The economics of race, agriculture and environment
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The economics of race, agriculture and environment
Part 1
Racialism is the judging or discriminating against an individual on the basis of the genetic variations of the individual or the discrimination against on the basis of ethnicity and culture. Economically implicit racial contents occurred way back in the previous generation but the individuals of that race are still experiencing the effects of these past acts. Competition is known to decrease the impact of racialism. Human capital theory is the advantage and disadvantages that arises between different employments due to wage differentials. It is said that the personal incomes vary depending on the amount of human capital invested. The human capital theory assumes that the wage and competitive difference vary depending on the characteristics of an individual such as prior experience, age, education and gender, Margaret et al (318). This theory seems to be influenced by racial content with the aspect of men earning more than women despite the same background of education and experience.
The efficiency wage theory incorporates the degree of the competition in terms of labor and the final market product with the size of the input work force. The labor force is divided into skilled and unskilled with efficiency being associated with skilled labor which mostly is linked to the white and unskilled labor to black people. Market segmentation divides the market into public or private sector or formal and the informal sector or it could also segment the market by gender, men type of jobs and those of the women, (Ben 165). Some market sectors are also associated with a particular race with the majority of the workers being of a particular race.
Part 2
The primary objective of agriculture is food production with many technologies geared towards the increase and sustainability of food production to ensure provision to the whole world at large. Distribution of food and its consumption is a factor that is influenced by climate and the preference of the group residing in a particular area. Income and lifestyle of a particular group also influences the consumption of food and its distribution. The metropolis being urban has more of industrialization than agriculture and their consumption is dependent on the supply from the rural area. The metropolis is associated with skilled labor that is incorporated in the industries and thus very little food production. Most of the people inhabiting such areas consume large amount of junk food which are cheaper and easily available. The rich can however afford to buy healthy foods that are transported from the rural areas and therefore tend to have high prices. The rich people are usually thought to be whites while the poor blacks thus some degree of racism when it comes to the distribution of food. The socioeconomic status also has a large influence on the consumption of food with the low socioeconomic individuals consuming healthy cheap foods compared to the high socioeconomic individuals who can afford junk foods that are expensive.
In the river basin region, individuals mostly rely on foods that the water source can offer that is easily available to them. Agriculture in this region is a major activity though pollution is seen as the major hindrance to the prosperity of these regions. The areas though thought to be productive are marked by the people living below the poverty line because of overexploitation of the available resources, (Andrew 2008). Markets of the products of food production are organized to different classes to suite different types of consumers. Hyper markets are associated with the rich that that are mostly classified according to race and social standings. For example a rich black person shopping in a white dominant market will be assumed to be a servant because of his color.
Part 3
The major key factors that affect productivity are the human capital. The human labor input in the productivity contributes a lot to the food production. The human capital theory best explains the concept of food production in relation to the human labor. Education and training of the workers in a production facility raises the standards of production and empowers the workers with necessary skills for a better production; this is a concept that the human capital theory applies. The knowledge and skills leads to a rise in the workers income through the increase of the lifetime earnings. The skilled workers are however sometimes selected on the basis of race with many people associating the blacks with unskilled labor thus no matter the experience or education they fail to get competitive positions with their opponents. This also applies to the judgment of labor on the basis of the school one attended and the place where one was raised. These kinds of judgment leads to the low productivity of food industries and also it could lead to poor quality of the products.
Experience is however found to have strong effects on the performance related to food production as discussed by Barry (112). Age and the state of mind of an individual also will have direct effects to the productivity of the particular individual. For example a pregnant woman or a person with a his own family to take care of will have a less productivity because of the lack of pure concentration on the work at hand unlike a young man with nothing to think about but himself. This also creates a point for discrimination if an employer will prefer single men than married ones or prefer men to women. This can be said to be some degree of racism in a way.
Works Cited
Andrew, O. “Niger river basin” water and food article, (2008): Print.
Margaret, L & Howard, F. sociology: understanding a diverse society. U.S.A: Thompson Corporation, 2006. Print.
Ben Fine. Labour market theory: a constructive reassessment. Canada: Routledge, 1998. Print.
Barry, S. & Michael, E. hunter-gather childhoods: evolutionary, developmental, & cultural perspectives. New Jersey: transactions publishers, 2005. Print.