Law-Forums.org

[iker]

In a world where there is so much wealth, why do so many people live in extreme poverty?

In a world where some people can afford BMWs, private jetplanes, mansions with swimming pools and tennis courts, 1M dollar engagement rings, prada and gucci bags as well as 3D TVs, laptops, digital cameras, ipads, iphones and millions of other consumer goods... why can't some people afford the most basic of human necessities, food?

Why are there 1 billion people literally starving to death while CEOs on wall street get paid millions of dollars? AIG's executives got paid millions while their company had to be bailed out with billions of dollars of taxpayer company.

After watching the documentary "The end of poverty" I'm completely convinced that poverty can't be ended unless we completely change "the system" (wall street, the global economy, corporate governance, greed, capitalism, etc). The policies in Washington have a direct impact on third world countries in Afria, Asia and Latin America.

I'm ashamed to be American.
We make up 5% of the population, yet use 30% of the planet's resources.
We are highly greedy, selfish and materialistic.

We care more about the death of Steve Jobs than the thousands of babies and children who slowly and painfully starve to death. Thats the type of people we are. Ipads are more important to us than people and human rights.

[darrick34]

Because that is the way nature made the world. That is reality. Shame is not an appropriate reaction to ugliness that is nobody's fault.
The animal kingdom is the same way. Cruelty, winners and losers.
You cannot change it. Either accept it or spend your life in denial.
Most people that claim to have compassion are far too lazy to help others-with their own labor. That's because the ugliness is partly in you, too. If you want to help others, get a part-time job and make some money then use it to help the poor or join a group that does so. Do I still have your attention or are you simply frustrated that I have a chain attaching my wallet to my pants?

[winwood]

We have to change our values - become less materialistic, less consumerist, less greedy, less selfish, less indifferent. I'm only going to purchase & use things which I need. I'm committed to not buying "luxury" products. Companies don't care about ethics/people.. They only care about profit.

[ashbey15]

So if we put pressure on companies and wall street..... if we make it known that we care about people... the companies will take notice.. because they don't want to lose their market share. As americans we are enjoying a high standard of living (or at least the CEOs are) at the expense of the poor

[anglesey34]

Poverty isn't an accident. Third world values are in millions of dollars worth of debt. The IMF and United States encourage third world countries to take on crippling debt (with astronomical interest rates) to build infrastructure to satisfy the production/manufacturing needs of US companies.

[lamarr3]

The United States contributed directly to the poverty of Mexico and Latin America. The countries don't benefit from debt, the people don't benefit, only the US companies benefit by getting their work done cheaper.

[giulio]

Not only America is selfish.That's just the nature of the humans.

some people live in poverty because of their own fault,but there are people,who don't get what they deserve.

It's persons own fault if he doesn't study enough to get high education.

But some persons just live in places where greedy people want to take land where poor African people live.

[egann]

you can't control what other people do, you just have to set an example

you, personally, have to stop using so many resources; stop supporting the corporations that you feel are "evil"

[laureano97]

it's difficult to answer a stream of hand-wringing feelings, baseless generalizations and a person who can't handle the simple fact that reality can't be packaged into a nice, easy-to-read format...

[pannoowau]

it's difficult to answer a stream of hand-wringing feelings, baseless generalizations and a person who can't handle the simple fact that reality can't be packaged into a nice, easy-to-read format...

They spend their wealth on exotic dancers, become poor, then find themselves homeless.