Discussions
Can anything be done about Poverty?
Posted by drjalee52 • 10/20/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: children, poverty
People are falling deep into poverty. Children are growing up under the worst conditions. What can be done?
User Comments
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Yes. Go to your local library where they have all sorts of books (for free) on how to not be poor. I read about 40 of them. 36 of them repeated what the top 4 said, so reading them all was not that hard. Then, I applied what I learned. It worked. I am proof!-
So we know that if the person living in poverty has been raised with enough initiative and hope to understand that it's possible to go out and find sources and make a positive change in his own life, and if he is literate enough to read those books, and if he has the intelligence and analytical skills necessary to glean what is important from those books, and he has any context which allows him to understand and work toward long-term goals, then it's possible for that individual. That's good, but it's far different from claiming that poverty can be "solved". -
We need more educational programs that promote self-help. Is how many people before this post have you shared this information? Great point...
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Dear Madame, you refer to our case study as "him and he." Many people in deep poverty are women with kids and no real husband. However, excellent point. How can we help?
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so, if the children can't read, how will the get-rich-quick books help them? -
Madame X needs to lift her sights. It only takes one person out of several to read those books in the free library to have an effect on countless others around them. There are even picture books for those that don't read. One of the most elementary that comes to mind is the Three Little Pigs where management of ones assets is highlighted in easily understandable cartoons. Aesop's Grasshopper and the Ant is another good one highlighting an earnest work ethic over a philosophy of recreation. Even Hansel and Gretel shows how dangerously tempting it is to become dependent upon a "governmental" source promising the magic elixir of goodies.
These stories doesn't require intensive literary skill, but certainly with more literary skill, so comes more complex advice. The cycle of poverty is severed with education, which through charity, is shared generously to those who seek it. Hope that helps. -
Dani, I agree that one person can have an impact on many others--which is precisely what I was talking about when I suggested that this kind of opportunity is only open to those who have some reason to believe that it exists and that change is possible. After a couple of decades of working, in various capacities, with people in poverty, victims of abuse, the disabled and people facing a host of other challenges, I have come to believe that that is the single most important factor in whether or not a person is able to bring about positive change in his or her own life.
I congratulate you on the change that you made, but please don't make the mistake so many other people who have made it out of poverty have and get smug about it or delude yourself into believing that the same opportunities are available to everyone. The simple fact that you sought it out means that you had something in your life that many (perhaps even most) people living in poverty do not: the concept of possibility.
I've "lifted my sights" by putting in thousands of hours of volunteer time providing legal assistance, assistance in obtaining transitional benefits and housing, assisting with vocational training, creating resumes, networking with local businesses to find job opportunities for people trying to get off of public assistance and recently released prisoners, setting up a telephone number that people without phone service could use for job applications and then driving around to deliver messages on a daily basis, providing transportation to interview and caring for people's children while they were interviewing and during the first few weeks of work to give them the opportunity to find child care, creating community education materials which were written at a third grade level and distributed for free, and conducting regular outreach in public housing, homeless shelters and crisis centers. And you? -
Very well said, Madame. There are some people in the world who only need to learn some time and money management skills to improve their situation. But the vast majority of people living in poverty are in a far more complex situation.
Volunteerism and education are only two weapons in the the fight against poverty. -
@MadameX: That's part of the reason why we need to bring more industry in to the cities. I've lived in two major cities, Seattle and Atlanta. In Atlanta, you have a urban core with a bunch of skycrapers, a couple other skyscraper areas to the North, and vast areas of rundown urban dump. In that urban dump, there can be no possbility. In Seattle, you drive up from the Airport in to the City on I-5 or SR-99 and you see the most beautiful, inspiring vision ever: steel mills, concrete plants, shipyards and warehouses and railyards, and in the distance, the city, starting with the ballfields, rising out of it.
This isn't really about aesthetics. Rather, it's about the kind of city you build when there is opportunity out and among. The possibility of education creating prosperity is limited by everything from intelligence to the actual (non-limitless) demand for educated work. It is only an indicator of wealth because it is scarce - the minute it becomes abundant, you're left at square 1 with nothing to show for it in this regard. Industry actually can create indefinite gains for the poor and working class by high profit margins per worker and the normal effect of scarcity on a market.
It should not surprise anyone that one of these societies has a far more hopeful, upwardly mobile, law-abiding populace then the other.
