Wait! Why do we actually NEED to end poverty?

Question

Why end poverty?

What's wrong with poverty? Why does it need to end? Without poverty would we know what a decent, successful living looks like? I see no moral dilemna here. I respect poverty! It's a brutal frame of reference that helps me to realize what a great situation I really am in.
Giving money means satisfying empty bellies, and when these bellies are full, what's the next thing a human needs? Sex! That's right, sex. And then there's a good chance after that is performed another empty bellied creature is born. Thus, the perpetual cycle never ends as we give more money.

Leave poverty alone! Let it be free! Let it exist! Stop trying to end poverty. It's not a disease. It's a solution

Answer 1

YOU ARE SO RIGHT!

Poverty is an essential incentive to industry.

It also furnishes all the candidates for paradise.
Jesus said : "It is easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven".
Jesus said : "Blessed are the poor in heart, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus said : "The poor are with you always."

ERADICATE POVERTY AND YOU KNOCK THE BOTTOM OUT OF CHRISTIANITY!

Answer 2

There can be no dark with out light, there can be no peace without war, and there can be no plenty without famine... The fact is that you are applying a hypothetical frame to a world that lives and dies on realities. I was once the mother of two small daughters living in an urban area working at a food service job for about 20k per year, with a six hundred dollar a month mortgage payment. You do the math. Oh yeah, before you start that calculation add in health insurance for three people, food, the care and upkeep of a very old car, heating bills for a New York state winter, care and upkeep for an aging city home with a gas fired boiler and a brick chimney, and the cost of a chicken ( about 1.69 cent a pound in 1990 in my neck of the woods) I escaped desperate American poverty thanks to an education I will be paying for the rest of my life and the fact that my kids grew up. Can you imagine a place where there is no way out??? Where education, even if it were available would not solve your problem??? A place where the only thing your children could look forward to was a life of starvation and disease??? What is wrong with you??? Do you think that everywhere on the planet is like the US??? There are places where there is no way out. Places where the indigenous population is harassed and abused by local warlords, global politics and economics or by a misdirected nationalism. Where people lose their place, their home. Where there are refugees, people forced from their homes... Where there will only be another generation of starvation. Are you so shortsighted to believe that the opportunities afforded you are afforded everyone. What would you do if you were faced by a man with a gun at your front door? Where would you go if your mate put your belonging on the front stoop and that meant you had NO ( and I mean no mother to go home to..) where would you go??? Think of it… your belongings on the front stoop… for all your neighbors to see, to know you were cast out?? Where would you go??? What would you do??? And could you do it wearing a burka?? You are in the top 1 or 2 percent on the planet!!! You live like a king compared to the masses in poverty or war torn areas, and almost all of the women of undeveloped Middle Eastern and African areas. Wake Up!!! It is not a hypothetical- it is life and death for real people. Poverty may be a matter of choice in the US but it is not a matter of choice for many many women and children around the world. Shame on you…

Answer 3

It's all about the "haves" and the "have nots". Everyone knows that we can never rid the world of "have nots". Someone will always have more than someone else, so the "haves" need a way to rid themselves of guilt.

If a "have" gives a few crumbs to the "have nots" they then have the right to say "I did what I could, so the rest is your fault" and therefore it's now OK for them to "have". In reality they did diddly squat but in the social realm of things they are now a better person than you.

It's like the "walk-for-a-cure" thing. It goes like this:
1) A "socially responsible person" solicits donations from other people.
2) The "socially responsible people" get together and pool their gotten monies.
3) They party for a day, parade through the streets, pat each other on the back and complement each other on what great people they are.
4) They go home and sleep well knowing that they did their part and are the better people.
5) Oh yeah, they give what's left over from the party to research whatever it was they were partying for. (Hopefully it wont be enough and they can do it again next year.)

Now they could have simply sent in $50 of their own money but... Why should they use their own money? Who would know how great they are if they don't parade though the street? Not to mention, they would miss the party and free food!

Answer 4

I suppose this works if you aren't lying on a mat in Chad covered in flies wondering how much longer you will actually live...instead of typing a question on Yahoo Answers.

Perhaps we need to redefine what we want to end...poverty might be too open ended for you...let's just say we want to put an end to human starvation and the ills associated with it. We can still let this people be materially poor, so the guys with the Lexus, etc. can still feel good about their possessions, but let's at least have the human decency to provide food, medicine, and hope to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Sadly, I think poverty is a condition that will prevail in human society for a very long time. We certainly don't have to go to Chad to see it. Lots of places in the Appalachians, the Mississippi Delta and every inner city in this country have plenty of poverty to go around.

Answer 5

Poverty is the lack of basic survival needs. The reason why this poverty exists is not overpopulation. The reason is bad resource management.

You cannot fight poverty by handing over money for free. The solution is to teach these people how to get their own water and how to make their own nets. Those people in poverty need to learn how to work together to meet a common goal.

A world can exist without poverty. This world can exist and still have a competition for the "better life." I do not consider a family that has all it needs to survive in a state of poverty.

