World Hunger and Poverty

Recent research in the UK has shown that women’s low pay has huge implications on child poverty.

I think we can apply those findings to most countries. Throughout the world, women both tend to have most of the child raising responsibilities and tend to receive lower pay. For example, many single mothers work hard at multiple jobs and still do not earn enough to support themselves and their children. That means the mothers often do not have enough time to raise their children and do not have enough money to provide their children with quality education since the mothers can neither afford private school nor afford to live in an area with quality public schools.

To break the poverty trap, I believe we must ensure that single mothers and all parents get paid enough to properly raise their children.

What do you think? How do you suggest we raise the pay of women and ensure parents can afford to raise their children? Post your responses and other ideas about the topic in the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.

The ENS did a great job reporting about the opening of the High-level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

In my opinion, the most noteworthy part is when Dr. Jacques Diouf, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, pointed out the shameful contrast between what we waste and how relatively little it would take to eradicate world hunger. After pointing out the trillions spent yearly on militarism and the billions of dollars worth of food wasted, Dr. Diouf asked, “How can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food and thus the right to life?”

Resources that could go towards feeding the hungry and eradicating poverty are spent on expensive and needlessly destructive endeavors such as the occupation of Iraq and the war on drugs like marijuana. I could never describe how intensely that upsets me.

Today’s poverty-related book of the day is The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism by James Maxmin and Shoshana Zuboff. Here is the overview:

“Business is broken and can’t be fixed because today’s ‘managerial’ capitalism has grown hopelessly out of touch with the people it should be serving. The Support Economy explores this chasm between people and corporations. On one side are companies stuck in a century-old business model. On the other is a new society of individuals no longer content to bend to the old adversarial rules of commerce. Instead, they seek relationships of advocacy and trust that provide support for their complex lives. Unlocking the frustrated needs of today’s new individuals can unleash the next great wave of wealth creation. This will require radically new approaches to commerce and capitalism. The Support Economy provides a profound new framework for these innovations. It is an urgent call to action for consumers, entrepreneurs, investors, corporate visionaries, mavericks, public officials, and every citizen who cares about the future.”

You can discuss that book or recommend other books related to poverty, economics or humanitarianism in my World Hunger and Poverty Forums.

I appreciate that the current food crisis has gained a lot of media coverage lately. Today, I want to clarify part of the nature of the current food crisis that I think some people may not realize.

We do not actually have a shortage of land, food or other resources. As I often stress on this blog, the world has more than enough food to feed everyone. The world has more than enough resources to provide food, clothes, clean water, shelter, education and healthcare to everyone. The problem is not a lack of resources such as land and food. The problem is the way our society distributes and uses those resources.

Whether we like it or not, we currently live in a capitalist society in which resources–including natural resources–go to the people willing and able to pay the most. The groups of people who want land and other resources for luxuries or bio-fuel production are willing and able to spend more for those resources than the people who need the resources for food and such.

Basically, I see two general methods of solving that problem.

Firstly, we need to find a way to alleviate and hopefully eradicate poverty so that all people have enough money to buy what they need by outbidding other people who want the resources for luxuries.

Secondly, we need to find a new and fairer way to distribute resources, namely natural resources such as land, water, oil and so forth. As I have said before, I believe we can end poverty by ensuring that all people have an equal right to natural resources. I believe most of the cost of products such as food come from the high cost of obtaining usage rights of the natural resources used in their production.

Poor people generally are not poor because they lack labor or the willingness to work hard to get what they need. What leaves them poor, despite their abundance of labor, is generally their lack of rights to the usage and control of natural resources. In our current society, money and capital represents that ownership or ability to own natural resources. So we either need to ensure that all people have enough money and capital to not be poor, or we need to change the fact that people need money and capital to get rights to the usage and control of natural resources. Of course, we can work on doing both.

What do you think? How would you explain the nature of the food crisis, and what solutions do you see? Answer those questions and post your comments about the above blog post at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.

Today’s poverty-related book of the day is The Greater Good by Claire Gaudiani. Here is the overview:

“For over a century, the United States has stood as a beacon of prosperity and democracy, proof that big business and big dreams could flourish side by side. Yet few Americans realize the crucial role that generosity plays in keeping that fragile balance. And now, with gated communities, oppressive personal debts, shrinking government, and tax and welfare reform crusades, that essential moral glue is at risk of melting away. A leading voice for community development, former Connecticut College president and scholar Claire Gaudiani explores all these issues as she examines American prosperity from the Constitution to the New Economy bust. She traces the push and pull of the robber barons and the progressive movement, the New Deal and the postwar boom, and the Me Decade and the technology revolution, finding that altruism powerfully invests in people, property, and ingenuity. Rather than pitting the capitalists against the populists, Gaudiani brings both sides to the table to reseal this fundamental social contract and provide a blueprint for a just future. The Greater Good is a passionate, pragmatic, and, finally, optimistic manifesto for revitalizing the promise of the American economy.”

You can post comments on that book and recommend other books related to poverty or humanitarianism in the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.

Increasing prices of energy and food have worsened and will continue to worsen the problems of world hunger and poverty. Even in first world countries such as the United States, rising food prices and inflation have made poor people poorer, have put more people at greater risk of poverty, and have worsened the financial conditions of most non-poor people.

I believe the current food crisis makes it even more important that we utilize long-term solutions to prevent, alleviate and hopefully eradicate poverty.