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Go back to 1913, repeal the federal reserve system.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7065177340464808778#-
Why would we do that? Is it the gold standard? Will this reduce poverty? What about the helpless children, cold, hungry and lost. Sorry for being so dramatic but how will this help Harvey?
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In a fiat debt based money system, ceteris paribus, inflation increases nechanically at a geometric rate. Thomas Jefferson new this: " I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
In fact, the emigration of masses of Brits to the new world was in large part the delayed result of the control on the issuance of money by private bankers in 1694.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936# -
Well said Harvey. People can blame whoever they want for poverty, but when you have the Federal Reserve driving prices up through the excess printing of money, the people become poorer. Once upon a time, mothers could stay home with their children, and only the husband work and they were a middle class family.
Now-a-days, if the wife tries to stay at home they will live in poverty (unless the man is CEO of some corporation or other high paying job). -
Harvey, how would you explain the massive poverty from before 1913?
Faithful, your said: "Now-a-days, if the wife tries to stay at home they will live in poverty (unless the man is CEO of some corporation or other high paying job)." It's extremely simplistic to blame that on one cause. Another major reason we see so many two-income families is materialism. We have more and better products marketed to us each year than previous generations saw their entire lives. And because these things are more cheaply made, we throw them out and replace them more frequently than ever.
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Any place where there are mostly desperately poor people there can be found a government run by corrupt individuals.
Find a way to prevent this, and 9/10ths of problem is solved.-
Yes, government has a way of getting in the way. What should the private sector do? Moreover, what can the average person do?
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Eliminate money-
We had a discussion regarding that same point. In the future i.e. Star Trek, there is no money. But, what now? All these poor kids. Poverty passes down from one generation to the next. People in poverty generally have more kids than people who are not impoverished. What can be done?
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unfortunately, all non-radical solutions seem to have to be done incrementally, such that it may be hard to notice any change occurring. Perhaps this has been the case with so many programs that have been abandoned
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Money is just a score-keeper for labor. If you rule out labor, you have not eradicated poverty. It's hard to remember, a lack of money is not necessarily poverty. And an abundance of it is not necessarily wealth. I know plenty of monied people who are more poverty stricken than homeless people. Often their lives end with suicide, which, in the big accounting, is no greater or less a death than one by starvation from a lack of money with which to buy food or health care. The answer, in my humble opinion, is in seeing outside the box. Inherent in that is becoming educated - not necessarily formally, either. Kudo's for the question. Very interesting insights from all.
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@dr
no money, no concept of poverty. How can they be called something that does not exist?
If there is no money men who previously had lots of money are suddenly freed from the pursuit of money. Everyone they meet is their equal. They will see humans instead of mere workers, colleagues, etc
Man needs to keep busy. Let everyone get busy uplifting the poverted conditions around the globe
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Yes if they want to take the initiative to change by finding and using the resources available to them to lift themselves out of poverty. look at Napolean Hill he is only one of many more that was born into poverty and still took the initiative and changed his life. This also reminds me of Chris Gardner the guy Will Smith played in "Pursuit of Happiness" He was Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Paul Gardner’s childhood was marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy, He did what he needed to do! So I agree with DaniG that if you are talking about here in the USA...we all have the opportunity to overcome!-
Chris Gardner was by all accounts a genius. What is to become of unfortunate people who are not? o_0
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These are excellent ideas. We need to look at new models to provide a sink or swim attitude. Again, many of the people most adversely impacted are children. If 1 in 6 are in poverty, what happens when it gets worst,2 in 5 is unacceptable. Now you are talking 60 million people. Then what?
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My belief is in a free country there will always be poverty because everyone has the freedom to succeed or fail. And some people are just not willing to pay the price of success. I believe to try and keep trying is the greatest of all virtues.
If you are looking for an excuse to fail you can always find one. It is all about focus, sure, there can be a reason to fail but It should never ones focus like I see plenty of today, too many people expect life to give them a bowl of cherries.
However, the economic problems we have today are the result of big government and the welfare state in my opinion.-
what were such problems caused by before there was a welfare state?
...say, pre-1900? -
Strong points that are well made, yet the 3 year old kids are living in book-less home and worst,no Internet nor computers. People are getting left behind at lighting speed. How does one address this problem?
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Eat the rich!-
Be careful, you never know what is next on the menu?
