are we responsible for poverty around the world?

Question

take a look.
Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

Answer 1

Wow! You've asked an potentially explosive questions, as evidenced by the range of answers already given.

My own view is this is not an easy question to answer. I don't agree with the person who says that rich nations are totally at fault. Government and business leaders have siphoned off aid that flows into their countries, enriching themselves at the expense of their fellow countrymen.

At the same time, I don't agree that we can simply step up our donations to these countries. I read last week that the fastest growing industry in Tanzania is the grant-seeking agencies. Well educated people are working on writing grants to get money rather than actually becoming doctors or becoming good public servants!

So, to make a long story short, I think we need to think and disucuss these issues very carefully. The current approach is not working and we need to think of ways to make it better.

Answer 2

Lovely speech, but who is 'we' in your question? Also, giving ALL of the facts (instead of just the ones you agree with) will give you legitimacy, rather than being (as Stalin once used) a 'Useful Idiot' who repeats someone else's arguments without checking the facts.

You fail to mention in your list (which, by the way, you give no reference to where these numbers can be verified, thereby rendering them useless) what the countries these people are living in are doing to alleviate their suffering. Are they enriching the top levels of government at the expense of the poor people you claim to care so much about? One doesn't have to look far for examples: Saddam Hussein spent billions of dollars on palaces and memorials to himself (I've seen them over here) while letting the infrastructure decay and the common people starve.
Yassir Arafat squandored tens of millions of dollars in aid money sent to help the Palestinians, while watching them starve.
Pick any one of the nations in Africa where inflation is running into triple or quadrple digits and you see the same thing happening there.
Corrupt or ineffective governments are also to blame, otherwise Mexico, Nigeria, and Argentina (with their vast oil reserves) would be three of the richest nations on earth.

The one fact that you omit to mention is that most of the places that have this crippling poverty are dictatorships and nations that practice the failed Socialist practices that have NEVER worked EVER.

When you're ready to actually change things for the better and actually DO something to change the situation in these countries, and not just pour more and more money into a failed system, THAT is when you will see poverty and illiteracy vanish.

Answer 3

How exactly do we measure happiness on a cultural and social scale? I'd say the current measurements (GDP, poverty, and materialistic accumulation) aren’t doing a good measurement.

The challenge is coming to an agreement of "What lifestyle is good." Yes, we all want to be healthy, wealthy, and pursue our happiness. What if the janitor who earns $35.00 day has a better life style and happiness level than an accountant who earns $160 day? Objectification of the bank accounts isn’t always a true measure of happiness.

Working into Globalization corporations like Coca-Cola is facing challenging opposition from the locals because their corporation is changing their life style, beliefs, and ecology. However, Coca-Cola is creating jobs, which raises the payment to those working at this company. Roads are being made ... but still people are fighting to stay out of corporate life styles. (Sounds like small towns in USA against Wal-Mart, yes?)

There are many charitable foundations that are getting "Small Pox" vaccinations to the humans who are not of corporate America (deep in South America) ... and they're doing so because if they poor get sick we all get sick. However, these cultures too are "rejecting" corporate life. Still, credit is do to the foundations that reach out to decrease the mortality level in non-corporate communities.

However, what should be given attention is finding ways to even opportunities by banishing genocide and equal resources to pandemics like Aids or the Bird Flue. The common ground is health and environmental balance. Out side of this, who's to say who's poor when it's the level of happiness, which is important?

Answer 4

Greed is responsible for some of the poverty. And, in as much as we are greedy people in general, yes, we are responsible for some of it.
If we didn't feel the need for 25 pair of shoes, then the folks in factories in China might not be working 358 days a year with one week off to see their families - living in dormitories that are like barracks above the factories in heat so bad they literally die sometimes - and when they do, their families send another member to take their place, so they can make that less than $2 a day to send home. It's this way in a lot of the factories in the poorer nations, and they live this way to feed our greed for more. More shoes, more clothes, more computers... yes, I understand I am on one right now. I wish I were not on one made in an underdeveloped nation by people who are practically slaves. I wish we made things here in the states.. that companies would open factories in areas of our own country where good people need good work.
So, what do we do?
We, in our home, give 5% of our after tax income to charity, and I mean charities like Doctors without Borders and other such groups that have excellent ratios of dollars given to dollars used directly for charity work.
I call this my luxury tax. My penalty for being greedy.
We skip eating out and movies to make this happen.

Answer 5

You know that kid who has real bad grades in your class,
maybe even had to repeat a year?
Are you responsible for him?

I mean you could have taken the time to sit down and explain things to him. But you didn't. Does that make you selfish?

Or take that dude panhandling on the corner. Have you done anything to help him get a job? Maybe teach him to use a PC? Help him make a resume? Buy him some decent-looking clothes?

Answer 6

Staggering statistics.

Shocking, horrific, terrifying, disgusting, wrong, immoral, sick, twisted, ridiculous, pathetic.

Problem is, how do we get EVERYONE to contribute?

I sponsor a child and try everyday to do at least one kind selfless thing for someone, even if its just opening the door for an old lady.

If EVERYONE did ONE THING to help, poverty would be gone. The government should make it the law!

Its horrific, I dont know the answer to your question, I dont think anyone does.... we arent directly responsible but we are responsible for being selfish and too involved in our own worlds to help people who need it.

If you think if a solution, email me, (I have one good idea!) we can take on the world and fight it!

Answer 7

I,m not sure who you mean as we. I'm not personally responsible for poverty anywhere. You can't force your help on everyone, some don't want help. take a good look at Iraq.

Answer 8

the richer nations are to blame and should be helping these people,instead of spending millions of dollars on arms,some of the revenue should go to help these people