The Occupy Movement and Social Justice Economics

susan e. mason, editor

he occupy movement has caught international attention even though the number of activists remains relatively small. their agenda and demands posted on multiple websites call for economic reforms to bring stability to people experiencing recent and/or long-term financial disadvantage. this includes the unemployed; families facing eviction from their homes; people without adequate health insurance; and groups facing discrimination based on race, gender, or partner preference, as well as other categories. the occupiers are also calling for a variety of ecological reforms, electoral changes to ensure fairness, and the improvement of the american infrastructure. if we leave out some of the more controversial demands by some, such as the elimination of free trade and the complete opening of our borders, their agenda looks very much like what we social service providers and prominent politicians, including Presidents obama, Clinton, and george h. W. bush, have called on for a kinder society. despite the medias fixation on more disruptive activities, such as the confrontations with law enforcement and the actions by some dubious individuals, the occupy message seems to be a reflection of how large segments of america feel today about economic inequality. service cuts and budget shortfalls at the federal, state, and municipal levels have contributed to the tug-of-war in our Congress between those who favor the economic status quo and those who want higher taxes for the wealthy. The fight is on and the election campaigns of 2012 will likely be filled with these and similar economic controversies. in the meantime, the u.s. Census bureau is telling us that most americans have experienced a decline in household income over the last several years and that the distribution of wealth has become more lopsided with an increase in wealth for the top 1% (Congressional budget office, 2010; u.s. Census bureau, 2011). notice that in this mix of politicians and occupiers advocating for reforms there is somebut not very much attention paid to social justice. it is not as though reformers have given up on being against racism and other forms of discrimination, but rather economic justice issues seem to be in the forefront. social workers and social service providers have been advocating for social justice for years; most of us have linked social justice with economic justice thinking that once we tackled discrimination of all sorts, economic opportunities would open for a wider group of people. This has happened to large segments of the population who now have increased opportunities due to their attendance in higher education, for example. according to the american Council on higher
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education (Cook & Cordova, 2007), between 19931995 and 20032005 the number of african americans participating in higher education went from 35% to 41%. The percentage of professional degrees earned by african americans between 19941995 and 20042005 increased by 35% and for hispanics that increase was 14% (Cook & Cordova, 2007). These increases are likely to result in economic advantages for individuals and families even when Census bureau data still report racial and ethnic disparities in household incomes (u.s. Census bureau, 2011). although eliminating discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, and age has long been our mantra as social workers, it may now be the time to shift our focus to alleviating gross economic inequalities. This means looking squarely at poverty, its causes, and our countrys continued inability to eliminate its deleterious effects on families. it may also mean re-examining social work values. for example, the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers contains many statements related to advocating for social justice and prohibiting discriminatory practices, but it does not take a stand on gross economic inequalities (national association of social Workers, 2008). social work conferences are much the same with multiple presentations on eliminating race, gender, and partner preference biases, just to name few topics, but the rare exceptions are those that address economics. several years ago i attended one such presentation at a national social work conference and the room was packed. i would not be surprised todayi expect it. Families in Society is receiving a small but increasing number of submissions that have an economic focus, and from my perspective this is positive. however, judging from a quick database search there is not an overwhelming number of economically focused articles being published in social work journals today, despite the prominence of social justice topics. regardless of the occupy movements sustainability in various cities across the united states, it has been quite successful in challenging social workers to reframe our priorities. it forces us to define what is meant by the term economic justice and even by the term poverty. economic justice can be defined with three principles using the Kelso and adler model (Center for economic and social Justice, 2011). The first is participation, which refers to peoples rights to participate in the economic system through employment or investments. it rules out any form of discrimination that prevents participation. The second principle is distribution, which is how society allows for individuals to take out their share from the
2012, 93(1), 3-4 Doi: 10.1606/1044-3894.4186 http://www.familiesinsociety.org/showabstract.asp?docid=4186