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I volunteer for a not-for-profit organization, since 2007 and I help a lot of uneducated woman and men living in poverty become educated because they want a better life. I also work with very educated men and women that choose the street life and to live off the system, so go figure! It obviously boils down to mental health.
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but how does this relate to children?
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Unfortuately the poor children pay the price and then it all starts over.
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The vicious cycle of poverty is basic sociology. President Johnson had a war on poverty. These conditions set up The Dark Ages. The have vs. the have-nots will be a real problem. Do you think we can reduce the number so that there will be fewer children in poverty?
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at the expense of getting overly political, it can go in three directions; toward socialism, toward feudalism, or toward liberalism.
unfortunately special interests tend to favor one of the former two
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It can also go towards libertarianism.
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It is sad when people may care but the solution is hard to find. Dose anyone have any ideas what can be done to reduce some of these huge numbers?
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Of course. Half the science of Economics discusses that very question, and there are definitely treatments regardless of whether there is a cure. Personally, I think a combination of better welfare policy with a new WPA that adds to the share of production rather then merely taking from it and a deregulation of Americas cities that allows more heavy industry to be built in brownsfields would be a major improvement. Come out here to Bankhead, Atlanta, Ga and see the vast areas of nearly unused, decaying land along barely used railyards less then 2 miles from the city center and less then 2 miles from Interstate 75-85 that could easily provide income for several hundred families and tax revenues for schools, police et cetera. And all this without significantly raising the price of land, allowing these poor families to stay where they are. Unfortunately, most people (especially reasonably wealthy and middle-class) don't want to see such things built.
On the personal level, be giving, be kind, help those you know and DON'T RACK UP CREDIT CARD DEBT. Few things increase poverty in America more then the poisonous cocktail of artificial price inflation and employment instability from consumption bubbles and steeper recessions that accompanies a credit economy. The market pays you your appropriate wage for a reason, STAY IN IT.-
Excellent response.The world poverty levels are alarming. Perhaps the green movement may be the answer. The land is our greatest resource. We could create green companies on farms and teach people to generate useful products, such as food, minerals, and textiles. I am way off or getting warm...
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The Green jobs thing is kind of a sham because to create those "jobs," you will have to tax other industries to the gills eliminating far more jobs then you create. Also, you will end up creating inflation in critical sectors like water and farming, which hurts the poor more then anybody else, as we found out with Ethanol and food prices. In addition, land prices soar.
The likely end result: Los Angeles County, California, which has gone in under 2 decades from having among the biggest middle classes in America to having among the highest poverty to unemployment ratios in America.
California, statewide, is now among the most poverty and crime stricken, and least educated, states, but still has America's highest land values and transportation costs (living costs.) You can support it on the grounds of helping the environment (maybe) but make no mistake, there will be a huge cost to our poor (and probably middle class) if we pursue that route.
Still, thanks for responding. We'll get nowhere if we aren't honest with each other and even the worse answer in the world refines good answers by explanation. -
while i think that for the most part "green jobs" is a political ploy, California has greater problems than this. it was after all where anarcho-capitalism was first integrated into the structure of government in its approach to public services, under governor... oh what's his name... TV star... B movie actor... cowboy... Gipper... I forget his name.
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Could you explain further, Agit8r?
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Although it is difficult, at least it is possible for someone living in the U.S.A. to climb out of poverty...
The same cannot be said for over one billion Earthlings who live on less than one or two dollars a day...
This is a complex problem that has no instant magical solutions...-
I do not think we can eliminate poverty. However, the number of people, namely children, must be reduced. The question regarding the green movement makes some sense? What about Poverty Universities that are devoted to solving poverty through green technology?
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@drjalee: All that is needed to start a "Poverty University" is have a whole bunch of money and a few accredited researchers, who may or may not agree with your hypothesis and may or may not have reasons of their own for studying there. I can tell you, however, that part of the problem with these kind of institutions, and with technical people in general, is that they often are so lost within their narrow technical field that they can't really perceive the bigger picture.
If Green Technologies that do exist did what they said they did, why aren't they already in use as you have defined them as profitable? If they are looking for new technologies that are viable, why not use regular institutions like Georgia Tech, Caltech and MIT that would be more then happy to undertake the grant? The mere fact that you have to avoid establishment to do it makes me suspicious and demanding of an explanation.
