Jan 18 2009
The Problem of Global Poverty as a Matter of Personal Responsibility
Archived from September 2, 2008
Mother Theresa comforts a child.
It has long been estimated by world trade statistics that 80% of the world’s wealth is generated by about 10% of the world’s total population. Critics will often say this is due unfair and unbalanced labor and trade laws — that the free market with its avaricious “get the most and make most,” ultra-competitive trade practices is crippling the prosperity of nations. But what is really at the core of the issue? Is it truly because of the laws of the land that poverty beats down so many lives? Rather, it may well be that we as humans have a natural propensity toward greed and lofty, self-righteous ambition.
Here are just a handful of facts as reported by the World Trade Organization:
The numbers of people living on less than $2 per day has risen by almost 50% since 1980, to 2.8 billion - almost half the world’s population. And this is precisely the period that has been most heavily liberalized. (World Bank, Global Economic Outlook 2000)
Recent evidence suggests that the numbers of people living on less than $1 per day is growing in most regions of the world (with the notable exception of China). (World Bank, Global Economic Outlook 2000)
The world’s poorest countries share of world trade has declined by more than 40 per cent since 1980 to a mere 0.4 per cent. (UNCTAD, Conference on Least Developed Countries 1999)
The poorest 49 countries make up 10% of the world’s population, but account for only 0.4% of world trade. This disparity has been growing. (UNCTAD, Conference on Least Developed Countries 2001)
51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are corporations. The Top 500 multinational corporations account for nearly 70 percent of the worldwide trade; this percentage has steadily increased over the past twenty years. (CorpWatch)
The U.N. estimates that poor countries lose about US $2 billion per day because of unjust trade rules, many instituted by our organization. 14 times the amount they receive in aid. (UNCTAD, Conference on Least Developed Countries 2001)
When tackled objectively, one sees an inevitable trend of more liberal (meaning “free”) trading contributing to greater gains by those with the most financial leverage. That is to say, for instance that the estimated two billion dollars lost by poor nations as shown above is not surprising. It is a core rule of all business that one should always maximize profits and minimize any risks which would present any threat to that maximization — even if that means aid to certain nations is cut back. One way to maximize profits most efficiently is to have multiple revenue streams in multiple nations. This format has the greatest success in the corporate format: many people working highly specific roles in several places to reach a single end. It is only logical then that the top 500 multinational corporations comprise nearly 70 percent of the worldwide trade. Simply, people with the most resources make the most money.
Still, what can anyone do about this? To paraphrase the late George Carlin, it seems as if this may go on for as long as free trade exists. Power does and seemingly always will do whatever it wants to do both within the law and outside it. However unjust any distribution of wealth may seem to an observer, it is only as fair or unfair, moral or immoral as the people by which it is enacted. This fact was probably best echoed by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas B. Reed in 1886 when he noted, “One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.” A society’s ills are most always a reflection of the mentalities of its people. People rarely have the charitable thinking necessary to cure the woes of others and thus, the world spins with most of its inhabitant no richer or more healthy than they were a day earlier. Why? Much of the world’s industrialized nations are products of a society raised to compete rather than cooperate, to win rather than be their brothers’ keepers. So to answer the question of why the world is so poor becomes an effort to discover why those living in it are so greedy. Until this eternal question is answered with the charity of human kindness, the world can become no wealthier nor any better.
I hope the preceding piece touched you greatly. Until next time… wax charitably.
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I find your post disturbing in light of the fact that citizens of the United States are the most generous in the world (see http://www.cafonline.org/pdf/International%20Comparisons%20of%20Charitable%20Giving.pdf). Are you calling for a “redistribution of wealth”, of taking from those who have earned their wealth and giving it to those who are in need? Or are you merely bringing to light the desperate plight of millions of people?
I can’t agree with you moe. While the stupid policies of rogue governments all over the world increase poverty it is left to us mere mortals who are struggling,like myself I am trying to make next month’s rent to sort the problems out. I hope to God that God distributes some power to some of us mere mortals to help save some souls as it is every one’s responsibility, even if governments stuff up, we have to act..in whatever way we can. Great post Brovs.