Answer 6

I'd guess that very few people who will actually read this have experienced the type of poverty that Bono is rallying against, therefore it's really hard for us to comprehend. Being that as it is I had previously imagined that a person in my circumstance (not starving) had two options, a) Sit around feeling guilty b) do something about it. Which is a gigantic task, completely overwhelming, I liked this question for the sole reason that it gives us all a third option c) revel in the wondrousness of not being poor and starving and generally not give a rats ***. Thanks for the shift in paradime, it's so freeing. I think I might go deal crack to school children cuz 'what's wrong with that?' also I'm totally not going to recycle anymore because it's so eeeew

Answer 7

Well it is very easy for you to say that poverty shouldn't end. Of course the commodities of a nice house, and a nice neighborhood and ignorance can only lead to such thinking. And of course I cannot pretend for you to understand poverty. It would be like scolding a person who's never known Christ because that person acts how he/she should act, but again I cannot pretend for you to understand this either.
But let me tell you something, the day (and hopefully this will never happen or else you'd die) you find yourself homeless with no money, wondering what trash can are you going to go through today to find your next meal, you'll remember these words and feel sorry for yourself.
I wish there weren't any poverty because it would end many sufferings. You see being poor is not just about having nothing to eat, its about having diseases that could be easily cured if the money was available, it is having to go days on end without showering, without doing your necessities in a decent bathroom. It is having your intestines filled with parasites eating you away.
But guessing from your question I gather you wouldn't know anything about this.
It is about having a baby and not having any food to feed it. (Yes i know, why have a baby when you are poor right?)
It is about not having the proper education to know you shouldn't have children unless you are prepared to bring them into the world with opportunities for a better life.
It is about living with the constant fear that your zinc roofed carton house might fall apart any minute, or might be flooded at any point.
But it would be very foolish of me to think that poverty will ever end. When there exists people out there who can say such a thing as "let poverty exist".
So dear friend, I really hope you never have to suffer the misfortunes of being poor. I will pray for you.
Now listen to this. The good thing about the poor is that they learn to appreciate heavenly gifts like Jesus Christ better than the rich or medium to high class do. They are the ones who will enjoy the eternal rewards because there is nothing material holding them back in this world. They are blessed!

May God have mercy on your soul dear friend,
In Christ,
Rita M.

Answer 8

Poverty Bono is trying to help end is the cycle of life. Death in this case. But we end Poverty a.k.a Death in 9,000 Africans a day, then we need to help them build democratic governments like ours. Empower the people to create their own strong economies and good jobs. It never ends. Once poverty is measureably controlled, then the something else will be on the minds of celebrities like Bono and the rest of the world. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing really. It seems to be more a good thing.

Answer 9

The reason you NEED to end poverty is because hundreds of thousands are dying from it. Little kids are getting diseases from drinking dirty water and digging through dumps for food and dying every single day. No one else can help them but those who have the money to do so. I'm sure if you were put in the same situation as them, you wouldn't be saying what you just said. You should go to Niger, Darfur, Congo, Colombia and Asia. See it with your own eyes and then tell me if you feel the same. No one deserves to live in poverty and I think it's sad that you feel that way about this issue.

Answer 10

Because people with a heart that care, want to help. If you were in such a situation, would u appreciate someone talking nonsense. You have it the other way around, it is a disease. Ending poverty is not only solved by giving money, but educating them.

HAVE U TAKEN A TRIP TO KENYA, AFRICA AND SEEN WITH YOUR OWN EYES THE POVERTY LEVEL? WELL I HAVE.
AND THOSE INNOCENT CHILDREN STARVING AND BEING RAPED EVERYDAY IS NOT A SOLUTION.
WHY DON'T YOU TRY THAT LIFE FOR A DAY?????

i really want to hear from you.

Answer 11

that’s one the stupidest, most retarded, idiotic things you’ve ever written in your life. poverty is a bad thing, not a good thing, but you’re obviously too ignorant to realize that. it might be good for someone whose been a terrible person whose done terrible things to suffer for a while in some way, but poverty and a lack of money is more bad than good. one of the reasons christianity is so harmful is because it’s spews out nonsense such as how people should be poor and miserable when yet that shouldn’t be the case. as for jesus, even if jesus lived like that, it couldn’t have bothered him that much if he was a supernatural being with supernatural powers, as he could’ve easily remained healthy and capable of doing things that no other human could do all throughout his adulthood, such as being able to teleport anywhere in the world and be rich in a day by turning rocks into chunks of 24-karat gold and then selling them for huge amounts of money and then live it up, and jesus could’ve been doing that during his 20s as there seems to be no mention of his life during his 20s, and he could’ve by his 30s when he started preaching, been a hypocrite by telling people not to do this and not to do that when yet surely jesus would’ve experienced the harmless pleasures and joys in life that christians call “sinful” even though they are not “sinful” at all. if you yourself were suffering and living in poverty like some people in this world have done, you wouldn’t be typing up the nonsense that you typed up in this posted question, and if you have kids, I’m sure you wouldn’t want them living like that either, and if they nor you would deserve that, then perhaps no one deserves to live like that. The world would be a better place if there wasn’t any forced poverty in it at all, where if it existed, it would be nothing more than by choice and where it’s temporary, and where they could go back living a good life with enough wealth, happiness, and prosperity at any time. if everyone had enough money to be able to enjoy their lives and do the things they want to do in life, the world would be a better place.