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Originally Posted by maleficent
How is it that people are poverty free? Is everyone all of a sudden going to become hard working and responsible and work their butts off to support themselves or is the government going to take care of them?
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I can't deny that at least some poverty is caused by individuals making poor choices and refusing to work. But this attitude overlooks a lot of the institutionalized inequalities in industrialized nations that make it difficult for people in poverty to get out of poverty. It also overlooks intergenerational transmission of poverty by which the choices of parents negatively influence the likelihood of their children (who have done NOTHING to "deserve" poverty) ever breaking the cycle. And it's patronizing.
And it doesn't take into account the billion or so people living around the world who lack basic resources such as clean drinking water, sufficient food, education, etc., all of which are necessary before they could even think about "working their butts off." Absolutely, those nations that are worst off need to take some kind of responsibility (one thinks about corrupt African dictatorships) for their own destiny, but it's hard to overthrow a government when you're trying to feed your children. And the industrialized world has to take some responsibility for the fact that our prosperity is due in no small part to our past (and some would say ongoing) exploitation of developing countries. One good example is farm subsidies that keep home-grown crops at such a low price that developing nations can't compete with what could be their only viable export. In fact, perversely, it may be cheaper for them to IMPORT crops from subsidizing nations than to grow their own. All this so you can have cheap tomatoes in February. If we're ever going to achieve any kind of global eradication of poverty (by which I mean meeting the basic needs - nutrition, security, education - of all people) the industrialized world is going to have to make some changes in our lifestyle and policies.