Poverty

 

Why Poverty Bothers Me

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”  

-Mahatma Gandhi

 

I joke that third-world countries produce the best handy-men because they are always having to fix the latest break with limited resources. The final product is normally so broken that it actually somehow works!

But I think we all know quite  well that this is not the most sustainable or profitable method. Simply the technological revolution of the last 50 years has shown the positive effects of a strategically designed and structured system. The key to the functionality of these technological innovations is the relationship between the parts. When one part breaks, we have to fix it before the whole can work again. But when everything is coordinated, the system is extremely functional.

So why, when we have the resources and intelligence to create a strong and functional global system, do we allow blaring broken aspects of the system to persist?

While this theme is pervasive in issues such as climate change, social and economic justice, and others, perhaps the most tangible example of this trend is the issue of poverty, both domestically and abroad. These are a few facts from the activist group, “DoSomething.org.”

1. Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live onless than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day.

2. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.

3. 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. Food banks are especially important in providing food for people that can’t afford it themselves.

4. More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.

5. In 2011, 165 million children under the age 5 were stunted (reduced rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition.

6. Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment.
7. As of 2013, 21.8 million children under 1 year of age worldwide had not received the three recommended doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

8. 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.6 billion people.

9. 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day.

10. Oxfam estimates that it would take $60 billion annually to end extreme global poverty–that’s less than 1/4 the income of the top 100 richest billionaires.

11. The World Food Programme says, “The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.” Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
    

    Lahu Hill Tribe Village, Thailand

 

 

 

 

 

In his book, “The End of Poverty,” Jeffrey Sachs made the estimate that a 20-year plan to end poverty would cost approximately $175 billion a year. This comes out to less than 1 percent of the annual GNP of the richest countries in the world. Now, the US is an incredibly wealthy country with an annual GNP of $14 trillion per year – more than a third of the total GNP of all the wealthy countries. We spend over $650 billion per year on defense alone, and repealing the Bush tax cuts for the super rich would raise about $370 billion. Bill Gates’ net worth alone, approximately $85 billion, is half the estimated amount to eradicate poverty in America. The issue is not a lack of money, but rather of skewed priorities.

I could bombard you with mind-blowing facts all day, and that’s exactly the point. Should the government decide to address this issue, I believe that it could be eradicated incredibly quickly. Unlike the issue of climate change, which has a much more blurry timeline, poverty is tangible and clear. The reason that it continues to exist is because it maximizes profit for the corporate executives. Poor, and therefore uneducated, people and countries are susceptible to incredible manipulation. For the people, this means cheap labor and for the countries, this means corruptible governments—the US’ favorite grounding for economic and military manipulation.

Perhaps it also represents a certain incentive for the rest of us – work hard, or else… Perhaps, some believe this is fate – that we will always have a spectrum of wealth and there will always be poverty. Or that the world is over-populated and when a natural disaster inevitably happens, it will take out the impoverished first. Maybe it is the fact that the more impoverished people are, the smaller their footprint is; 3 billion more people with quality lives means a significantly greater human footprint on the earth. These are all valid concerns, and I am guessing as much as anyone about what the future will look like.

I believe, however, that in this era, there is no justification for this type of devaluation of human life. Both morally and systematically, allowing humans to suffer from inhumane living conditions, inaccessible drinking water, and insufficient food, is just not useful for anyone.

Morally, this speaks for itself. It’s why I believe that everyone with the privilege to bear witness to this type of poverty should consider it part of their life’s curriculum to do so. I believe we are hard-wired to feel compassion, and first-hand experience of this level of suffering will inevitably tattoo our perception of privilege for the rest of our lives.

Systematically, too, this is not optimal.   Do we consider indentured servitude of the Dark Ages or American slavery of the 19^th century to be prosperous times in history?  The poverty of today, in my opinion, is institutional slavery of billions of people – perhaps the greatest mass incarceration in the history of the planet. And it’s costing us on every front. Strictly in terms of the future of the species, condemning massive amounts of people to lives strictly about survival, we are limiting our potential. Simply put, more horses, more horse-power. Our system can only be as strong as the amount of people powering it.

One of the most heart-melting realizations I have had is the nature of the battle against poverty. Coming home from Asia the first time, it seemed like my life was going to revolve around helping to terminate poverty. However, I realize that the battle I am facing here is not merely one to find the money and resources to address it. The battle is against a system that functions based on the perpetuation of poverty. The battle is not only against poverty, it is against the industries that profit from it. Realizing that the work of NGOs and other initiatives to end poverty is being drowned out by corporate interests is very disheartening. This type of work is digging little holes when the gold lies much deeper.

To me, there is only one point on the graph where wealth overlaps with happiness. That point is the basic line of sufficient resources for survival. It doesn’t mean that people can’t be happy below that line or suffer above it—just that all humans deserve the right to live for happiness, not only survival.

We are at a point in the evolutionary sequence where we are hybrids—part animals, part divine essence. Likewise, we are at a point of great global connection. The game of “survival of the fittest” has evolved with us—the influence that the ‘fittest’ have on the less ‘fit’ makes this a very different game than that of past humans and other animals. Keeping people impoverished to benefit our industries is very different from catching the most buffalo. We are not simply letting the unfit die, we are digging the holes in which to bury them.

Waking up to institutionalized poverty is a deeply internal journey. It stems from a basic heart-opening, a basic sense of humanity and responsibility to promote the same basic rights for all humans. Though it is a multi-faceted issue, our collective journey to address and end poverty begins from this basic realization. This is a willingness to acknowledge that each of our rights to life are directly related to the rights to life of all other humans. From here, the rest of the pieces will naturally fall into place.

See also:  From the World Food Programme — HUNGER – The World’s Greatest Solvable Problem