It doesn’t have to be this way.

Hexayurt Project is a Free / Open Source housing design that costs $100 - $500 per home, depending on the precise location and anticipated uses. We’ve been working on the design and utilities package off and on for about five years.

The idea isn’t to make the poor richer. That’s very, very hard and there are lots of people trying that already.

Instead, the idea is to use appropriate technology to increase the quality of life of the poor, by making it affordable for them to have light, clean water to drink, and so on, all on their $1 per day.

It doesn’t take away the slums, but maybe one day it will improve the quality of life in them.

PS: http://hexayurt.com is our home page

if i’d just landed from Mars or somewhere further a afield - the question I’d be forced to ask is “why do the poor remain behind their wall ?”

Read an economic study stating that…..what was the figure?….that the 500 richest people on the planet have as much combined wealth as one-half of all the people living on Earth.

But, the status quo must be maintained!!!!!

And, the elite-class propaganda is so very effective in convincing the masses that as things are is as it should be.

Jason,

Because the poor know that if they were to breach the wall, kill the rich, and take their posessions, the rich area would soon look just like the slum.

@Jason:

what would be accomplished by scaling the wall?

I just came back from morumbi, sao paulo. a group of 20 of us went there to do mission work in picauma and campo limpo. I will never forget the piece of art I saw in the slum (you may call it graffiti, but it was art) the sign said “there is no justice for us”. I had the privilege to walk the kids home through the slums after vbs for a few days at least. Their moms & dads were happy to see us and invited us in to their homes. There is only 1 room for everything, a bathroom and a kitchen, thats it. most of the homes didn’t have a good roof or even windows. the only people who had expensive things are the drug lords. the kids walk daily thru raw sewage, garbage and dead rats in the streets. They were alone and without shoes. I agree with hexayurt–its not about making the poor rich, but we can ensure a good quality of life for everyone no matter who you are. the people in brazil who are at cptn are helping by teaching the poor how to read & write. Not for them to get out of the slums, but for the kids to see a better way. I am going back this summer and I hope everyone who sees this makes the choice to go just once out to whatever thier “slum” is with the resolve to help another. You can make a difference

What little I know about ending poverty is summarized in the book Banker to The Poor by Muhammad Yunus. He describes how making small loans to the poor in Bangladesh helped the borrowers rise out of poverty.
http://www.grameenfoundation.org/resource_center/books_and_publications/
When I volunteer for (and contribute a little money to) the Grameen Foundation,
I believe I am playing a very small part in helping more people rise out of poverty.
John

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

http://www.johnperkins.org/index.html

—-

John Perkins (author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” and “The Secret History of the American Empire”) is absolutely and completely correct. The bankers who own and control our system of government, the Federal Reserve, have bankrupted our nation with their fiat monetary policy and enslaved every working American with the 16th Amendment. These global elite control our “elected” officials and own the majority of the mega-corporations. Who are the primary shareholders of the Fed? The Rockefellers (Big Oil, etc) and Rothschilds (World Bank, Central Banks). Because of their insatiable desire for power they have condemned all of humanity to certain doom - unless WE THE PEOPLE of this planet ascend upon our political leaders and RESTORE THE REPUBLIC! “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross”. -Sinclair Lewis …We have been conditioned into complacency in America and it is our military-industrial complex that is being used as the “weapon of choice” to overthrow, destroy and assimilate the people and countries of the world. How long will we allow this genocide to continue? ASK QUESTIONS - SEEK TRUTH… RESTORE THE REPUBLIC!

I grew up in Brazil and we had a massive slum just over the backyard fence. Why are some countries more prone to having this kind of urban development? Because of weak property laws that do not punish illegal invasions and squatters, and populist governments (democratic or not) with no will to change them. It’s the same thing all over Latin America and South Asia. Patronizing the poor with missionary work is myopic. Blaming capitalism is nothing short of pathetic. Only strong pressure to change the legal framework can produce ever lasting change and quash the expansion of slums in the developing world.

To the poster (or anyone else) who mentioned Muhammad Yunus’ book Banker to the Poor - check out http://www.kiva.org. They make it easy to make $25+ loans to people who live in situations like those pictured above.

Why is it that when we talk about the condition of man in the world today, we never bring up birth control?

Even if the poor take everything from the rich, they would not know what to do with it. If you give a poor person a wining lottery ticket, they will lose the money in a few years. The poor remain poor due to lack of education. I’ve thought of starting a company that utilizes inexpensive spartan yet sanitary homes so I will definitely check out Hexayurt.

thank you! birth control. birth control. birth control.

