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Effects of poverty around the world
Effects of poverty around the world
Effects of poverty around the world
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In 2009, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization publicized that over one billion people globally suffered from hunger (Banerjee and Duflo 19) and economists estimate that at least one billion people live off of less than one U.S. dollar a day (Ovaska 1). With these facts present, recent scholarly debate has risen over recent years over whether foreign aid successfully works toward the removal of poverty. Two opposing viewpoints have arisen. Economists and philanthropists similar to Jeffery Sachs believe that a poverty trap confines countries with lower GDP per capita and higher rates of populations living beneath the poverty line which calls for the assistance of outside aid in order to free populations from perpetual poverty. Such economists promote foreign aid with the belief that the proper amount of foreign aid such as the implementation of schools, freshwater wells and subsidized food costs can free those stricken with poverty. However, many other economists such as Dambisa Moyo believe that foreign aid merely disrupts local economies causing more harm than benefit to developing nations. Since the 1970s, the real per capita income of Africa has dropped (Moyo 5) and similar drops have occurred in other developing nations worldwide. Foreign aid focused on reaching the specific needs of an individual more affectively fights poverty than aid projects aimed at large-scale economic progress.
The root of the economic argument comes from the debate over whether certain regions or nations currently impoverished are more prone to poverty and whether a lack of resources or a beneficial climate can lead to economic shortages. Those in favor of the idea that climates and resources determine economic fate favor an idea known as geograph...
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...p irrigation. Acumen Fund provided the research and the resources this entrepreneur needed in order to get himself out of the poverty trap and help the farmers around him with his drip irrigation innovation.
Foreign aid can destroy natural mechanisms of economic growth if not properly apportioned to the individuals with motivation and passion for expansion. When blindly given to governments and the public, aid destroys native markets and halts natural growth. NGOs, charities and governments need to take the time to meet the needs of the poor individuals ensuring that local governments have a symbiotic relationship with those they govern over and that governments do not become corrupt or prone to cause civil unrest. Aid focused on meeting the needs of those ensnared by poverty traps can exponentially initiate growth but only if done with appropriate care and caution.
Though it is very convincing, I do not fully agree with this concept. I agree that being located in a good geographical location enables a civilization to gain the upper hand early on, but I disagree that without good geography, a civilization will not be able to reach prosperity. My argument parallels James A. Robinson and Daron Acemoğlu’s argument made in Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. They used the example of Nogales, a city that is divided into two, with the northern half in the United States that enjoys a flourishing and safe life, while the southern half in Mexico and struggles to maintain a good living standard. This city has the exact same geographical conditions, and yet, the welfare varies drastically. The authors explain since the northern part of the city is in the United States, it has the access to the economic institutions, technology, and the government of the United States. In contrast, the southern part of the city suffers due to the corruption, disorder, and poor government system that is of Mexico. The point Robinson and Acemoğlu try to make with the example of Nogales, which I am in concurrence with, is that since it was technological development that gave North America the step up in the modern era, it doesn’t fully explain why Latin America, who
He develops an important argument about the “origins of the third world” (p. 279). The late nineteenth century’s ENSO droughts were no mere footnote. Rather, ENSO-driven climate change intersected with a century-long erosion of pre-capitalist state structures and the simultaneous expansion of commodity production and exchange, especially in South and East Asia. Famine and ecological crisis ensued, their lasting effects found in today’s extreme global inequality. Davis says that “The wealth generated by usury and rack-renting was almost entirely parasitic, with negligible productive reinvestment in cattle, irrigation or farm equipment” Davis, Mike (2002-06-17) Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (pg.318). He seems to be saying that political ecology offers a holistic approach and sees the individual as responsible, but with a nod to the influence of geopolitics. The political element of the equation is all the more important when you realize that in the Third World, poor also means, poor in
As the twenty-first century continues to move forward, humanity finds itself in a predicament unlike any other. Cities are overcrowded, impoverished peoples go hungry regularly, natural resources are depleting from overuse, and the degradation of the environment are daily occurrences on this planet. With so much taking place, how do we reach the point where our planet flourishes and prospers efficiently? Seemingly so, we have reached a point of no return. Yet according to Jeffrey D. Sachs, we can still maintain a flourishing, prosperous planet and the ideas that lie within this document review the main conclusions in the book Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs.
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
... aid across the world. As we have established that we do have an obligation to redistribute globally in a cosmopolitan perspective, distributing wealth however we may need to rethink what the best assistance is. Amaryta Sen conveys that before sending aid to the third world state, we would need to fully understand the limitation of freedom in the country. Redistributing wealth to global countries requires it to be evaluated by the economic shortage that they are suffering and to see whether it will be efficient in the long run. The more effective ways to contribute would be to international relief agencies or NGO’s that would pursue international development projects to help those in poverty or the alternative option by Tom Campbell’s idea of a ‘Global humanitarian levy’ which suggests a more appropriate taxation on all citizens to collectively aid those in need.