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It is true that manufacturing creates dangers to the environment, i.e. cancer and lead in the soil and God only knows. China and some of the new industrial nations will set birth defects and other maladies in the future. If, The U.S can make products more safely, then we will all gain as a result, and reduce some poverty in the process. Of course this is wishful thinking. We need new thinking that dose not blame the victim. What new ideas dose anyone have to stop this before it hits ones family as well?
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May I remind you that Modern China has done more to reduce poverty in the last 20 years then any other country in the world. They went from having a massive majority (>> 90%) poverty rate to having a larger middle class then the United States in a fairly short amount of time. I'm not saying there aren't costs, but the costs work both ways. Generally, if you have less industrial production (the result of more regulation of this sort) you will have more poverty, but if you have less poverty you may have more pollution. It is a question of where you want to move the fastest. In the end, progress does occur, but the green movement isn't about accelerating progress, only slanting it. Accelerating progress occurs by emboldening and strenghtening individuals in their quest to make the world better.
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It's really a question of the "greater good" vs. the rights of the individual. In China the "greater good" means a lot of individuals losing their lives and limbs to industry
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@Agit8r: Interestingly though, you can also defend this argument from the individual standpoint by pointing out that those workers had a chance for a better life then the one they had before and, usually, did at least somewhat better monetarily.
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Also, they made the choice themselves.
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We can helping the poor people by alms. -
I wonder if we can provide more self-help programs that can better educate people in need. However, we need volunteers in order to safe money? Dose anyone have an idea?
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True enough, poverty has a way of distorting one's sense of priorities sometimes even eroding it. Living in subhuman conditions always boils down to simply a matter of survival. The immediacy of food and shelter first, before the comforts of cleanliness. Poverty is a serious problem. It needs to be recognized, addressed, and resolved. It is found everywhere. Every country has its percentage of low-income earners, but some countries have many more people living in unfortunate circumstances than others do. Poverty is an area of concern as it brings with it a host of problems within the country, as well as on a global scale.
The worst kind of poverty is when people cannot get food and therefore they are thin and weak and many starve to death. Unfortunately, this is still happening in many parts of the world. The gap between the world's rich and poor has never been wider. Malnutrition, conflict, disease, and illiteracy are a daily reality for millions.
But it isn't chance or bad luck that keeps people trapped in bitter, unrelenting poverty. It's man-made factors like a glaringly unjust global trade system, a debt burden so great that it suffocates any chance of recovery and insufficient and ineffective aid. It doesn't have to be this way though.-
You seem to really understand the scope of the problem. The question is: What can be done? Do you have a few ideas?
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World Poverty. True, many of the problems are man-made and it will take human empathy and much dedication and work to relieve some of the burdens. But another critical factor has to be realized. The reality of nature. Mother Earth can only sustain a given number of people for a given period of time. Harsh reality. Population WILL BE controlled. Whether the control is monitored by human endeavors and hopefully soften the impact, is yes, up to mankind. But only withing limits. Famine. Disease. Drought. Flooding. Species extinction. Nature is real. And savage.
No matter how carefully the food is divided and served, the number of people who can set at the banquet table of life here - on this planet - is limited.-
Question: What if one country throws away food more than another country will ever see. Is that nature? What if some one has all the money and just sits and dies i.e. Howard Hughes and failed to share the wealth? What about the Queen of Mean, gave millions to her dog after she died. Is that nature or nuts?
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@drjalee: The food is thrown away because it is cheap. It is cheap because it is abundant. The reason people are starving has nothing to do with shortage of food. It has to do with politics and the cold-hearted evil nature of man and especially African politicians with their genocidal tendencies.
@Rivy:
We're not even close to that level. Before the ethanol subsidies, farms throughout America were closing up for good because no one wanted to buy more food. Famines in the world today are happening because African countries are using Famine as a weapon of war. They are literally starving to death the people they don't like. Also, you've forgotten to consider that new technologies, like hydroponic farming and the use of industrial slag as fertilizer, may liberate us from many of the limitations we currently face.
Oh, and one last thing: population growth has not been exponential since 1950. The rate has been dropping off very rapidly, and many developed and former communist countries now have population decline.
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End globalization! That is what will make poverty worse.
For the record...I'm not anti-capitalist.
Love money...hate poverty!-
When people are educated and prosperous they can create wealth. Can we do a better job of educating people and reap the benifit?
