v4. The Denial of People’s Right to Pursue a Good Education and to Achieve Self Actualization.
Nearly two billion people are today unable to read a newspaper, do basic math calculations or even sign their name. Ignorance breeds unemployment, extreme poverty, social instability. Over 100 million children of elementary school do not attend school, because their parents need them to work for their basic necessities. Education is the key to poverty alleviation, helping people to gain the knowledge, the skills, and competencies to meet their basic needs. They do not want a handout they want a hand up.
5. The Lack of Economic Opportunity for those at the Bottom of the Pyramid of Social Existence. The poor represent far more than a group that deserves our sympathy and charity. Helping the poor escape from poverty will also help raise the incomes of the whole world. Ending hunger and poverty in poor countries creates new markets for our products and provides more employment opportunities in western countries. The poor constitute a major untapped market opportunity for businesses that can imagine new ways to bring down the cost of products and services to the poor. C. K. Prahalad, in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, makes a compelling case for adapting products for the poor to make them affordable. Using Prahalad’s math, the extreme and moderate poor have buying power equal to $8 billion per day.
6. The Opportunity to Encourage Peace and Tranquility Among All Nations to help poor nations reduce their numbers in poverty
One major reason that more advanced nations should worry about nations filled with poor people is because such nations often collapse into “failed states” that fall into conflicts and violence that necessitate military intervention by U.S. or NATO or UN forces. This happened with Honduras, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Syria—each violent outbreak within or between countries posing a threat to U.S. and European national security and cost taxpayers in America, millions if not billions of dollars. More dramatic is the cost of keeping illegal immigrants out, when all they need are jobs, health services, schools and access to economic opportunities in their own countries.
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