I just finished reading a great book a few days ago: Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre-Feminist, Anarchist, Genius
. I love Voltairine de Cleyre’s writing!
She wrote about various topics, but poverty came up often. In her essay Why I Am An Anarchist, she wrote something with which I completely agree: “The problem is not how to find a way to relieve temporary distress, not to make people dependent upon the kindness of others, but to allow every one to be able to stand upon his own feet.”
People will not have freedom and will not fully escape poverty unless they have self-sufficiency. We can not rely on charity to end poverty. We need to find ways to empower people. We need to make as many individuals self-sufficient as possible. Also, we need to make families self-sufficient as a whole, which we can do by ensuring that the working members of a family can provide enough for their entire family.
I believe we need to take two general steps to empower the masses and make all families self-sufficient.
Firstly, we need to use education. Education gives people the skills and credentials to support themselves in society.
Secondly, we need to give people freedom. The working people could support themselves if they received the full fruits of their labor. But the working people cannot receive the full fruits of their labor because they have to sell it out to those who control the natural resources. They cannot just go to work on the land to grow food because a ruling class has claimed to “own” the land and other natural resources. The working people must get permission to use the natural resources from those who have unjustifiably usurped control of the natural resources of the world. As a result, the working people have to give away much of the fruits of their labor to get permission to work. This unfair system has made the working class dependent on a parasitic ruling class. And I doubt we can end poverty and other similar problems without making people as independent and self-sufficient as possible.
Voltairine de Cleyre wrote, “…any man who must wait the complicated working of a mass of unseen powers before he may engage in the productive labor necessary to get his food is the last thing but a free man.”
I agree with her! The working people are not free, and that lack of freedom causes poverty and related problems.
To end poverty and make society free, we must make it so that all people have an equal right to the natural resources. We can not let one class of people oppress another class of people by monopolizing control of natural resources such as land, water, lumber, metal or oil.
Megan McArdle recently posted about how poor people get forced into higher-priced alternatives. She credits that observation to the book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
.
Basically, poor people do not have enough money saved up to make big purchases or investments. People from more affluent backgrounds will have money saved up or will have family from whom they can borrow the money. Without the extra money, poor people can not get the better deals that other people do.
For example, poor people cannot invest in an expensive and reliable car upfront, but will instead have to buy a cheap car and constantly pay for repairs. In another example, poor people cannot afford the deposits on apartments, and have to instead move into temporary residences with higher rent. Poor people often cannot buy products in bulk, which more affluent families do to get better value for their money.
Simply put, poor people can not make cost-saving investments because they do not have financial savings or rich family and friends.
I just read this interesting article about a Waco minister who created a poverty simulation called Plunge2poverty
. He released a guidebook that other organizations can use to recreate the poverty simulation:
Plunge2poverty: An Intensive Poverty Simulation Experience
Basically, the simulation consists of giving 40 simulation dollars to participants from privileged or middle-class backgrounds. The participants try to use the simulation money over a weekend, and by doing so they find out what it feels like to have too little money to buy everything they want. The experience probably feels realistic because the participants have to decide between which needs they fulfill, much like how poor people have to try and stretch their money out.
I assume the simulation takes place in a small simulation economy. Perhaps in a school auditorium or something like that.
I think the simulation can help people better understand how poverty feels. However, people already know that poverty hurts, and most people already want to end poverty. More than personally experiencing poverty, we need to figure out a way to end poverty. Once we figure out a way to end it, then we have to use what we figure out to actually end poverty.
You can discuss this post and the use of poverty simulations in this thread at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums. It is completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.
A friend of mine recently directed me to the website for Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge To Persons Of Faith, and recommended the book to me. In the book, George McGovern, Bob Dole, and Donald E. Messer share their conviction that ending hunger is a religious imperative and a human priority. Writing for congregations and individuals of faith, they appeal to the biblical, theological and ethical foundations of action against hunger. Informative, inspiring, and filled with practical suggestions and discussion questions, the book encourages personal involvement and political commitment to the cause.
Here’s an excerpt from the foreword by Bill Clinton:
“This book makes an important argument about hunger that all concerned citizens should heed: hunger is not just a problem for politicians. We all have an ethical and moral obligation to help people who are suffering. Ending Hunger Now is an appeal to people of faith to meet this moral challenge with concrete action.”
As I’ve said before, I’m not a religious person myself, but I recognize the help provided by religious organizations in the fight on hunger. This book and the website on which it’s located, are perfect examples of this.
You can buy Ending Hunger now on Amazon.
-Scott Hughes
I recently received a news story from my friend, D.J Pine, about a push by minority communities for more complete and inclusive American History.
Here’s a short excerpt:
American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling Jamestown, Va., in 1607. They hear about how white Northerners freed the black slaves, how Asians came in the mid-1800s to build Western railroads.
The lessons have left out a lot.
Forty-two years before Jamestown, Spaniards and American Indians lived in St. Augustine, Fla. At least several thousand Latinos and nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought in the Civil War. And Asian-Americans had been living in California and Louisiana since the 1700s.
The Eurocentrism taught in mainstream U.S. history classes is very relevant to hunger and poverty in the United States – a country in which 14 million children are food insecure. The Eurocentric and patriotic way that United States history is taught convinces Americans that the minorities, the working-class, and the poor are inferior. This is the main cause of the myth of meritocracy in the United States. Because oppression is omitted from the history courses, and because the achievements of the minorities and the poor are downplayed and ignored, the American people – both poor and rich – falsely believe that the poor are just lazy, and deserve to be poor. It is this false myth that creates and falsely justifies racism and classism in America.
A great book about U.S. history and the misleading way it is taught is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen.
-Scott Hughes
For those with an interest in hunger, poverty, and the social science thereof, I’ve compiled a list of books and reading materials. You can easily buy any of these books from Amazon instantly, so I recommend you get one, two, or a few. Here’s the list:
And, that’s it for now, but I’ll post more as I read them or they are recommended to me. If you want to add any other books to the list please do by using the comment function. (Hit comment below the post.)
Remember, collective ignorance and neglect allows hunger, poverty, and social injustice. The spread of knowledge and rational discussion are the most quintessential part of the solution, and books epitomize the spread of knowledge.
Scott Hughes
