Social and economic factors

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About

Social and economic factors influence the choices and opportunities available in a community. Economic factors include which jobs and benefits are available and to whom, and whether education, health insurance and child care are accessible and affordable. Social factors enable connection and inclusion within and between communities and include social safety net and other support.

Relationship to health and equity

Social and economic conditions are a primary determinant of health and well-being. For example, a living wage shapes opportunities for education, child care, wealth creation, food and medical care. All these factors are linked to length and quality of life. Strategies to improve these factors can have a greater impact on health than strategies that target individual behaviors.

Relationship to systems and structures

Elected officials and leaders of community and economic development agencies, health departments and other governmental services can create opportunities for all communities to thrive. However, some decisions have created advantages for a few and disadvantages for many. For example, the criminal legal system has created social and economic barriers for formerly incarcerated people. Decisions by elected officials to create additional written and unwritten rules about where and when formerly incarcerated people can work, such as denying housing and jobs to people with a criminal background, create a cycle of poverty and recidivism. These rules disproportionately target communities of color and native communities, people with lower incomes, those with mental health and substance use issues and trans people.

People can work together to advocate and create opportunities for positive social and economic conditions. In the 1910’s, people organized and advocated for laws to establish maximum working hours, implement workers' compensation for workplace injuries and regulate child labor, all of which significantly improved lives and opportunities. These changes resulted from people organizing for change and elected officials responding to the agitation to pass laws.

Current social and economic conditions result from many years of those wielding power to establish and reestablish political control, economic exploitation and cultural imposition. In the case of the criminal legal system, there is a long history of control via law enforcement, starting with the origins of policing in the slave patrols of early 1700’s. The impacts of actions to shape social and economic conditions are profound and lasting, contributing to unnecessary and harmful inequities.

Additional Reading

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