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Post by Admin on Oct 13, 2015 11:05:05 GMT -8
www.economist.com/news/finance-economics/21673530-number-poor-people-declining-data-are-fuzzy-tricky-work-measuring-fallingCheck out this article above (don't worry, you can skim it). So, recently, a group came out with incredible research that found worldwide extreme poverty is falling! In fact, less than 10% of the worlds population now lives under extreme poverty. Check out the first quote from the article above. While the math may be a little "fuzzy" (as the article claims), many people believe poverty can be eliminated. So today, a very simple question: Is it even possible to eliminate poverty in this world? If not, why? If you think it is, what would you do?
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Post by Elise Coash on Oct 17, 2015 12:33:08 GMT -8
Eliminating Poverty seems like an almost impossible task, and realistically it is. The only way that this could be solved if if we lived in a truly utilitarian society. We know from many failed experiments throughout history that this kind of world is not possible. I do not know of any feasible way to eliminate poverty, but if a way to rid the world of it we must change the way we think about poverty.
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Post by Elise Coash on Oct 17, 2015 12:42:13 GMT -8
We need to change how we address the problem not a one giant problem, but as individual unique problems. All over the world the standard of living is vastly different. The dollar goes farther in some nations than others, and we cannot treat every country like they have the same economic situation, it's just not realistic. The World Bank is being very unpractical when they are setting a poverty line that encompasses the whole world. Poverty is unique in every part of the world and needs to be treated based upon the specific needs of each area. The needs of one area are going to be vastly different from the next. There are going to be general trends in poverty worldwide, but focusing on the general will only get half the job done.
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Post by emmalandry14 on Oct 17, 2015 16:30:27 GMT -8
Personally, I don't believe that it will ever be possible to completely eliminate poverty. Whether we like believing this or not, humans are selfish and to eliminate poverty we would need to learn how to evenly, or semi-evenly, spread the wealth and the fact is that it won't ever happen. There will always be some form of lower class because of the upper class. That being said, I do think poverty can become a rarity. If the middle class were expanded, there would be less of a lower class, but that would require help from the upper class, which seems to be happening more and more, especially with certain charities being as effective as they are. Even then, poverty will still exist simply because of how certain people live their lives and because of selfish human nature.
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Post by tanishababic on Oct 17, 2015 18:53:53 GMT -8
although it is apparent that poverty is dropping from the statistics presented in the article, eliminating poverty is a feat that I highly doubt will ever be accomplished. As long as the rich is rich, the poor will be poor. Inequality in wealth distribution has existed as long as wealth has. How do we traditionally help the impoverished? By giving them money. But it's never really enough. The cycle and flow of money is difficult to change and the rich often disfavor simply handing over money in acts of philanthropy. Although the end of poverty may be possible according to the article, I doubt it will actually ever become a reality.
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Post by Sydney Livingston on Oct 18, 2015 10:36:30 GMT -8
Poverty may be declining as showed in the article, however, I do not think that it will ever be completely eliminated. We have such a huge population living on a finite earth with only so many resources to offer us. These resources such as food, clean water, and shelter are the aspects that determine whether or not one is living in poverty. There is not enough to go around and so even though we are getting better at spreading our resources and helping those in need, it is not possible for poverty to end. In addition, these resources are never equally distributed so there are people in America with more food than they can handle and people living in third world countries who are still starving to death. Because of this there will never be an end to poverty.
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Post by Sydney Livingston on Oct 18, 2015 10:40:06 GMT -8
I agree with Elise that the only way to eliminate poverty would be to live in a utilitarian society which is an impossible task, therefore, eliminating poverty is an impossible task. I also agree with her when she says "a way to rid the world of it we must change the way we think about poverty." because poverty is not a concrete idea. It can be interpreted in many different way, so if we want to say that we have eliminated poverty, the only way to do this is to change the way we describe poverty.
