World Poverty

[Malwe Da Sher]

'World poverty is much bigger and much smaller than we had thought. It kills one-third of all human beings born into our world. And its eradication would require no more than 1 percent of the global product.' (Thomas Pogge, 2008: 64)

[amardeep]

has anyone of you seen the commercial with Bono from U2 where he talks about how much money is requred to feed all african children for a year? try to find it on youtube.. quite mind provoking

[Guest]

US itself have hundreds of trillion dollars whole world probably have thousands of trillion dollars if not million, i don't understand if one wants to truly get rid of poverty, just give all world population 1 million dollar each. I was speaking to someone regarding that, they laughed, if that happens that will make 1 million dollar as one penny in global market?

can anyone shed more light on to this?

May be too unrealistic but what you guys think if socialism can change poverty ? I think if whole world became socialist, then we wouldn't progress in global market. I think there should be an balance, half of world should be capitalist and other half should be socialist.?? how would that effect global poverty? i m just throwing ideas out there.

FYI, Sikhi supports socialism, one of condition in anandpur sahib resolution matta was socialism in Punjab.

[Malwe Da Sher]

Capitalism works on debt, in a profit making system one gains profit at the expense of another. This article which was posted here a while ago will shed further light on why poverty exists: http://www.relfe.com/plus_5_.html

If everyone was given a million dollars it would most certainly become worthless. Its not about giving people money but giving food, shelter, education etc. This can be done without altering the world economy or finances, the world system doesnt have to be changed and people can continue making big profits. However, most people prefer not to share and this is indeed a consequence of the greedy economic system which functions throughout the world.

[Xylitol]

Africa had a booming tshirt making industry. But charities, in an attempt to clothe Africans, sent thousands and thousands of free tshirts, wiping out this industry. India has numerous families that cannot makes ends meet. They live hand to mouth and cannot afford to send their child to school. They need the income their child brings in so that they have enough for food. Misguided attempts to close down sweatshops resulted in children having to work in other plants, such as in textiles factories. They are now exposed to fumes from dyes, and b/c their options are more limited they are easier to exploit.

The problem is fundamentally one of economics, and distribution. It can be fixed. However, sometimes misguided do gooder attempts to help that ignore economics make the situation worse.

[amardeep]

There is also politics involved in this... The west benefits hugely from a poor africa and asia.. imagine if asia and africa had the same living standards as the western part of the world. the the demand for oil and goods would increase which means the goods in the western world would become more expensive (see what happend a few years ago when China started hamstrering oil, the prices went up in the west and GDP in western countries went down due to the high oil prices)...

[ishvar2]

One has to keep in mind that money has no value itself. In fact, it is only a reference to things that have actual value i.e. gold, products etc. This is the reason why if everyone had a million dollers it would be worth less than it does now. The other factor in here is inflation, which generally increases with passage of time meaning devaluing currency so £100 today will purchase less in 10 years than now.

I think the major problems has been the emergence of financial services. A majority of these are nothing more that ways of making money out of making money i.e. not creating any value of any sort.

I agree some well meaning attempts can hamstring fledgling economies but I think this also misses the point on how multinational use cheap labour then when worker regulations increase and/or wage increases are demanded they leave the country to find the next group of cheaper labour. While some ecnomic good is done in that time, they are massive repurcussions for the current working generation in terms of health, and mental wellbeing. Yes, their kids may be able to break out of poverty because of their parents toil (isn't that true of almost all of us) the question of at what cost and also how sustainably is this being done.

I highly recommend watching this documentary which highlight how corporations work - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3203253804055041031

Obviously, keep an open mind (i.e. do ones own research after watching to work out what you think).

[guv]

I highly recommend watching this documentary which highlight how corporations work - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3203253804055041031

The Corporation is a must watch! It's a real eye-opener.

[Guest]

Wow, i just watched half of corporation documentary, it just mind blowing- real eye opener. I am going to finish watching the rest tom.

[Mekhane'ch Jannat]

A big problem is money is not controlled by the people, but it is in the hands of a very few. The Bank of England and the federal reserve are both private corporations, and they basically can create money, create economic conditions to suit the needs of the ones at the top. Lincoln and some other early american presidents fought tooth and nail against the 'bank' Lincoln issued what were called greenbacks i think it was what is called fiat currency, it was controlled by the government/people and not by big business/banks.

[Xylitol]

Originally, American currency was pegged to gold. So it was impossible for there to be inflation b/c there were a set amount of dollars for a set amount of gold. Later, one of the presidents was tricked into changing the constitution, so the Federal Reserve (a private corporation) was created to manage the money. This organisation is unconstitutional according to the original American constitution. Now, when governments need money to pay a debt, they simply print more of it, making the value of each doller less. We see this in the form of inflation, this is the only reason (other than temporary issues of shortages, trade embargoes etc) why goods keep getting more expensive over time, it's b/c your dollars are less valuable compared to money printed in previous years.

You can see how there is now a temptation and an ability to simply pass the buck to the next generation for the expenses / debts of the country. Under the old system they could not use trickery to get out of such a situation, and so would be forced to maintain balanced budgets and reasonable spending.

[Guest]

I just finished watching the documentary- The Corporation. Indeed, its real eye opener.

[Weedol]

US itself have hundreds of trillion dollars whole world probably have thousands of trillion dollars if not million, i don't understand if one wants to truly get rid of poverty, just give all world population 1 million dollar each. I was speaking to someone regarding that, they laughed, if that happens that will make 1 million dollar as one penny in global market?

can anyone shed more light on to this?

And you have the right to vote??

[Guest]

And you have the right to vote??

I don't live in United States of America mate. I live in Canada.

[Singhavelli]

World Poverty can only be eradicated with the elimination of the system that perpetuates it.

Capitalism must be resisted and abolished. Our Latin American Brothers and Sisters have exemplified this. Even as Sikhs, we have always been self-sustainable. Let's take a look at our history, I don't think the treatment of Farmers during the Peasant Uprising in the 1980's was a coincidence.

Sikhi was attacked - because it was the empowering ideology behind the resistance.

Lets open our eyes and be critical - our lands are being destroyed, the Green Revolution was a Sham funded by Rockerfeller and the Ford Foundation. We went from Kings and Queens, those that had love for one another and the land, to adopting a the Imperialistic Capitalist structure that taught us to compete with one another and exploit ourselves, our people and the land.

[Samadhi]

Well can u actually abolish the capitalist society ? ....Socialism?

[Guest]

I just finished watching movie "The international" casting clive oven and naomi watts..its very good movie. It just shows how powerful banks are and controlling everything around us. I would rate this movie 2nd after Blood Diamond carrying very powerful message.