume cause and effect from unrelated issues.

When Science is Dismissed for Opinion & Vaccines/Autism

• The belief that vaccines cause autism has proven to be false by multiple studies. 
• Scientific studies show vaccines do not cause autism, but beliefs regarding vaccinations as unsafe is a belief that has persisted and continues to cause concerns among consumers.