Why Apple should fight childhood hunger and poverty

This is a discussion post that I completed on 2018-01-11 for the class, EDF 6855: Factors Affecting Equitable Educational Opportunity and Life Chances: A Cross-National Analysis, taught by Judit Szente, Ph.D. at University of Central Florida.

Please reflect on the possible cause and effect of a specific issue and how it affects children’s life chances (e.g., reasons of poverty and hunger, effects of poverty and hunger, how poverty and/or hunger may affect children’s life chances).

The UNICEF (2016) chapter on children and poverty repeated emphasizes the need for multidimensional measurement of child poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, even a household making more than 5.00 USD per day may still be poor in terms of their access to education, sanitation, electricity, et cetera. Infrastructure and access is critical to combating child hunger and poverty. For instance, many Chinese rural–urban migrants are denied access to education and other services in their new cities of residence (UNICEF, 2016), meaning their children are still experiencing poverty on many critical dimensions.

Last month (December 2017), I visited family in Shenyang, Liaoning, China for three weeks, which included a 10-day road trip visiting many tourist sites such as the Great Wall, Beijing Palace Museum, Yellow River, Longmen Grottoes, and Terracotta Army. Although the opportunity to visit such tourist sites is restricted to the relatively wealthy, with admission fees ranging from 50–150 RMB (7.50–22.50 USD) plus costs of travel, around such sites it was clear that many sellers of fruit, trinkets, and “tour guide” services are poor or at least struggling. At the Yellow River (Hukou Falls), a woman trying to sell a bag of a dozen apples for 10 RMB (1.5 USD) followed us. Although my family protested, I tried giving her one USD as a gift, but due to the language barrier, she placed the apples in the trunk of our car and accepted the dollar bill as payment. I felt bad, but my family assured me that at 10 RMB she was over-charging compared to other apple sellers and that one USD (6.5 RMB) was sufficient. Regardless, it is clear that many of these sellers are part of the “informal” economy (UNICEF, 2016), along with the associated disadvantages. Occasionally, I would even see children working with their parents to sell fruit or package incense sticks—time the children could be using to complete homework or play with friends. Although children may enjoy selling items, for poor families, child labor often becomes a necessity that inhibits educational progress and subsequent life chances. In fact, a recent longitudinal study of poor U.S. children showed a lack of brain and cognitive development stemming from poor nutrition and lack of cognitive stimulation (Hair, Hanson, Wolfe, & Pollak, 2015). Poverty is more likely to persist across generations when from an early age, poor children are malnourished and suffer wasting, stunting, rickets, and other maladies and disadvantages.

The United Nations (2017) first two Sustainable Development Goals focus on ending extreme poverty and malnutrition by 2030. These ambitious targets are unlikely, yet their promulgation stimulates public interest and support. However, they are simultaneously quite restrained. Individuals making more than 1.25 USD per day are not considered “extremely” poor, yet over a billion of them are actually still quite poor (UNICEF, 2006). While we often look to governments and NGOs to fight childhood hunger and poverty, it can easily be argued that corporate citizens should also play their part. Yesterday (January 17, 2018), Apple Inc. announced it will be repatriating its vast overseas cash hoard under the newly reduced U.S. tax rates. Their press release says they will pay $38 billion in tax, which means at the new 15.5% rate they will bring $250 billion home—a massive, almost incomprehensible sum. Sadly, in their press release, there is no mention of hunger or poverty. The only mention of education is computer programming (“coding”) and science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) in the US. While many excuse public corporations from charitable responsibilities due to the supposedly preeminent responsibility to provide maximum profits to their shareholders, this may be misguided or even ridiculous. In China, iPhones have a following despite being more expensive than in the US when considering exchange rates—and several times more pricey when considering relative wages. Arguably, Apple should be investing heavily in Sub-Saharan Africa for future profitability via sales there. However, chasing inflated quarterly earnings and higher stock valuations in the short-term often inhibits corporations from long-range planning—such as developing the South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa markets by confronting childhood hunger and poverty head-on.

References

Apple Inc. (2018, January 17). Apple accelerates US investment and job creation [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-accelerates-us-investment-and-job-creation/

Hair, N. L., Hanson, J. L., Wolfe, B. L., & Pollak, S. D. (2015). Association of child poverty, brain development, and academic achievement. JAMA Pediatrics, 169, 822–829. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1475

UNICEF. (2016). The state of the world’s children 2016: A fair chance for every child. New York, NY: UNICEF. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_91711.html

United Nations. (2017). Sustainable Development Goals: 17 goals to transform our world. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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