Just One More POV on Poverty

There is much that has been said by many learned folk about the issue of poverty. Forty years after the technological achievement of putting man on the moon, highly developed agricultural techniques that make famine non-existent in Western countries, and comfortable living for millions of people has us asking the question, why does poverty still exist?

It seems there are gazillions of different answers, from government corruption to common greed, and most of them are valid, but there is one explanation that doesn't get widely broadcast I believe due to its unpalatability. Poverty exists because it benefits (some) people. I would express the argument in a mathematical equation thus:

Your quality of life = (The World's Financial Wealth) - (The Wealth of Everyone Other than Yourself)

To explain, your personal wealth has a huge effect on your quality of life and to think otherwise is foolish naivety. The worlds financial wealth is a finite amount (the "there's only so much to go around" theory) so the wealth of everyone else does have a big effect on each of us. I'm as dissappointed as anyone about this, but life isn't fair and it's probably a good idea to understand and get used to it.

The fact is, there are a lot of places in the world that have resources we want/need whether mineral, vegetable, intellectual, or simply labour based. We all check the price when we purchase anything, and who doesn't love a bargain? Well, the product needs to be produced cheaply for those bargains to exist, somethings gotta give, and it's usually an unlucky person along the supply chain.

Now at this point I have to mentally slap myself, a reminder that it's all well and good to point out a problem and carry on about how dreadful it is but pointless unless a suggestion of how to solve the problem exists.....

Well Dan??? What's the answer??

First of all, I believe we need to simplify the solutions. Frankly, does anyone know what the fuck Bono and his millionaire minstrels are on about with their "Make Poverty History" campaigns? I don't think the answer is in opening up trade. I don't think pumping cash into Africa will fix the problems either. These are comfortable solutions for the guilt of the bourgeois middle class which is why they are so popular. They do more harm than good.

The real solution rests in the basics of respect of human dignity. The fact that, even though you may not know someone, a lot of good can come from just treating them properly and not taking advantage of their situation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating a society where everyone has to love each other, I leave that to the mindlessness of religion, but to break it down to it's simplest form we should all make every effort to not be.... well, jerks to one another.

Pessimistically, I don't like the chances as I have occasionally been just such a jerk as have many others.