The solution to divides like this is not to take the wealth from the rich, but rather to allow and empower the poor to become wealthy.
Too often in countries around the world, including Brazil, there are significant barriers keeping the poor from gaining wealth and improving their situation. Laws are often put in place that keep poor people from starting businesses. The purpose behind many of these laws is protectionism by the elite. The problem isn’t with capitalism. The problem is with corrupt governments and protectionist laws that keep people who come from lower classes from being able to move up.
Handing out money, whether it is from the the World Bank or from confiscating the property of the rich, isn’t going to fix that. Projects like the micro loans that http://www.Kiva.org and other organizations are running are a good step. Education is also a big help. But for any real change to happen, the regulatory situation and the governmental corruption in these nations is going to need to change.

It’s easy to say, “birth control,” over and over again. How much do condoms cost? How much does the pill cost? To the developed world, it’s an incidental cost. To the poor of this world, it’s money that could be used for food and medicine. And of course there’s the Catholic Church, the single biggest impediment to the use of all forms of birth control, free or not.

Betaal je zo veel geld voor een huis en dan is dat je uitzicht (all in good fun)

Birth control will NOT solve this problem. Why? Because the problem isn’t too many people. The problem is a cultural and governmental environment that works to keep poor people poor.
I’m not saying that smaller families wouldn’t help. All I’m saying is that smaller families isn’t going to solve the problem.

“Hexayurts”? Give me a break. Another do-gooder hippie project which means nothing to people on the ground.

Birth control will help tone the problem down… That much is sure. There is no one definite solution to any equation this large.

Say you have a family of 5, the dad skipped town once the family hit 3, the mother now has to raise all these children all by herself. If you know any broken families than you know how hard it is for single parents. You might also be aware that boys without their fathers are less subjective to discipline and usually become addicts of some sort through their rebellious attitudes. These are just a few layers of the snowball effect that broken over populated areas have. Why does Mommy still live in the slums? Maybe because she has 5 kids and can barely work to put food on the table. What if Mommy had only one kid? What if she had no kids? Get the picture? Birth Control can have a huge affect on areas like these.

Best birth control there is… keep your legs shut.

To those ardently opposed to any thought of wealth redistribution & continuing the big “the poor wouldn’t know what to do with money/couldn’t handle it.” lie that amounts to “it’s their fault they are poor.” & holding the belief that education/opportunity alone can fix this, i remind you that a large part of the fault for our current situation can be placed on the fact that much of the wealth in the world is where it is today because it was inherited. This has nothing to do with personal abilities or effort. Coupled with the fact that our world is a closed system in which there is a limited amount of everything to be shared by everyone, yes population control is one thing that should be going on when possible, yes opportunity & education have to become more widely available, but we must have a leveling of some kind for our species to continue to thrive.

Yep. Jamie. Too much population aint the problem.

I am an Indian and I know what happens to the slum people of Dharavi. They are considered as second class citizens. Salman Rushdie calls them the invisible people. They do not have rights, and the government does not give a crap about them because they are ‘invisible’ - they do not even have documents that give them the right to vote. Only people that matter are the rich ones, cos the politics of the country is tied up in money.

What we need is a reason why the fuckin government would have to suck up to these BPL sub-human minions to stay in the business of squeezing the country out of tax money.

I didn’t see any pictures of Los Angeles.

How come people assume that if the population was much less than it is now, all the people would be rich and comfortable? Do you people really think that with birth control, the population would reduce drastically and the remaining population would be all rich?
What? Only the poor people will undergo birth control? If you think that way, why dont we consider genocide of all the poor people so there wont be any slums left?

Birth Control WILL NOT ELIMINATE POVERTY. If there was just two people left on earth, one would be poor and the other would be rich enough to employ (enslave) him. Thats what humans are.

The rich sure are just and not corrupt. These slums are full-on poverty. (to echo an earlier theme) Why don’t the rich jump the fence? Many of those great missionaries aren’t what they make themselves out to be; they oppress the poor as much as they help, and take advantage of the law to oppress. But then they pray in public, and that makes it OK; because only pious people pray.

I think Charles Murray sums it up best in the Bell Curve where he shows that poverty is often a function of IQ..The lower the IQ, the higher the poverty rate…

Birth Control is kind of a form of genocide…(Kind of implies that the world would be beter off without all these stupid people…and maybe it’s true) however

An alternative would be to expand that genius spem bank program that was tried in the US and encouage lower IQ women, if they want to have kids, to just go to the clinic….instead of the club…

If this was enacted, and successful, maybe world poverty could be ended within 2 to 3 generations…

The LDS church has started a program called the perpetual education fund where church members donate money that is given out as interest free educational loans to people in poor countries. When they pay back the loan, the money is recycled into a new loan and on and on. It is a quickly growing program that is helping thousands to become educated and get themselves out of poverty in central and south america and around the world.

