Why Should We Care

First, poverty leads to a terrible waste of human potential. Imagine the millions of wasted lives denied an opportunity to achieve their full potential because they lived in societies with no health care, no meaningful employment or educational opportunities. How many could have become doctors, scientists, professionals, teachers, merchants, engineers and entrepreneurs willing and able to improve the well-being of their families, neighborhoods, villages and towns, their countries and even the world. The very poor are not able to develop these skills, abilities and capacities because they are totally preoccupied with subsistence, remaining illiterate, malnourished, sickly, exploited, and excluded. This is one of the major tragedies in human history, and now is the time to remove the scourge of extreme poverty.

We are living in a dangerous world. In the 1970s and early 1980s, American tourists and business people were accustomed to visiting most areas in Africa, Asia or Latin America with little or no concern. Today, most of us would think long and hard before venturing outside the boundaries of the United States. International terrorism has changed our world and most of us wonder what has caused this change and is there anything that we can do about this situation. What many people do not understand is that terrorism is a symptom, and not the cause of this problem.

With the advent of television and western movies, the “have-nots of this world,” see what we have and how we live, and they ask why is this? For people who have no schools, no health facilities, no electricity, no potable water and no opportunities to improve themselves, their perceived unfairness of the situation can only stimulate frustration, resentment and anger. This poverty breeds a kind of desperation which often leads the poor and the destitute people into crime and terrorism, prostitution, and drug running. The hopelessness felt by the poor motivates many of them to follow any demagogue who promises them food, health care and a job. Too many dictators and fanatics are quick to stimulate these feelings of resentment, and from this pool of discontentment, are quick to recruit and train those who would cause us harm. We can end up fighting them or helping them to find a better life.

The poor are much more prone to illnesses and health problems, many that are now resistant to antibiotics. Consider that in today’s fast-moving world, COVID-19 demonstrates how easily deadly diseases can travel across continents. Scientists claim much more deadly virus are yet to come, and many if not most will emerge in areas where extreme poverty is most serious. Although it took decades for AIDS to spread into the USA, and other diseases like the bird flu or Ebola showed signs of doing that in months. Today, COVID 19 demonstrates how quickly such viruses can spread throughout the world. It is time now to eliminate extreme poverty as we prepare for the pandemics of the future. Primary health care is a key to keeping dreaded diseases in check. We can ignore this problem and face the consequences in the future. It is our choice.

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.

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.

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.

Every year 10 million children die from malnutrition before their 5th birthday. Nearly 12 million children die each year (30,000 per day) from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene. Many people assume children are starving because there are too many children to feed. In reality, reducing hunger actually reduces population. When people know that their children will survive, they choose to have fewer children. Poverty does not cause more children. They have more children because they are poor.

Ending hunger and poverty is good for the environment. While the greatest environmental damage is created by the industrialized world, it is also true that hunger creates environmental degradation in the rural communities where the majority of hunger exists. There really is no choice for parents between cutting down trees and feeding their starving children. The relationship between poverty and the environment has been well studied. Put simply, the wealthy can afford to preserve the environment, whereas the poor cannot. The poor, particularly in developing nations, are primarily concerned with subsistence, so cutting down rainforest for firewood or killing endangered species for food are viewed as necessities of life, not environmental exploitation. Soil loss, species loss, deforestation, and air and water pollution are a significant cause of climate change and is clearly as severe in poor countries as in industrialized countries.

According to the U.N., the majority of people in poverty are women, who globally earn roughly half as much as men. The United Nations often cites the statistic that women do two-thirds of the world's work, receive 10 percent of the world's income and own 1 percent of the means of production. According to the World Health Organization, one woman dies in childbirth every minute of every day. That's more than 500,000 deaths every year, many of which could have been prevented if the woman had been allowed to leave her home to receive treatment, or if she'd had a skilled attendant by her side. Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults. Girls may be kept out of school to help with household chores, they may be pulled from school if their father deems it's time for them to marry, or there may only be enough money to educate one child from the family -- and the boy is almost always chosen. Numerous studies show that educating girls is a key factor in eliminating poverty and aiding development. Girls who complete school are less likely to marry young, more likely to have smaller families and exhibit better health. These women also go on to earn higher salaries, which they then invest in their own families, thus ensuring that future generations of girls get to go on to school. If you really want to eliminate poverty in rural areas give your money to NGOs who emphasize adult literacy among women and keeping girls in school beyond grade school.

Allowing one billion people to remain in debilitating poverty is simply morally wrong, unacceptable, and counter to the core values of civilized people. Above are some nine reasons why you should be concerned about the problem of world poverty and why you should be outraged over the tragedy of extreme poverty.