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Post by Matthew Brunetti on Oct 18, 2015 15:53:20 GMT -8
Sadly, I do not think it's possible to eliminate poverty because of the fact that 20% of the world population lives at under a $1 a day (un.net) while that number is still a high percentage, poverty will not be eliminated. The best thing we can do to eliminate poverty is to help the poor by donating. Even if the level of people dropped to sing digits, that's still 500 million people living under $1 day. Poverty can't be eliminated by us doing nothing
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Post by Matthew Brunetti on Oct 18, 2015 15:56:03 GMT -8
I agree with Sydney when she said poverty can't be eliminated because of the number of people on the planet greatly outnumber the amount of useable resources on the planet. While it's not like rant in a number way, humans use so many resources that they constantly get depleted. It takes several trees to make the daily newspapers, and those tress could be used to build houses for the poor. As long as we keep using resources this way, there will not be enough the for the people who need them
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Post by jessica90zamudio on Oct 18, 2015 16:44:51 GMT -8
Poverty won't ever be eliminated it is a natural division in our society. It's almost impossible for their to only be one social class. The poor and the rich will always be separate and for their to be the rich, the poor are needed. Even though the article states their is a decrease in poverty, the population is growing everyday, every second , it is impossible for poverty to end. The environmental resources that can be offered are not endless, we will soon run out of space and become overcrowded if the population keeps increasing at a tremendous rate and this will also contribute to poverty. Poverty won't end it's a cycle and it can be improved through different methods such as organizations but it won't ever end because of many factors such as population, and environment. We can relocate the poor and offer temporary solutions but their is no elimination to poverty.
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Post by jessica90zamudio on Oct 18, 2015 16:49:39 GMT -8
I agree with Emma, poverty Will persist because one of the reasons is selfish human nature. We don't want to give what is ours and there always has to be that division that is created in Hollywood and everywhere we g,in the clothes we buy, the school we go to and what kind of car we drive. It is all interconnected, the rich don't want to give up what they now, the division between the poor and the rich will persist because it's almost impossible to evenly distribute all the money evenly because there will always be people who will want to be above others.
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Post by Kiana Radliff on Oct 18, 2015 18:54:55 GMT -8
Poverty is an immense issue. In fact, 30,000 people die every day because they are too poor to stay alive (BBC News). Though it would be amazing to completely eliminate poverty, it is an unrealistic aim as of now. First off, there are so many contributions to poverty, so many that can’t possibly all be fixed. People’s education, work, housing, living environment, culture etc. are all contributing factors, and the extreme efforts would be needed to fix all of them. The elimination of poverty is very unlikely, but that doesn’t mean it is not impossible. It just isn’t in the best interest of governments when they weigh the importance of other issues, like war. If the U.S. spent the money they spent on war, we would be able to completely eliminate poverty. However, they prioritize war over fixing other issues within the economy.
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Post by Kiana Radliff on Oct 18, 2015 18:58:45 GMT -8
I agree with Sydney when she said “We have such a huge population living on a finite earth with only so many resources to offer us. These resources such as food, clean water, and shelter are the aspects that determine whether or not one is living in poverty.” Limited resources will always keep people in poverty, and this is practically unavoidable.
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tonyr
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Post by tonyr on Oct 18, 2015 20:04:25 GMT -8
Ending poverty seems like a dream that people hope can be real, in a perfect world it will make sense. Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to end poverty because their is just so many people in the world that it can be difficult to help out everyone. Another thing to note is that the article states that poverty rates are dropping but this ties back to my previous statement , in which ending it completely is difficult. With that being said though I hope that these rates keep going on as much as possible.
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tonyr
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Post by tonyr on Oct 18, 2015 20:20:34 GMT -8
I agree with Emma when she says that humans are selfish and that can make eliminating poverty a difficult task. Though to some extent not everyone is selfish but the fact that their is people not willing to help those in need makes the problem difficult. Another point that I sadly agree with is that their will always be lower, mid, and high classes in the world. But adding more people to middle class can reduce the amount of people in poverty.
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