“if i’d just landed from Mars or somewhere further a afield - the question I’d be forced to ask is “why do the poor remain behind their wall ?””

Because either they aren’t smart or well-educated, that’s why they’re poor too…

“Birth Control WILL NOT ELIMINATE POVERTY. If there was just two people left on earth, one would be poor and the other would be rich enough to employ (enslave) him. Thats what humans are.”

Birth Control won’t elimnate poverty, but it would GREATLY REDUCE it. You have to be outright lying to suggest otherwise. When the poor have 8 kids and the rich have 2 kids, it is clear that the poor are going to grow at high rate.

Yeah more birth control HAS to be the answer! Remember in the 1960s when the population (2B) was half what it is now (6B) and there were no slums or poor people…oh wait.

Poverty is perpetuated by uncontrollable population growth. I think that to curve poverty - population has to be controlled. As much as others may violently disagree with me, I think every country rich or impoverished should establish a system of humane population control. This solution may be undesirable to some a necessary for all.

For dp instead of “Best birth control there is - keep your legs shut” please read “Best birth control there is - wear a condom”. It is a dual gendered process.

The planet’s overpopulation prevents all people from having a decent standard of living.

The planet is finite and has limited resources. If these resources were spread among fewer people, everyone could have more and thus would be wealthier. This will become an increasingly important issue as water shortages increase in severity. There simply isn’t enough to go around to everyone so more and more people suffer until we can find a way to stop overpopulation.

euthyfro you are right that much of the wealth that the very rich have is there because it was inherited. But that doesn’t mean that taking it away from the wealthy and distributing it equally would solve anything. Taking it away from the rich will just make everyone poor. Sure we would all be equal, but we would all be equally poor.
Who would ever have the massed capital needed to build a factory, or invest in researching new technology or medicines? Right now it is the rich who pay for that. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t doing it for any altruistic reasons. They are doing it purely to get more wealth. But in the process all the rest of us get jobs, nicer stuff, and better medicines.

It isn’t an accident that the wealthiest nations in the world are also the ones that make it the easiest to start and run businesses. Wealth is a created, not a found resource. Creating environments that encourage wealth creation leads to more wealth for all, not just the rich. Do the rich get richer in those environments? Of course they do, but so do the rest of us. The distance between the very rich and the very poor in the wealthy nations may remain the same, but the very poor are still richer because of a climate that creates wealth.

People,

It’s not poverty, it’d greed. The former a result of the latter.

The core of Nature is greed - hoarding, defending and exclusion are all main ingredients of survival.
Now, today, if we are to survive our own Nature, we must transcend our instincts.

We have won the survival game, but are fear-whipped by the media to stay scared. The media and the corporations.

Too bad. Humanity was just getting interesting.

Bye bye.

Terry

Less than 1% of millionaires in the world inherited their money, you imbeciles. Most worked very very hard to be where they are now, and did it ethically and legally. Welfare and Unemployment in the US empowers the poor to remain poor, and Affirmative Action empowers non-whites to do poorly in school, and thus, do poorly in the work-force post-college. The problem is not the free-market economy. Corrupt politicians and white-collar criminals make the majority of capitalists look bad. I can’t speak for other countries, but in America, if you don’t want to be poor, it’s as simple as applying for a job. If you do well, you will be rewarded, barring extenuating, and rare circumstances (i.e. the boss hires his son instead of promoting you). All these liberals whining about that states of affairs in the Third World would do well to stop harping about Bush’s war in Iraq, because while things there haven’t improved yet, there wouldn’t even be a chance of improvement there had Saddam and his insane sons been allowed to continue what they were doing. Oil or not, daddy’s war or not, liberals are hypocrites every time they move to stop world poverty with one hand, and shake a fist at the War in Iraq with the other. Get a clue. Or grow a brain.

I am/was those poor people some of you are referring to, and my only advice to you is that you all realize how luck you are, and that money isnt everything. Regardless of your own situation we should work towards and hope for everyone deserving to have a decent life. Life is too short - some people deserve a break (those which are honest and hard working). The world would be better. (sp?)

Birth control is irrelevant. A pandemic will hit and the overcrowded slums will get hit hardest because of poor sanitary conditions, overcrowding, ignorance, etc. The division in wealth, information, and knowledge fueled by the exponential growth of technology will only create more situations like those shown in the photos.

the idea of using birth control to eradicate poverty is disgusting. It is human nature to propagate, would you deny someone of their nature because of the political and economic conditions that constrain them? ridiculous.

A good book to read is “Open Veins of Latin America: 5 centuries of the pillage of a continent” by Eduardo Galeano. It gives a detailed and thorough account of how, from the time of Spanish Conquest to the 1970’s (when the book was written,) the same groups have maintained economic dominance over the indigenous people of Central and South America through many nefarious actions.