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Education needs to be democratic (i.e. public schools) not priviledged (i.e. private/charter schools).
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excellent point Drjalee! People create wealth as individual units better than corporate units do
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@exit1023: On the flip side, you could subsidize the cost of private schools so the poor could afford them. I think that's what they do in China.
Also, globalization leads to the more efficient use of resources by preventing inefficient production and freeing up assets for more efficient production. Prices adjust, and with more supply on the market, the poor most of all benefit. On the pay side, when poor are employed in industries that create a higher profit margin per worker, as happens when globalization liquidates the less efficient, pay increases more before factories shut down. That's why manufacturing jobs end up creating more middle-class wealth then the service sector - even if momentarilly the national price for your particular level of labor is $9 an hour, at McDonalds you're only generating about a tiny amount more then that for the company, while at factory you're producing something like hundreds of dollars an hour for the company. That's the ceiling for how much you CAN be paid before your job is eliminated, setting the pay rate straight.
It is far more likely that poverty has increased because of a toxic combination of rampant NIMBYism leading to a real estate bubble from Hell, ethanol subsidies (and tariffs) driving up the price of food (some foods up to 200%), bad Healthcare regulation causing debt oddities, bad financial and energy policy limiting and destabilizing growth, underinvestment in utilities, and criminal activity in the inner city, not Globalization. -
Exit, even in the US public school system, where education is supposed to be equal, there are vast differences between school districts. This is partially based on inequities in taxes (though theoretically each state is supposed to nullify any inequities), but is also based on class inequities. For example, in one nearby city, many of the residents are ivy-league grads and high-powered executives living in unbelievable wealth; their children have exceptional teachers and vast educational resources. Three miles north, the school population is third or fourth generation low-class, with a very low parental graduation rate, let alone a higher education rate. This school district has trouble keeping qualified teachers.
Clearly, public education must be improved before it can be considered part of the solution to poverty.
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hi visited your blog great and nice work -
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"no" I am some what confused? No to what?
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Do what usually changes things, write your representative or get yourself arrested to prove your point. Just kidding! That will never work.-
You are getting warm. What should be in the letter, before you go to jail?
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The secret to reducing poverty is to outsource more U.S. jobs overseas. This has really increased prosperity around the world. The downside…those of us in the U.S. won’t have jobs. But what heck! If we want to make an omelet, we have to break a few eggs. And America is a big egg.-
What is the United Nations doing on poverty? There could be one billion people linig in poverty, why is this such a sad picture?
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If Americans would give up more of their privileges, the rest of the world could eat its fill.
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In answer to drjalee,
In a fiat debt based money system, ceteris paribus, inflation increases mechanically at a geometric rate. Thomas Jefferson new this: " I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
In fact, the emigration of masses of Brits to the new world was in large part the delayed result of the control on the issuance of money by private bankers in 1694.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#-
Harvey. Great historical insight. Can the banks play a role in reducing poverty through careful planning. For example, using small business models to clean up urban areas for fees. The banks help manage the money. Is there any model in history that addressed poverty,i.e. The New Deal or Johnson's war on poverty; perhaps in Europe or Asia?
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President Andrew Johnson put an end to the lease of the second bank of the US. Curiously, there was an asassination attempt against him, which he survived. That decision brought on the second industrial revolution, a period of stable to lower prices (thanks to productivity gains). That is for the macro level.
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@drjalee: I don't think urban areas need cleaning up so much as they need new industry, and heavy industry is the best kind. If you "clean-up" these areas, the current residents won't be able to live there. This effect is so awful for the residents that in some inner cities, there are campaigns to PREVENT new development, although you will increase the supply of healthy areas which over a very long course of time could eventually improve their lot. With heavy industry, we can utilize these under-used urban ghetto areas for creating work and production, raising income and lowering the cost of goods. Small businesses can only raise income so much because their profit margin is lower - they're only generating about 15 dollars a worker per hour anyways!
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'What is the United Nations doing on poverty?'
What it has always done- spend a shed-load of money for little result. Are there still some who look to the UN expecting something?-
Bill Clinton has a new organiztion, I would be interested on what they are doing on poverty? Perhaps we should call the UN, the United Nothing.
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eugenics-
You lost me. Could you educate me on eugenics? Great beer selection too.
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just "filter" all the poor people out
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Not only can you cook your a off, you are so smart. Such we just let the poor just fade away and do nothing?