The United States is one of the leading suppliers of Foreign Aid in the world, and even though the US gives billions, European countries give aid money to the same countries, this causes many areas of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to be almost fully dependent on foreign aid. This means that without aid from other countries, they would not be able to support themselves at all. Foreign aid is meant to help countries that are struggling with civil unrest, disease, or natural disasters, it is not meant to help keep the country out of debt, but that is where more and more of the US and The EU’s foreign aid budget is going. The question is, does all this money actually go where it is intended? It should be going towards the government and to help the people, but in many cases, the countries government does not have the resources to properly track the flow of money. The countries in most cases have poor infrastructure and corrupt or oppressive leaders, not always at a national level, but in the towns and cities. So this means there is almost no way to oversee the flow of foreign aid through the country, all we can see is that their situations aren't getting any better and the countries are still impoverished. If this is the case, where are the millions of dollars going? Countries like Afghanistan and Iraq receive the most money from American foreign aid and European aid, yet they are still under oppressive governmental rule and there is still an extreme difference between the rich and poor. Garrett Harding’s theory of “Lifeboat Ethics” exemplifies how not giving aid to others will allow the strongest of society to thrive, while teaching the impoverished to help themselves. He believes that giving aid to poor countries will only make ...
Landes, D., 1999. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 38-59
Poverty has conquered nations around the world, striking the populations down through disease and starvation. Small children with sunken eyes are displayed on national television to remind those sitting in warm, luxiourious houses that living conditions are less than tolerable around the world. Though it is easy to empathize for the poor, it is sometimes harder to reach into our pocketbooks and support them. No one desires people to suffer, but do wealthy nations have a moral obligation to aid poor nations who are unable to help themselves? Garrett Hardin in, "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping The Poor," uses a lifeboat analogy to expose the global negative consequences that could accompany the support of poor nations. Hardin stresses problems including population increase and environmental overuse as downfalls that are necessary to consider for the survival of wealthy nations. In contrast, Peter Singer's piece, "Rich and Poor," remarks on the large differences between living conditions of those in absolute poverty with the wealthy, concluding that the rich nations possess a moral obligation to the poor that surpasses the risks involved. Theodore Sumberg's book, "Foreign Aid As Moral Obligation," documents religious and political views that encourage foreign aid. Kevin M. Morrison and David Weiner, a research analyst and senior fellow respectively at the Overseas Development Council, note the positive impact of foreign aid to America, a wealthy nation. Following the examination of these texts, it seems that not only do we have a moral obligation to the poor, but aiding poor nations is in the best interest of wealthy nations.
Why do nations fail? This is a topic of popular debate with many economists and a question many scholars have struggled to find an answer to. Global poverty is an issue that economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson investigate and provide an alternative insight for in their book: ‘Why Nations Fail’. Acemoglu and Robinson investigate inequalities that exist across countries and why nations are an epitome of success and others, failure. They come up with an alternative explanation for why standards of living differ across countries, and why a gap exists between the rich and poor. The book introduces an example of two cities that are separated by a border: Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. On the American side of the border, the income of the average household is $30,000, the population is relatively healthy, and the citizens live prosperously (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). On the opposite side of the border in Mexico, majority of the population do not own a high school degree, poor health conditions exist, poor infrastructure and unfortunately, high infant mortality rates (Acemoglu & Robinson 2012). How can situations on opposite borders be so different? The basis for Acemoglu and Robison’ s thesis for this phenomenon is that of institutions. They propose that that there is a strong correlation between economic and political institutions. That is, inclusive political institutions support inclusive economic institutions, and extractive political institutions support extractive economic institutions (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). Democratic institutions generally allow opportunities for the majority, leading to positive economic growth. Political institutions that look after a narrow elite is reinforced with stag...
Since the countries that receive foreign aid are usually underdeveloped countries that lack solid government systems there can be the issue of local corruption. Developed states tend to use this excuse as a reason not to provide the aid that should be given to the global poor, but it is not the rich states place to comment or deal with local corruption because as we saw in the relatively widespread failure of structural adjustment programs on the African continent, when the West intervenes in the economies of sovereign states they tend to cause more damage than repair in the long run. Aid should be sent no questions asked in the same way that China is now investing in countries all over Africa. If foreign aid wants to by-pass the hands of local corruption then they should send people to directly use the aid for state development. The developed part of the world could also support change in global institutions, which favour poor countries. Even if it is not ‘feasible’ or ‘possible,’ there should still be a move towards a more egalitarian model because rich states were able to develop at a time when there restrictive global institutional practices did not exist and in contrast the Global South is struggling to develop not only in a shorter time frame but under a vastly different economic and
Jared Diamond’s Theory of Geographic Luck explains the reason why some countries, such as Iraq, were able to develop more rapidly than other countries, such as New Guinea. Their ability to become modernized and gain power, wealth, and strength are based on various factors, such as the climate they lived in, the plants found in their surrounding environment, and the animal species found in the region that could be domesticated. Ultimately, it came down to one thing—geographic luck.
... the use of basic and effective rainwater harvesting technologies. Coca-Cola has installed these technologies in over 200 locations to assist in recharging aquifers. (Case against Coca-Cola Kerala, n.d.)
Through individual, national, and global aid, we can take steps to decrease the overwhelming amount of poverty in less-developed countries and even in our own lands.
The World Food Program has been extending funds and food donations in enormous amounts to countries that are in dire need of help. They’ve concluded that there are 842 million people who suffer from famine and malnutrition every day. The nations are coming together to solve malnutrition and famine by investing in good nutrition and productivity, which eventually creates economic opportunities for these countries that suffer from famine. The World Food Program has started the process o...
Over one billion people are living in poverty, lacking safe water, housing, food, and the ability to read. There is a high concentration of communities in poverty in Africa particularly Central Africa. States that are considered in Central Africa are the following: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Republic of Africa, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Congo. The majority of these Central African states’ economies are dependent on agriculture. As a result of this dependency, natural disasters, droughts and wars can displace subsistence farmers from their land, resulting in poverty becoming even more prevalent and harder to come back from.