Let me play on an old metaphor: If you give a man a fish each day, when fishing prices go up you will not be able to afford to give the charity and the man will starve. If you teach a man to fish, then afterwards he can probably fully support himself regardless of fluctuations in the price of fish. Also, in the long run, teaching a man to fish costs less than giving him a fish each day for the rest of his life.

We can protect people and society as a whole from poverty and rising food prices. I believe we need to do it by getting people in poverty or at risk of poverty into programs that will turn poor families into self-sufficient families. Namely, we need to provide people with education, skills training, and job placement services. We need to help the people start their own businesses or get jobs that pay them enough to support themselves and their families. And we need to make sure the people have access to food, shelter and healthcare while they go through the process of getting the job, including the time it takes them to get the education and skills to get the job.

Healthcare can be especially important in cases where a person has an illness or mental disorder that prevents them from doing what it takes to get a job that pays them enough to support themselves and their families.

If you know of any good programs helping families become self-sufficient as I have described above, please post about them in my World Hunger and Poverty Forums. You can also use the forums to post other comments in response to this blog post.

Today’s book of the day is How to Make a Difference by Catherine E. Poelman. Here is the overview:

“A selfless volunteer herself, author Catherine E. Poelman offers hundreds and hundreds of ideas for would-be volunteers. Her book is filled with ways to serve, along with Internet resources, national and community organizations to contact, and books to read. Learn what it takes to become a volunteer at a hospital or a zoo, at a homeless shelter or a battered women’s shelter, in an elementary school classroom or an adult literacy program. In addition, discover dozens of ideas for simple, everyday service.”

You can discuss that book, post about other good books related to poverty or humanitarianism, and discuss poverty in general all at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.

I could criticize the No Child Left Behind Act. But almost all the people with whom I have spoken about it have expressed strong criticism of it themselves. Namely, they make note of the obvious flaws in taking funding away from failing schools, considering that those schools tend to need the funding the most. I do not want to beat the proverbial dead horse.

While I do think No Child Left Behind does not work and is often counter-productive, I do have some sympathy for the philosophy behind it. Offering conditional funding and threatening to take away funding is the main way the federal government influences local policies of local governments. Additionally, it can be hard to allocate funding for populistic purposes because the taxpayers and general public are rightfully afraid of government spending. So it is easier to get them to accept laws that place more restrictions on funding than laws that just wastefully throw more money at the problem. The problem, in this case, is inefficient, failing schools.

I do not have any clear-cut solutions.

I would consider suggesting making requirements based on methods not on outcomes. Instead of just taking funding away from schools that have too low of standardized test scores, I would suggest making requirements about what the schools need to provide. Namely, I would suggest requiring that all children and students under a local government receive complete healthcare for the schools to get education funding from the federal government.

The healthcare could be provided by a state government, by an even more local government, or by the public schools themselves. It could be provided to all citizens or only to those who cannot afford it on their own. (I would consider charging parents with child abuse if they can afford healthcare for their kids but choose to waste their money on non-essential purposes instead.)

Healthcare would help alleviate the poverty that causes public schools in poor neighborhoods to fail. Also, sick students cannot learn well. Even furthermore, psychological and psychiatric care would help neutralize students’ behavior issues which perhaps is the biggest obstacle for failing schools.

Requiring healthcare coverage for education funding would help alleviate both the education and healthcare problems in the United States without drastically increasing federal government spending and without further federalizing either education or healthcare. If a local government does not want to ensure that all children and students have complete healthcare coverage, then the local government can refuse the federal funding.

I am not dedicated to the idea. I am still thinking it through. So I would love for you to post your comments and replies on my idea of requiring schools to provide healthcare coverage to receive education funding from the federal government. I have decided to post the discussion for that idea in my philosophy forums due to the idea’s very theoretical state. So you can post your thoughts and comments on the idea in this thread at the philosophy forums.

Today’s poverty-related book of the day is Do Unto Others by Samuel Oliner. Check out the overview:

“In Do Unto Others, Holocaust survivor and sociologist Samuel Oliner explores what gives an individual a sense of social responsibility, what leads to the development of care and compassion, and what it means to put the welfare of others ahead of one’s own. Having been saved himself from the Nazis at age 12 as the result of one non-Jewish family’s altruism, Oliner has made a lifelong study of the nature of altruism. Weaving together moving personal testimony and years of observation, Oliner makes sense of the factors that elicit altruistic behavior - exceptional acts by ordinary people in ordinary times.”

The book looks inspiring to me, especially for those of us who so desperately want more unity and compassion in society. I hope to read it soon.

If the idea of altruism interests you, you may also want to read a short philosophy article I wrote in which I talk about altruism: Is Selfishness Compatible with Kindness?

If you know other good books related poverty, including those related to humanitarianism in general, please post about them in our World Hunger and Poverty Forums. Thanks!

On Sunday, May 4th, I will be volunteering at Foodshare’s Walk Against Hunger. If you will be in Connecticut and could make it to the walk site in Hartford, then please do. If you want to go and volunteer with me, just tell me as soon as you can. (You can contact me by email at scott@scotthughes.biz.) Alternatively, you can get more information from Foodshare directly:

http://foodshare.org

I think you can still sign up as a walker. If you think you might want to walk, go to the Foodshare website at foodshare.org.

Walk Date:
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Check-in 1:00, Walk Start 2:00

Walk Site:
The Hartford
690 Asylum Avenue, Hartford

If you do not live in Connecticut, then consider forming a local volunteer group in your local community.