Social and Global Inequalities - Do you care?

[feryl]

90% of the world's wealth is owned by 10% of the world's wealthiest.

By contrast, the world's poorest 20% only own 1% of the same pool.

600 million children have to live on less than US$1 per day.

As a result, 150 million of these children are severely malnourished.

Every year 11 million of them die of malnourishment before the age of 5.

Almost all of these poor people are in the Southern hemisphere -
Sub-saharan Africa, South Asia and South America.

While the world's richest nations are splurging billions on luxury goods, such as tabacco and alcohol every year. Just 1/5 of the same yearly expenditure over the next 5 years will eradicate global poverty and hunger.

I'm not saying all this to drum up support for any charities; these are just facts I unearthed while reading up for my degree.
It has definitely given me a lot of food for thought, and left me wondering how to solve all these problems - when it's obvious that there is little I can do.
I also wonder if others like me have similarly given up hope of acting on this concern, simply due to its scale and the complexity of its resolution.

Do you care?

 

[waileong]

Some people thought that they should do something about it... and that's when socialism and communism, to depose the bourgeois and to have the rise of the proletariat, came about. Look at where communism and socialism have taken countries.

In short, there will always be inequalities. It is unrealistic to expect that everyone will be equally rich, equally strong, equally beautiful, etc.. Whether the figure is 90%/10% or 60%/10%, it's still unequal.

You may care enough to do social work, charitable work, etc. but you may wish to keep in mind that perfect equality is not in the order of nature, and the ideal of an egalitarian society, while noble, is not in the best interests of society as a whole, since people lose the incentive to strive and to compete. That's why communism is now dead and buried.

Wai Leong
===

90% of the world's wealth is owned by 10% of the world's wealthiest.

By contrast, the world's poorest 20% only own 1% of the same pool.

600 million children have to live on less than US$1 per day.

As a result, 150 million of these children are severely malnourished.

Every year 11 million of them die of malnourishment before the age of 5.

Almost all of these poor people are in the Southern hemisphere -
Sub-saharan Africa, South Asia and South America.

While the world's richest nations are splurging billions on luxury goods, such as tabacco and alcohol every year. Just 1/5 of the same yearly expenditure over the next 5 years will eradicate global poverty and hunger.

I'm not saying all this to drum up support for any charities; these are just facts I unearthed while reading up for my degree.
It has definitely given me a lot of food for thought, and left me wondering how to solve all these problems - when it's obvious that there is little I can do.
I also wonder if others like me have similarly given up hope of acting on this concern, simply due to its scale and the complexity of its resolution.

Do you care?

 

[TMC]

well since man got no natural predators, there has to be some system in place to try to reduce the population. Unfortunately this system is man made. Just waiting for a major natural catastrophe to happen I am.

 

[Benign]

A lost cause :bsmilie:

Everyman for himself







Run,
:devil:

 

[LazerLordz]

Just do your small bit and that is enough.Honestly we cannot change the whole world, just hope that we have a critical mass of like-minded people.

 

[Astin]

I always tell the young ones, work your butts to become the top 10% weathiest and then u can help the 20% poorest.

 

[TMC]

think they prob forgot about that when they became the top 10% :bsmilie:

 

[dkw]

Came across an interesting quote a few nights ago when watching a new miniseries on Hitler;
""The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke.
It is the responsibility of the wealthy and privileged to address social and economic inequalities, not an option. But it needs to be done the right way. Socialist/Communist policies are generally wealth destroying and all you end up sharing is poverty and misery. The correlation between corrupt and despotic leaderships with poverty levels in a country is strong (witness North Korea, some middle eastern and african nations). So, capitalist economies yes, but fight the corrupt and the despotic leaders in poor countries. Volunteer, contribute and help where you can, and don't be afraid to keep raising the issue.

 

[+evenstar]

600 million children have to live on less than US$1 per day.

I read somewhere that there is a total of 1.3b people living in poverty?

 

[reno77]

The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.

Is it fair for CEOs to be paid multi million dollar salaries when their companies are losing billions ?
http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/wfb200504200907.asp

 

[dkw]

The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.

Is it fair for CEOs to be paid multi million dollar salaries when their companies are losing billions ?
http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/wfb200504200907.asp

That article refers to a possible failure of corporate governance. I'm not sure how it relates to helping the poor.

 

[mattlock]

well it'll be better if you can solve some of your own problems in your own country first

certain european countries set shining examples in the field of humanitarian work, eg Norway, not just in the world but at home too.
maybe you can care about africa when you've figured out enough for singapore first

 

[Zplus]

Your DSLR should be able to feed a poor african family for several months....

Anyways, to set things in perspective, I was covering a carnival once and these 2 south african exchange students asked me about the camera I was using (just a 20D). Soon they asked how much. I was taking a break and left the 20D on the table....

I said, "Over $2K+, with the lens."

Xchange Student, "In Singapore dollars?"

Me, "Yes, Singapore dollars."

Xchange Student, "Wow! You gotta guard it with your life!"

I was humbled with that comment. The carnival was quite normal for me. But they were really impressed by the carnival and also with the amount of money we spend on luxury goods. Yes, inequality of wealth does happen among different countries.

The US for example, have a surplus of food supply. But its too costly to ship these to poor countries. So yeah, people do suffer. Be thankful that you have a roof over your head and money to buy food. Even though in Spore, we hardly produce the food we eat.

 

[Hommie]

I highly doubt that using all the money available to help them would provide a long term solution to poverty, perhaps only a little while. Corruption and war is not something money can stop, ironically.

 

[idor]

I highly doubt that using all the money available to help them would provide a long term solution to poverty, perhaps only a little while. Corruption and war is not something money can stop, ironically.

erm, we also cannot stop the rich from getting richer...... :bsmilie:

 

[feryl]

I think we're not trying hard enough in educating the most fortunate to help the least fortunate. :dunno:

Maybe the rich also believe that they're fated/deserving of their wealth due to the hard work or intelligence that they put in. Maybe they sleep easy at night thinking that there's no way their money alone can solve any problem but their own. Maybe they even think that some people deserve to die because of where they are born or because of the color of their skin. Maybe some even dream that one day unborn babies can choose their parents.

I sleep at night, hoping and dreaming that one day people will wake up and just be kinder, more considerate, less self-centred and maybe we'll make a less wealthy but more gracious world.

Pragmatist vs idealist?