I suggest we educate the poor but also educate the ignorant consumer class who unwillingly and unknowingly drive this system of degradation.

another great post, deputy dog.

i feel inclined to chime in because i’ve had recent discussions with friends about this very topic. it’s easy to see the disparity between the rich and the poor from the photos in this post. but is it a fair assessment? i’m assuming (and potentially wrong, please correct me if i am) that most of the commenters and readers are from eurocentric locales and, thusly, are looking at these situations through western eyes. to me, these towns seem immoral in how stark the line is drawn between the haves and have-nots; but how does it seem to them? do the people in the shantytowns feel sleighted, or do they have a sense that ‘this is just the way it is?’ how do the citizens on the wealthier side of the fence feel about it?

before i get verbally massacred i’d like to illustrate a potentially relevant point. we can read about tribes in remote areas, far away from modern civilization, that can subsist on the equivalent of pennies a day, and we feel pity for them. i doubt they look at it that way. it just happens to be that’s how westerners view the world; we measure through possession and wealth. perhaps that’s not a universal yardstick.

anyhow, the same phenomena exists in the US, just typically not so apparent. there are some areas of this country that are poor beyond many of our understanding, yet most americans remain ignorant or apathetic to the plight of these people. new orleans is still in bad shape from hurricane katrina (it wasn’t in good shape to begin with, but i digress) yet most americans have moved on from caring. take this in mind and then try to put yourself in the shoes of the affluent denizens of caracas or mumbai. are americans any different, or any better?

one final note: on a relative basis, compare east palo alto to palo alto. the wall is the 101 freeway.

What are the issues?
Corruption.
Birth Control.
Capitalism spread without the spread of democracy.
A overall inequality in the wealth.

I do agree that the rich are rich for a reason and the poor are poor for a reason, but the majority of the reasons -statistically- have nothing to do with the individuals ability.

America must, as the worlds richest nation, lead a fight against inequality of income, here, and in the rest of the world. You cannot have a capitalist market economy without the support of the majority of the population.

How is this done? Well first of all concentrate on targeted taxes. Namely sales tax, estate taxes, and luxury taxes. We have to quit buying the line this will send the economy into a whirlwind (hurting bussiness) and cause a huge corrupt government.

What if this isn’t done? There have been massive wars started over income inequality, including war world 2 - germany was in huge debt post ww1 which squeezed the lower class to a point of rebellion.

–monymkrmom

I had the privilege to walk the kids……

Privilege??? Don’t be so self righteous.. .

Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. I believe it was J Paul Getty who said that “Being rich wouldn’t be nearly so much fun if there weren’t so many poor.” I

So true.

Corker

Can we please remember these pictures when the “poor” are discussed in the U.S. I have been to Mexico and stayed in houses that look similiar to these pictures. It frustrates me when the less fortunate in America are described as poor. If you own Nike’s, cell phone, cable TV, or video game system you are not poor.

Appalling, really.

So, what are we going to do about it?

http://www.kiva.org

That’s a simple, honest start.

-Tony

This is not a divide t looks more like an invasion of the poor, the rich areas look like isolated islands in a sea of the poor. End result is social chaos.
As the gap grows bigger between rich and poor the larger the sea becomes

Basic mathematics is all you need to work out that $10 goes alot further if divided it amongst less people! The very first thing that poor people need to do for themselves is HAVE LESS KIDS! You need to break the cycle!

You should check out dubai … or any muslim country really. But dubai really spans the crown in this. At 500 meters from the world’s only 7 star hotel … houses that are supported by cardboard.

Those are some awesome pictures, but i noticed that In the first picture of paraisópolis favela there are three big shiny cars parked in a driveway in the “poor district”. That’s funny.
That is all.

Sheryl, the problem is that the kids can also help support the family. People will continue to have children, and will do so because it is our species’ design, just as every other species, to multiply to reach the limits of sustainability. As much as government, and other forms of self control on a species level, is the best thing we’ve got, it is truly not effective enough to control the more fundamental instincts.

The most pertinent question of this and coming decades will be: Can the world, as an entire ecosystem, support homo sapien populations of current levels, and adding additional complications, in their current distributions? What elements of this planet’s ecosystem are necessary for providing that support, and how to bolster these foundations for our own existence should be the most important work of the species.

As impossible as thinking beyond ourselves has shown itself to be, at least for our species, there are simple facts that often are disregarded. One of the most important is that, there could be billions of human lives lost and the species would survive. Why should there be more than 6 billion of us on this planet, how is it better? It seems the only argument for it is in economics, which contradicts itself in that, you have more people to buy and work, but less money for each person. One day the human species will find a purpose for its numbers, find balance with the global ecosystem, or find itself as part of the much greater history of the planet we live on. History suggests that the second two are the only true possibilities.

