Why are western people less concerned about global wealth imbalance, its historical and present causes?

Question

Historical causes of poverty particulalry in Africa include slavery, colonialism and present day unfair trade terms! In view of this, Africa depends on the concious of the west to overcome poverty. Despite horrible TV images of absolute misery, people don't act to change the world, why is it like this? If TV images can't make the worlds citizens to act, what will make western governments to be responsible and bring about fair international trade, regulation of multinational companies and lending institutions? What will it take for the majority to start being human with compassion for others? The world has taken long to move through histroy and reach present civilisation status mostly due to illiteracy and poor communication in the past, but with this generation, education and easy communication is expected to bring about happiness for all people with equal opportunities and access to health and education. To achieve this, peoples of the world should act, why are we not acting?

Answer 1

why is it the rest of the world has millennial of history we have 200 years yet they want us to share they had 20 times more to develop than we why don't they share their wealth and resources

Answer 2

People in the western world are less aware or concerned about the poverty that is rampant through most of the rest of the world for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, the sheer prosperity in the western world, particularly the US, insulates most of their citizens from the harsh realities that so many more people around the world have to endure. Also, in the case of the US, it is a country that is physically isolated from the poorest regions of the world.

Secondly, there are cultural assumptions and taboos that make it less likely for people in the West to learn about the economic and social injustices that exist around the world. One of these is the myth of the individual starting out at the bottom and rising to the top: while there are instances where someone has risen from poverty to great success; the simple fact is most people that rise to the top were born pretty well close to the top already. Access to adequate education and employment is greatly reduced among the poor. This also relates to the taboo, particularly in the US, against acknowledging the reality of class differences and the struggle between classes. The poor, when they are acknowledged at all, are blamed for their hardship, and most efforts to assist them are considered futile and subesequently funding for such programs is cut. By contrast, the 5% of Americans that own 95% of the wealth of the nation live in a world of such elegance and prosperity that not only would most Americans not recognize it, but most people around the world would think the wealthy were aliens from another planet. Nonetheless, consensus is manufactured through the media among the general voting populace to support policies that favor this "aristocracy" and its corporate underpinnings.

This leads to our next reason why the West is less concerned about conditions in the so-called "Third World:" the media. The fact is people in the West, specifically the US, do not really know much, if anything, about the outside world, because the corporate media has no interest in maintaining reporters in obscure, far-removed countries to cover stories that either reveal how corporate interests are actively working to keep the impoverished regions of the world oppressed and exploitable or that most viewers simply aren't all that interested in anyway.

What the West has yet to learn is that access to adequate education and employment anywhere and everywhere in the world IS a national security issue. People that have good jobs and good homes are usually too busy enjoying their lives to take up the arms of war.

Answer 3

Because quite simply it's not a problem until it begins to affect us in such ways as competing with emerging countries for natural resources that drive the prices up, then we care.

We are killing this planet and unless a minimum of 20% reduction of world population within next 20 years this Earth will not be inhabitable as soon as next 100 years.

Answer 4

The people in first world countries are the ones benefitting from the imbalance. This means money and power - which most people are less keen on sharing when they get more of it. Sad, but true.

Answer 5

Because we have money - other people don't. The issue of proverty is only an issue when it directly effects us.
Its called selfihness.