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system to which they contributed. This is the relationship between income and labor and involves the determination of the just wage, just price, and just profit. finally, there is the principle of restraint, which places limitations on any one person or group getting an unfair advantage over others. This has also been referred to as harmony and defined slightly differently as the search for absolute values that hold the system together such as truth, love and beauty (Center for economic and social Justice, 2011). Poverty is a term that is somewhat more elusive. it is officially defined in the united states by federal government policies. The u.s. Census bureau includes as income government-sponsored transfer payments such as food subsidies, welfare payments, and emergency room health care. The government defines poverty as income below $22,314 a year for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual. The office of Management and budget updates the poverty line each year to account for inflation. The current poverty rate is 15.1% with about 46 million people classified as poor (fessler, 2011). of course, the statistics do not account for the suffering that families endure from lack of resources to pay for adequate housing, food, and a variety of other needs such as clothing, transportation, education, day care, and the like. adding to the momentum of the shift toward economics is the national financial literacy movement, a focused attempt to utilize schools and service agencies in teaching families money management skills and sharing ways to increase financial resources. Most of these programs are being funded by private organizations and foundations, but some public school systems are developing their own or modifying existing curricula. Jump$tart is an organization that promotes economic education in the K12 grade range through resources and teaching manuals. There is also the Council for economic education, a nonprofit organization that provides publications, including instructors manuals and literacy test templates. others include The Calvin K. Kazanjian economics foundation, the national institute of financial & economic literacy, the organization for economic literacy, and the California Council on economic education, just to name a few. social service agencies and community groups can make good use of many of these resources to promote outreach to individuals and families who need this knowledge, especially when they suffer from economic hardship. The new York Community trust recently funded a social work educators project to strengthen the ability of social workers to help clients with financial problems. an economic literacy curriculum was designed to be taught to students in the citys schools of social work. The idea is to graduate social workers who are able to help their clients better manage and increase their financial resources. additionally, plans are now underway to train agency staff to use all or parts of the curriculum for client education.
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The allstate foundation sponsored a program at the rutgers school of social Work (for domestic Violence Victims, n.d.) to train social workers in teaching financial literacy to domestic violence survivors. social work educators are taking on an important role in the training of students to work on financial literacy with clients. schools such as university of Michigan, university of southern California, university of illinois at urbana-Champaign, university of Missouri, university of Maryland, and others have programs and projects designed to teach social workers to help their clients gain financial empowerment. but before jumping on the bandwagon of advocating for economic literacy, lets go back to the definition of economic justice, especially the part that focuses on participation. People need jobs to participate and obstacles, such as discrimination, that interfere with participation cannot be tolerated. We must remain concerned about social justice in order to obtain even the beginnings of economic justice. similarly, gross economic inequalities need to be examined in the context of economic distribution, limitations, and harmony. We need to be wary that the attention to economic literacy does not become yet another attempt to blame the victims of a social and economic system that is not inclusive. finally, we need to view poverty not solely as a statistic but as a very real situation where families suffer from poor nutrition, inadequate housing, and limited access to quality health care. We can thank the occupiers for bringing media attention to many of these issues, but it is for us to do the work of integrating social and economic justice for the individuals and families that we serve. References
Center for economic and social Justice. (2011). Defining economic and social justice. retrieved from http://www.cesj.org/ thirdway/economicjustice-defined.htm Congressional budget office. (2010). average federal taxes by income group. retrieved from http://www.cbo.gov/ publications/collections/collections.cfm?collect=13 Cook, b. J., & Cordova, d. i. (2007). Minorities in higher education: Twentysecond annual status report: 2007 supplement. Washington, dC: american Council on education. retrieved from http://www.acenet.edu/aM/template.cfm?section=sea rch&section=Publications2&template=/CM/Contentdisplay. cfm&Contentfileid=3493 fessler, P. (2011, september 13). Census: 2010 saw poverty rate increase, income drop. National Public Radio. retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/09/13/140438725/census-2010-sawpoverty-rate-increase-income-drop for domestic violence victims, a little financial literacy goes a long way [Press release]. (n.d.). retrieved from http://news.rutgers. edu/medrel/research/for-domestic-violenc-20100719 national association of social Workers. (2008). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers [revised]. retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp u. s. Census bureau. (2011). income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the united states: 2010. retrieved from http:// www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/ cb11-157.html