Is it possible to eliminate poverty?

[emzie]

An has her business grown since?

Well it only opened this month.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

NOt that I doubt you but but coul I please have a link. I find it interesting.

The HD Report costs money, I can only link you to places to buy it, or random sites that cite from it, not the actual report itself. I was priveledged to it because one of my professors decided to buy it and distribute parts of it.

 

[Chazumi]

Optimization would eliminate poverty almost overnight, and will most likely be initialized before 2020, so yes.

 

[Phlegmak]

Is it possible to eliminate poverty?

No. It's impossible.

 

[Elrohir]

It's taken from the 1998 United Nations Human Development Report.

OK. Can you link to a summary, or something, that talks about the figures you used? If you can't, that's OK - I don't think you're misleading me, I just like to see things myself, and in their proper context.

I don't know how they were found, but I'm sure they did more than "crunch numbers mindlessly." You seem to think that people come up with things in this way, and its often your prime argument against something. It's never been right before.

Except, there's really no way to arrive at the idea that "Bill Gates (Or some other rich people) could provide healthcare to everyone in Africa" if he wanted to besides such a simplistic calculation. Realistically, though, throwing money at the problem often doesn't do a whole lot to fix it because there are often underlining problems that keep the situation from getting better. Even sending food and medicine directly only helps so much, because there's never enough for everyone in the whole wide world, so it gets stolen or bartered and ofttimes the people who need it don't see much of it.

I'm not saying we're doing an awesome job at combating poverty, because we're not. I just think the approach you're taking - which seems to mainly consist of saying rich people have too much money and poor people don't have enough - isn't the correct one either.

I agree that some of the numbers may be way off.
But the fact is that currently we're doing almost nothing.

~$300 can purchase a complete leprosy cycle
~$10 can purchase a DEET covered net: more important with malaria migrating northward
~$200 can purchase an OLPC laptop

These are all token amounts in our economies, but we still barely do anything.
Sachs is (apparently) asking for about 0.7 - 1.5% of our income to deal with this issue. That's hardly anything. But we're not even doing that, nowhere near.

And hey, don't like the UN route? No one's asking you to go that route. There are a gazillion great ideas that are seriously underfunded.

Hey, under the Bush administration more aid has gone to Africa than under any other president. Maybe we're still not doing enough, but we've been getting better.

 

[Murky]

Optimization would eliminate poverty almost overnight, and will most likely be initialized before 2020, so yes.

Hm. I guess by "Optimization" you mean taking all the worthless people (like white-trash supremacists living in trailer courts) and do away with them?

 

[Archbob]

Its possible to eliminate poverty. You just eliminate all the impoverished people and you've eliminated poverty.

 

[luiz]

With the exception of Africa and a handful of states outside it (like Haiti), extreme poverty has been falling quite quickly throughout the 3rd World, and will continue to do so in the near future.

Even in Africa there has been some localized progress (though of course in other places of the continent things are getting worse, like in Zimbabwe). In Africa the problems are political, fixing that the economy will sort itself out.

 

[ainwood]

Because of the way poverty is defined (looking at income as a fraction of median income), then it is possible, but very unlikely. To eliminate it, you would have to reduce the spread of incomes.

 

[luiz]

Because of the way poverty is defined (looking at income as a fraction of median income), then it is possible, but very unlikely. To eliminate it, you would have to reduce the spread of incomes.

Indeed, we have to distinguish between absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty can be ended, and has been in many places.

Relative poverty (which is nothing more than a non-negligible difference in income) can also be ended, but at the expense of a functioning economy and most likely all sorts of liberties. Places that devoted too much energy fighting relative poverty usually ended badly.

 

[Ovulator]

The richest 225 people in the world hold more wealth than the next 1 Billion combined. They posess enough money to provide all the world's poor with sanitation and healthcare for a year.

So yes, it's quite possible to eliminate poverty, but not while the money rests in the hands of a few.

These 225 people arn't just sitting on piles on money in vaults a-la Scroodge McDuck. Their money and assets are tied up in infastructe & investments, which are giving the lower class jobs and producing things that are improving the quality of life.

As stated before, the problem isn't with the rich being rich. Its the powerful being corrupt, these powerful being those who are running these countries and keeping their people impoverished.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

OK. Can you link to a summary, or something, that talks about the figures you used? If you can't, that's OK - I don't think you're misleading me, I just like to see things myself, and in their proper context.

Again, just some random summary, but the source is the 1998 UN Human Development Report.

http://www.countdown.org/end_articles/fam_kofi_annans_astonishing_facts.htm

Except, there's really no way to arrive at the idea that "Bill Gates (Or some other rich people) could provide healthcare to everyone in Africa" if he wanted to besides such a simplistic calculation. Realistically, though, throwing money at the problem often doesn't do a whole lot to fix it because there are often underlining problems that keep the situation from getting better. Even sending food and medicine directly only helps so much, because there's never enough for everyone in the whole wide world, so it gets stolen or bartered and ofttimes the people who need it don't see much of it.

I'm not saying we're doing an awesome job at combating poverty, because we're not. I just think the approach you're taking - which seems to mainly consist of saying rich people have too much money and poor people don't have enough - isn't the correct one either.

Like I said, I don't know how they came to their conclusion, all I can say is "they're not stupid people."

Also, I never suggested a solution, I merely quoted people.

They're still interesting facts, no matter what the realities of it are.

 

[Chazumi]

Hm. I guess by "Optimization" you mean taking all the worthless people (like white-trash supremacists living in trailer courts) and do away with them?

You must've read my Optimization thread

 

[El_Machinae]

Hey, under the Bush administration more aid has gone to Africa than under any other president. Maybe we're still not doing enough, but we've been getting better.

I've heard it said that African aid will be Bush's high point. And my country can't throw stones, either, because we're giving far less than we agreed to give. Far less.

My main point is that the criticism "we can't just throw money at the problem" isn't really a fair one, since we're not really even doing that. (As an aside, we don't want to give food, because that's one of the major causes of problems. High-tech medicine, education, investment, out-and-out cash: these are the things that are needed)

 

[Newbunkle]

Yeah, you know what they say: "Give the poor a fire and they're warm for a day. Set the poor on fire, and they're warm for the rest of their lives."

 

[Kozmos]

Sure it is. Simply eliminate healthcare for poor people. Thus when poor people get sick enough, they will die. No more poverty. We'll kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Merkinball]

Sure it is. Simply eliminate healthcare for poor people. Thus when poor people get sick enough, they will die. No more poverty. We'll kill two birds with one stone.

I bet you wish it was this simplistic.

Three years in and out of this hellhole now. Sure, there is development. Lots of it. But for every person that has been brought out of it, five more relace him. The slums only grow here.

 

[RedRalph]

Yes it is possible, through political and technological advances, of course it is. Humans are master of the world, we can provide for everyone, but we arent headed in that direction nowadays. but it'll happen eventually

 

[Merkinball]

Yes it is possible, through political and technological advances, of course it is. Humans are master of the world, we can provide for everyone, but we arent headed in that direction nowadays. but it'll happen eventually

Nowadays? It's amazing what people will tell themselves in order to...

It took you less than ten minutes to walk into that one. Good job.

 

[Tee Kay]

Is it possible to eliminate poverty? In all likelihood, no.

Is it possible to eliminate extreme poverty, where you have starving kids infected with malaria with no clean water or proper sanitation living in a shack exposed to the elements without electricity? Sure we can. We're just not trying. Or can't be bothered to try.