To anyone who says Birth control is not the answer:
It is a fact that it costs more to feed 4 people than it costs to feed 2. It’s a fact that 2 people can live more comfortably in 100 square feet than 4 people can. It’s a fact that a woman working makes more money than a woman raising children.

The truth is there is no ONE solution. You can’t solve the problem of poverty with condoms, or better housing, or giving them loans, or restoring the republic, or education. No, it must be all of them.

And to people saying keep your legs shut? Way to make it entirely the burden of women to use birth control. Your ignorance just goes to prove how essential it is to educate women all over the world — they are truly the keepers of humanity.

I lived in a posh area of Bombay(now,Mumbai) called Colaba and just behind our plush building were slums with fisher folk living. Driving from the Airport to my apartment some times once or twice a week I used to feel so sad and sorry for the unfortunate who could not own their home or live decently despite their tremendous but invisible contribution to the local and national economy.This was during 1974 to 1989. Then my job took me to Manila in the Philippines where again I was in the lap of luxury and had to travel and pass through streets with dwellings that were nearly slums. Even in down town New York in the lower Manhattan area I could see the struggle for the American Dream.Most US cities have their share of the poor living in conditions that are nothing short of appalling.
It might be simply unimaginable for those in the strife and war torn countries.
Will there be a day when governments and responsible agencies do something about housing sub prime crisis or not. One exception is the small city state of Singapore which addressed and managed the issue with foresight,intelligence and concern for better life of its people

At what point do you think that people should start thinking about taking measures to limit human reproduction? Never? Would a trillion people be enough? What might be some of the signs and symptoms that there are enough people on Earth? Environmental degradation? Extremes in wealth distribution which put the lives of hundreds of millions at the whim of a few dozen families and their friends? Distortions in real estate values?

It’s not that difficult to see what’s going on when you look at human civilization as if it were any other collective life form which is outgrowing it’s niche. Like algae or mold, cities will expand until they exhaust the resources they need.

The pressures faced by the poor to produce large families are the mirror image of the kinds of pressures which dictate the decisions of the wealthy. In theory, the rich have the power and opportunity to distribute their wealth in a more beneficial way, but in practice, a profit-driven corporation is no more free to be truly humane and generous to it’s workers than the workers are to go without another able bodied child to help provide for the family.

Although the dynamic of exploitation is the same regardless of population size, the intensity of it increases geometrically or even exponentially. I think we are reaching a critical point where culture has begun to disintegrate under this pressure…all concerns unrelated to money and the promotion of it’s status are sacrificed and the marketplace becomes the final arbiter of liquidation of our collective cultural capital. We are like the slave crew of the ship, being forced to tear apart our own deck and hull by crazy captain to build him a massive luxury crow’s nest. ‘Drown like a Pirate’ Century.

Sorry to say this but I lived in some of those poorer areas. As sad as it may seem, some of the most wonderful people live in those conditions. They dont know the stubborness and pride that we, the rich folks that make $8 an hour or more, have. God bless them for their sweet spirits and pray that someday we can find a way to help them live in better conditions.

Dear Mr Fhan
It WAS a privilege to walk these kids home and be invited into their homes by the parents. I am sorry you took this in the wrong way. I am going back again for a month this summer and can’t wait to go! I have now made lifelong relationships with my new family in Brazil, in Picauma and through our mission group, we send out money monthly to the families we met on our last trip. These kids now are getting medical care, eyeglasses and help with the things they need from month to month. It is only a drop in the bucket, I know. But it is what I am able to do.
Our next trip this summer is to build a school in Picauma to help adults learn to read & write, so they can get training and jobs that will actually support their family. It will have an immediate effect for them, but this is really targeted to the next generation. The kids need to know they can grow up & be successful without dealing drugs or being a thug. This can’t happen overnight.

Monrovia, Liberia -> Presidential Palace

View Larger Map

Homeless people often do chose to be homeless. To deny that, is absurd. Yes, they forfeit nice-ities that you think are must haves, but they have absolutely no responsibilities. None. Zero. Some homeless think that lack of responsibility is greater than having “things”

lol, what a traffic

It must always be this way, because you see, this is the curse of capitalism, 99% of the population living in poverty while the elite live like gods. This is the future we all have in store unless we wake up take thier power away.

Ending this disparities is easy … simple supply and demand solution …If the poor reduce their breeding supply and demand will increase their wages!

Wow, the most remarkable pictures I’ve seen in a long time. Talk about wealth division.