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not just let them fade away...take action and make them fade away!
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but then the rich would have no one to exploit (O_O)
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visit www.heifer.org and see their unique way of helping people get out of hunger and poverty.-
Could you give us a quick summary please?
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Heifer International is a well-run organization that provides a way for people to donate livestock to families to begin a small-scale industry or food production. For example, a sponsor could donate money for a family in Guatemala to get a flock of chickens. The family eats the eggs and sells the surplus. Once the flock reproduces, they are expected to give some of the animals to another needy family to begin the process all over.
Sponsors can give money for a variety of animals, from honeybees to water buffalo. Heifer is very open about the amount of donations used for administration and that used for actual animals.
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'It's man-made factors like a glaringly unjust global trade system, a debt burden so great that it suffocates any chance of recovery and insufficient and ineffective aid'
So much nonsense in one shortish sentence. I say, well done!
Maybe you would like to put some meat on the bones of your argument that global trading is causing poverty?
Forgiving debt doesn't solve the problem it makes it worse by encouraging the dictators and madmen who run many poor countries to continue their squandering of other-people's-money.
Insufficient and ineffective?
Well if it wasn't ineffective maybe it wouldn't be insufficient. And yet, yea all want govt. those mammoth ineffective beasts to be solving this problem. Really? -
I did my deed for poverty today, donated a buck when I went through the Taco Bell drive thru-
Great. Is their anything more we can do? That was kind of you. What if everyone in the world gave one dollar, would that solve poverty?
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I'm stuck on earlier comments (Madame X noted, as well)about reading/looking at books to lift oneself out of poverty - in addition to issues of literacy, how many in extreme poverty even know that such books exist, and, if they do, can reading/viewing such books really help everyone?
Also, the rich aren't poverty stricken, literally, maybe metaphorically - but suicide is a choice and starvation generally is not.-
You are so correct. When addressing the issue of poverty, one must assume the worst case. After looking at the data, there is a large number of elderly people and children in this group. Poverty is past down from one generation to another, these people did not just wake up this way. They are born in it. We simply have too many care-less leaders who do next to nothing. What can the average caring person do???
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I think there must be two approaches: personally helping those local people in poverty, and working against systems that foster poverty. Want some practical ideas for helping in your area?
1. Every time you make dinner, make an extra meal and freeze it. Then take it to a local battered women's shelter, halfway house, food pantry, church, or poor family.
2. Seek out the poor and disadvantaged in your area and ask them about their needs. Sometimes it's something simple, like some home repairs, rides to work or the doctor, help with childcare or housekeeping, or help translating.
3. Donate food or time to food pantries and homeless shelters.
4. Get involved in local orgs to teach children to read, teach teens and adults job skills and professional behavior, give business clothing to job-seekers, and help motivate the underemployed and unemployed (you may be the only encouraging voice they hear!).
5. Buy public transportation passes and grocery store cards, and give them to churches, shelters, or charity organizations.
6. Meet with the administration of local prisons and find out how you can meet the needs of prisoners emerging from jail.
7. Blog about poverty, volunteerism, and ways to help others, so that more people will be motivated to help those less fortunate. There is always somebody less fortunate than yourself.
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I think there will always be poverty. It is an historical constant. What surprises me lately is the animosity out there towards poor people. The rush to judge poor folks and lay blame. The lack of compassion. It's kinda shocking. Poor people, damaged people, people in need serve a purpose. They give others a chance to be kind. To be loving. To help.-
Your heart and mind are going in the right direction. What if everyone cared just a little more, this would make a huge difference?
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I think it's easy to ignore poverty if it's not right in your face. You're right, we shold all care more than we do.
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I think the 1% should feed the other 99% and then educate them and lift them out of their poverty. It's the moral thing to do. I wonder they haven't thought of doing this of their own accord. It's the right thing to do. One thing is certain. They won't be taking it with them when they die. There will be a balancing and equalization process for each of us at the end. Then ... we will all be at 100%.-
The level of awareness and concern for poverty is low. I hope to do more in generating more awareness to this issue among other causes as well. People are all struggling to make it. However, those you demonstrate compassion, I believe will earn a higher award. Do you think that true love has something to do with it. Do people love themselves enough to show compassion for others?
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Dose anyone really care about poor people or the working poor? What can be done...
