Our World

Poverty in Our World

"It may be surprising to most people to realize that USA, the wealthiest nation on Earth, has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation, and the difference continues to grow. In 1989, the United States had 66 billionaires and 31.5 million people living below the official poverty line. A decade later, the United States has 268 billionaires and 34.5 million people living below the poverty line-about $13,000 for a three-person family."
Poverty is the state of being for more than half of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Behind the flourishing relief and assistance promised by globalization, are global decisions, policies, and practices. Today’s "corporate globalization", is where the wealthier are able to determine the rules, form the international institutions and influence communication. For poor countries these impacts can be devastating.
Governments in poor countries therefore must:

• spend less
• reduce consumption, which results in resources becoming even cheaper from the poorer regions (which favors consumers in the West).
• decrease financial regulations, which results in the value of labor decreasing
  

In the face of such large outside influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often helpless. Here’s a link to a facts sheet on poverty in the world. It’s rather sad and in reality seems unbearable that people actually live like this. We should be very fortunate that we live in a growing part of the country, have proper education and have money to buy luxury items.

posted by Anonymous @ 2/08/2006 08:27:00 PM