Birth control has been achieved in Brazil, through health action plans (fee access to contraceptives in government health clinics = “posto de saúde” - Brazil has universal health care - although of questionable quality). That’s what the statistics show. Although, the poorer they are, the more they have (and this correlates statistically with skin color, and is showing up in numbers - a demographics shift). This is Brazil.

Look up the numbers, people. And don’t confuse, e.g., India with Brazil.

I just want to protest here, me being a Brazilian, the presence of these Missionaires.

The are amongst the worst offenders in this country - they are activelly working to destroy native amerindian culture, undermining their life style. Not only that, some missionaries are just plain and simple involeved in biopiracy, stealing knowledge. Fortunately, the Brazilian government has compiled a catalog of all know plants and insects and this has made it substantially harder to simply plunder (under the disguise of Christian missionary work) us by filing a patent somewhere (recent cases in Japan, for instance).

Missionaries are also actively working to destroy the language and values of the native amerindians. They do this by infiltrating the very poor areas with little government oversight and they purportedly try to help, engaging in health work, for instance, but what they are really doing is blackmailing the communities - either they get schooled in their Bible classes or they don’t get the help they so need.

If you have any influence in your country, please help limit the action of these culture-destroyers and evil people.

To all those that just happen to think that a situation like the Brazilian just develops “naturally” because the people are just naturally stupid, I suggest that you pick up a few books on the history of colonization. For instance, it’s well-know what its effects on India were. As to the Americas, the slave trade and triangulation had a lot to do with it. The shanty towns, slums, or favelas, are but the scar tissue of the historical fact.

When you talk of coutnries like Brazil, India, or the African Continent it’s best that you remember how they were plundered for centuries by colonial powers. Some very respectable families in the, e.g., the U.K. are nothing more than the heirs of human slave trade. The fact is, the U.S. educational system is so bad, it produces mentally handicapped interpretations of history (such as the prevalent view that History is the work of its great “actors” - such as Bush Jr.)

Colonialism doesn’t explain everything, of course, but it does help to explain some apparently unique phenomenons, including the high level of widepspread corrpution in those coutnries. On the other hand, developed nations are just not fair: just look at the fight Brazil has had to put against the U.S. on the WTO. The U.S. say they promote free trade, but Brazil can’t sell orange juice, for instance. The U.S. will not buy ethanol from Brazil because of the oil lobby, and this from a country that has almost 50% of the car fleet running on green fuel. While we can’t sell ethanol without a surtax, Bolivians have to face the fact that the Andes is melting and they will have water shortage, while the average overweight US American continues to drive his SUVs.

The E.U. isn’t any better. The same happens in the E.U., that keeps subsidizing their incompetent farmers and overtaxing Brazilian agricultural exports. The Powers That Be say the world will develop through free trade, but when it’s time to trade, they block every move made by developing countries.

All I can say is that one day, the whole shit is gonnna blow in your faces, either through communicable diseases, a gigantic immigration pressure or even more extreme acts, such as terrorist acts (these not likely from the American Continent, I don’t think…) Either we choose to live a in a free world with equal rights and opportunities for everyone, or we are doomed.

We can’t bring up birth control because with less people, wages would go up.

Poverty can remain as it currently exists and the wealthy may keep all their money only if the labor supply is in overage.

It’s all about the money, all the time.

JT, poor educated people don’t breed like the uneducated.

So why not educate them? Oh yeah, an educated workforce demands more money.

We can’t implement a two-caste system with educated hordes now, can we?

36. Mike the CLUELESS SAYS “Less than 1% of millionaires in the world inherited their money, you imbeciles. Most worked very very hard to be where they are now, and did it ethically and legally. Welfare and Unemployment in the US empowers the poor to remain poor, and Affirmative Action empowers non-whites to do poorly in school, and thus, do poorly in the work-force post-college. The problem is not the free-market economy. Corrupt politicians and white-collar criminals make the majority of capitalists look bad. I can’t speak for other countries, but in America, if you don’t want to be poor, it’s as simple as applying for a job. If you do well, you will be rewarded, barring extenuating, and rare circumstances (i.e. the boss hires his son instead of promoting you). All these liberals whining about that states of affairs in the Third World would do well to stop harping about Bush’s war in Iraq, because while things there haven’t improved yet, there wouldn’t even be a chance of improvement there had Saddam and his insane sons been allowed to continue what they were doing. Oil or not, daddy’s war or not, liberals are hypocrites every time they move to stop world poverty with one hand, and shake a fist at the War in Iraq with the other. Get a clue. Or grow a brain.”

