Plunge2Poverty

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.

Can We End Poverty?

In the forums, Kyrn has asked, how far can we go to end hunger and poverty?

Personally, I think we can fully end hunger and poverty. The world has more than enough food to feed everyone. We have more abandoned houses than homeless people. We spend more money on the perfume industry than it would cost to end world hunger. We spend even more on the military industry to buy needless weapons that could destroy the whole world thousands of times over. It seems like a matter of choice. As a society, we can end hunger and poverty as soon as we choose to end it.

What do you think? Do you think we can end poverty? Post you answers to Kyrn’s question in the following thread:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=105

All viewpoints are welcome.

Finding Education and Jobs That People Love

Often times on this blog I talk about the need to ensure that people obtain education and employment as a means to fight poverty and ensure financial stability. Of course, to make that effective we need to find a specific field of study and work for each person. I thought of this while reading through the Western Culinary Institute website at http://www.wci.edu/ which helps people start a new career in the culinary arts.

Though it is not for everybody, a lot of people want to learn how to cook better and would love to become a professional chef. When such people come across that institute, they may make a life-changing decision to become a chef. Because they love that field, they would probably study hard and work hard at it, and they would probably become more successful.

When trying to help people get education and employment, we need to make sure we find a field that they want to study and a career that they will love. That way, people will put their best into it and get the most out of it.

To help people find fields that they love, we can increase the usage of job fairs and more sophisticated job placement agencies. Additionally, if you know anyone personally who struggles financially or just does not make the most with what they have, try to think of fields and careers that might appeal to them and tell them.

The True Cost of Living

In the United States, the official numbers tell us that approximately 36.5 million people live in poverty. As shockingly high as those numbers appear, I think they still significantly underrate the problem. The government uses an absurdly low cost of living to measure poverty. For example, it puts the poverty line for a family of four at about $5,000 per person per year.

How can we expect a person in the United States to live on $5,000 per year and not call it poverty? We cannot reasonably do that. I doubt a person could afford just rent and food on that.

We need to calculate a reasonable cost of living that includes all the necessary expenses required to survive and support oneself with a reasonable comfort of living. I say a reasonable comfort of living because a person can survive by living in a cardboard box, but we would still consider them poor.

Our cost of living needs to include the costs of food, clothes, shelter, and healthcare. It also needs to include the costs of retirement and student loans. Additionally, it needs to include the costs it takes to earn the income. This includes transportation, education, baby sitting, and other job expenses. Additionally, the cost of living needs to include the costs of unemployment insurance in places where the government does not provide it. The costs of shelter need to include not only rent (or a mortgage), but also the cost of repairs, home insurance, furnishings, and utilities such as heat, hot water, electricity, and a phone.

If we want to make a true cost of living, we need to make a reasonable budget that includes all of those expenses. Then we need to end poverty by making sure children and everyone else can get enough education and training to get a job that pays them a true living wage.

If you want to try to estimate the true cost of living in the United States by making a budget that includes all those expenses, please post it in this thread at the Hunger and Poverty Discussion Forums. You can also discuss other related topics in the forums. It is completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Admissions Essays

The following is a paid review:

Children born into poverty who escape the poverty trap often do it in part by getting into a good college. Additionally, any person greatly reduces their chances of ever falling into poverty by getting a good education and a diploma from a respected university. For those reasons and more, I often stress the importance of using education in the battle against poverty. Today I have the pleasure of telling you about a service that helps student applicants write great application essays and personal statements to help them get accepted into college.

Admissionsessays.com has been helping students with their admission essays and personal statements since 1996. Their website has lots of information about the application process for colleges, and they offer free sample essays.

AdmissionEssays.com has specialized information on helping students get into law school, business school, or medical school. Of course, they also help with general college and graduate school.

From what I can see, they generally charge a few hundred dollars for an essay, with discount prices for bulk orders. That may seem like a lot, but it looks like less in comparison to the overall costs of education. Additionally, the long-term financial benefits of getting into a good school can outweigh the costs of essay help.

Unfortunately, the less privileged students need quality education the most, but unfortunately they have the most trouble affording it. Our anti-poverty methods need to include helping the youth get education.

YouTube World Hunger Video Contest

A new YouTube channel allows users to submit videos about world hunger for a contest by the United Nations World Food Programme. They call the contest Hunger Bytes. The WFP will choose 5 finalists, and the video that gets the most views will win a trip for two to a WFP hunger relief project.

I like the idea. It will do a lot to raise awareness and spark action about world hunger and poverty. Users will make many viral videos that will educate the public about world hunger and will call people to action about these issues.