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I don't think it's so much a question of "do they care" in a lot of cases as "do they care enough."
Also, living within blocks of some rough parts of ATL, I can tell you that a lot of the traditional ways of "helping" the poor might actually make the problem worse. It really does need to be organized. Unorganized help doesn't really get you anywhere. -
You are correct in your thinking. There needs to be an organization recognized as a leader in fighting poverty. Do you know any group that fights poverty?
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There are LOTS of organizations that help poverty. We use a cool website to find service opportunities for our teen church group. Check out www.dosomething.org.
There are many other good groups working to combat the immediate needs and long-term causes of poverty - simply google poverty organizations and see what you find!
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noodles! -
We can become a military economy where everyone has a job related to the military and we fund ourselves by going to war with and taking over other countries.-
That is a good idea. If we were not to go to war and develop products and services, this will be a start. An army to fight poverty. I like that idea. Will it work is the question?
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Can an army fight poverty?
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No need to wait for the government to step in--a grassroots effort can start with you!
Talk to the local Salvation Army to pinpoint the area of greatest need.
Begin collecting jackets, blankets and warm clothing for the homeless.
Raise donations for the local food pantry.
Talk to your local council about issuing vouchers for homeless families to get clothing at the Salvation Army or Goodwill, or even a night or two at an inexpensive motel.
Contact large businesses and tell them you're seeking donations to help alleviate the homeless problem in your area. Be clear, direct and succinct. They're busy ..and too many words will derail their interest.
Contact local clubs, like geocaching or cycling groups. They can hold events tailored to your cause.
Contact your local military reserve unit, veterans service groups (VFW, DAV) and veterans hospital and ask for assistance.
Contact your local radio stations and newspaper with the same request.
Contact Freecycle and similar websites and ask the moderators if they would be willing to donate one day to donations for homeless families.
For working families in a bind, contact Modest Needs dot org. They offer grants up to $1,000 to help working families through rough times. No credit card debt, no loan payments ...this is strictly for housing, transportation, utilities, food, clothing.
Above all else, keep your efforts local for now. You will become overwhelmed if you get too involved in the project. You could post a note on your blog stating that every time a comment is posted, you will generate a donation to the homeless cause in your area. For more ideas on that, contact Cory at the 'Didn't You Hear...' blog.-
Great idea. Are We helpong them or are we ending poverty?
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Yes, something can be done. However the people in a country will have to stand up for them self, their children and for their basic needs and rights. To be poor in a wealthy country is the same as being a victim without doing something about it.
Continue:
www.eldinasblog.com/main-page-social-issues/-
Since when are you entitled to the possesions of others?
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You think a drowning person can help themself? You believe that a poor person can end poverty? If so how?
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They can end it for themselves by building a new life, and the poor can end it as a collective (theoretically) by rebuilding their neighborhoods.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that many are probably trying to do just that, and maybe there is something in our society or government that is stopping them... -
poverty, with a few exceptions is a repeating cycle of frustration. charities may help, but most simply try to assimilate people into a form that they approve of rather than helping them to be self-sufficient.
There is also the issue of the frailty of matter, and that being comprised of such, humans cannot be expected to attain perfection from within. When one is poor, there is a tendency (though of course not in every case) to fall victim to poor health and abusive mental conditioning. this tends to set the person on a path toward failure, submission to exploitation, or rebellion against society.
When one wants to judge another human being, perhaps he ought to walk a mile in that person's shoes before deliberating. -
@Agit8r: Unfortunately most of what you describe for poverty would be a better description for life in general. People are always manipulating, abusing, and hurting you from every angle, and poor health can befall all of us. I'm not saying it's perfect but that's just it, nothing is.
I'm convinced that it has far more to do with the way that our society holds people back, often times selfishly to, for instance, increase Real Estate values.
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There have been a few cases where some one in poverty won the lotto, millions of of dollars and lost all of the money within 2 to 3 years. Is money a real solution? Why or why not?
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the solution is building people up. Edification
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Agit8r, that is a great answer. How should we proceed on this matter? What three steps should one take?
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Hi, one of the intention of my blog is to ELIMINATE POVERTY through financial literacy. I teach about entrepreneurship, personal finance and savings, investments, and self-motivation towards achieving financial goals in life.
I just hope you find something realy helpful in my site and hope to see you there.
www.millionaireacts.com
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