That is the most ignorant racist post I have read today. How many good paying jobs are there even left in America? I guess you think the Iraqi’s are better off now that we bombed them back to the stone age? Have you ever seen pictures of Iraq before we ruined it? I guess you forgot that the CIA put Saddam in power to begin with? How would you like it if someone invaded your country and killed members of your family? We should have never been there to begin with and if it wasn’t from brain-dead war supporters like you, my girlfriends two sons wouldn’t be in Baghdad right now guarding Cheney’s future oil fields. I very much doubt you have ever been in the military either though as those that have been there know this war is wrong and unwinnable and those saying we should be there think it’s fine as long as they or their family members don’t have to do any of the fighting.
The poor are poor mostly because the federal reserve is printing up money with nothing backing it. It costs about five bucks to pay for paper and ink to print a million dollars, then the fed lends that money to the government, charging interest on that money which is paid back to the crooked bankers from the working mans income taxes. There isn’t even enough money in existence to pay the federal debt! The bank loans you 250 grand to buy a house and it cost them next to nothing to print the money. You end up paying them back almost a million dollars (principal and interest) and if something happens to you and you can’t make a few payments they now own your house that you paid for three times over already, not counting taxes. They have no risk what so ever and you work your whole life to pay interest payments so some banker can buy a 50 million dollar painting to hang on his wall. You go and try to blame non whites because you have been brainwashed into thinking non whites are the problem, and that is exactly what the very rich want you to do so they divide those that could be a danger to them if they were united against them. The dollar is growing weaker every day and soon it will be like pre WW2 Germany where it will cost 10 grand for a loaf of bread. Google “The creature from jeckel island”, read it and then see how smart you really think you are. You are the last person to suggest someone should grow a brain, and as for birth control issue, I highly wouldn’t recommend you reproduce either for that matter! When the dollar crashes and you are then one of the poor you seem to think deserve what little they get, maybe then you will realize everything you were taught is bulls*it.I suggest you go to the library and check out a book on critical thinking and maybe one on survival too, since I doubt you will last long after the dollar crashes (and since it’s backed by nothing it will crash),plus there that good old thing called Karma that is gonna sneak up on you and bite you in the ass!
PS, I am a collage deeducated, self reeducated, White American veteran too.

Poverty is an inescapable by-product of the capitalist system. Capitalism has a polarising effect on societies. Although it makes a very a very small part of the population almost unimaginably rich and spreads material wealth to a larger slice of the population than pre-capitalist social structures, it is also a system in which the only thing most people have to sell - their labour - is treated as a virtually-free commodity. This condemns most people to poverty, because most of us have nothing more than our labour, be it physical or mental, to sell.

Capitalists conspire with each other and with governments to prevent people with nothing other than their labour to sell successfully co-operating to improve their circumstances. In the ‘free market’ that results from the absence of powerful unions and of political parties that genuinely represent workers, labour costs continually decline unless demographic factors intervene and create labour shortages. However, these are usually only temporary and, in any case, are very rare today, due to the increase international mobility of labour. Thus the poor in the ‘third world’ have stayed poor indeed, their conditions seem to be deteriorating almost everywhere - and the poor in wealthy countries like Australia are getting poorer all the time.

In short, unless there are political forces that place firm limits on the degree to which capitalism is able to treat labour as a virtually free resource (like water and the air) capitalism will generate poverty - and more and more of it.

monymkrmom

Why do people feel as if they have to brag about doing humanitarion actions? How much money does your church, or what ever organization, put into the communities here in the US? What actions are taken to prevent sexual child abuse or the slave labor we have in this country? What about the mother or father that’s working 60 hour weeks, but are not able to afford healthcare for their child? Our own issues are endless.

Before we can make the rest of the world a better place, we need to focus on our own.

You’ll never hear me brag about what I have done and trust me, I don’t sit around and talk about what I “could” do or what I “have done.”

We can totally do this. The basic technologies are totally well known.

Efficienct stoves, like the Rocket Stove or the Wood Gasification Stove cut your fuel bills by 75% or even 90%

Solar Water Pasteurization or SODIS gets you clean drinking water over most of the planet.

There’s really simple approaches to solar, right down to things like the Bogolight.

You put that together, and you’ve already saved 10 million people’s lives each year. Bad water and constant smoke from cooking fires kills that many people.

Because they’re mostly children, parents in these places have three or four or five kids when they only want one or two to survive. Populations boom. But f the kids survive, then even in one generation, people slow down their rate of reproduction. Think it’s impossible? The people of Kerala, India live on $1 a day, and their rate of reproduction is about 10% higher than America’s rate - just about at replacement, in fact.

Oh, and they have a life expectancy only 2 years shorter than Americans, or there abouts.

What we’re going for is a “high tech Kerala Model” - to see that dignity is possible even on very little income, and then to try and find the best possible tools to extend that right to every single human being alive.

We need engineers. We need workers with words, with graphic design, with research.

If you believe in that vision too, get in touch: hexayurt@gmail.com

What about the U.S.? A country full of greedy, fat, naive, myopic, war mongers.

The rich of this world are in the ultimate position of power. They control everything we do and then they make you believe you have freedom.

A handful of tales for you:
“Israel is good, Palestinians are terrorists”.
“It is slum dwellers’ own fault they are poor”
“Iran, stop trying to defend yourself, or we’ll nuke you, and then make money from the ensuing conflict”
“Muslims terrorists”
“Agent Orange wasn’t used in Vietnam”
“Iraq has WMD”

The Catholic Church is the richest entity in the world, yet they won’t hesitate to ask you “give us money to feed the poor children”.

The bible has a tale of a rich man giving a small chunk of his fortune to the poor, while an old lady with only one penny gives her only penny; the moral is that she gave more because that is all she had. As the Pope sits in a gold filled room telling everyone that the Sun revolves around the Earth, or that condoms are against God’s will,

Power corrupts, so is there ever a solution?

Come hither the revolution and make sure your kids never forget the past.

So many good, smart people can correct these inequities yet we have the super-duper, secretive, rich bankers that steer the world this way. Until this issue is dealt with, inequities will continue, leaving our children nothing. Many rich, clean technology exists but are suppressed by the very same people, selfishly holding back humanity. Imagine wireless, free, unlimited electricity all over the world; no food shortages, and no dependence on government. We are destined to achieve this goal, the real question is who is willing to fulfill it?

I love all of the “compassionate conservative” replies about the poor not being able to use the money wisely if they did get it?And these corporate criminals are doing a great job with the planet?Crawl back into the holes you came out of and make the world a better place!As far as condemning birth control ,its one part of solving the rich-poor equation,we need to do these things in concert with many others!

why do the poor remain behind the wall? that’s an ignorant-ass question. either that or just a bad joke. here’s a better question - how many shanty-town dwellers have internet access? then at least they could scale the walls in virtual reality.

I lived in Brazil for two years and new people who lived in the big housing around Morumbi. I agree with what Jaime said. In certain instances the government there doesn’t do anything. Unemployment is a bug problem in Brazil. People from the North move south to Sao Paulo to find work. The lucky ones are able to get by working 14-16 hour days. Those who aren’t either spend their time finding odd jobs or collect trash for recycling. Its sad to see so many people arrive in Sao Paulo to find work but find absolutely nothing. Further more Brazilians are pretty family oriented people I don’t see them being very fond of birth control.

Dear Mr Fhan:

I will keep you in my prayers, as you are obviously a very unhappy person or have been hurt somewhere along the way. i do understand.

I was privileged to be there and no, no one had to go to bible class to get anything-I did not try to speak to anyone there unless it was in their language and we invited everyone in to eat with us, get clothing and fellowship. I have lifelong friends now and will be back next summer, come join me–oops i forgot you won’t because then you’d be bragging?? HUH

in as far as doing things in my local community, I am active in a lot of the things you have in your ugly way, mentioned and have been for quite some time. Yes there is much to be done here as well and by looking at your last few posts that are full of sarcasm and hate i won’t elaborate at this time or forum—–you would want to turn anything good around to fit into your jaded view of the world.

So in closing you can go ahead and keep spewing your negativity and more power to you!! way to go !! Does it make you feel good??? Bottom line is, I want to make a positive difference in the world. I don’t just sit around on my butt complaining—sound familiar?? maybe you should take a long look in the mirror. i know you CANT your afraid of what you might see in the reflection. No wonder why people hate Americans! I’m sure you also voted for the smirking chimp that’s in the Whitehouse now both times? DuH? Be honest i know you did……

I don’t get the big deal showing pictures containing a residential sector and a commercial sector, there is obviously an architectural difference between residential housing and commercial buildings, not only in poor countries, but all around the world. Kind of misleading only showing poor countries, don’t you think ?

“I will keep you in my prayers, as you are obviously a very unhappy person or have been hurt somewhere along the way. i do understand.” haha, it’s so sad when people try to insult others like this, but it does make me laugh a little inside. It’s a good thing that you don’t “spew out negativity” in your posts. <– sarcasm

Btw, yall should take econ 101, it’d clear up a lot of things for you in understanding the issue.

kev - no, i don’t think it’s misleading. i do think you’ve missed the point of the post though. even if it’s a rundown shack next to a shiny commercial skyscraper, it’s still illustrating a wealth divide. we’re not just talking architectural differences.

–monymkrmom

Interesting that you didn’t take the time to “brag” about what you are doing in your local community to make it a better place… Why, maybe because your not doing anything.

I have never been insulted by your posts, except when you insinuated that I voted for the current tyrants in office.

Anyways, I must say we’ve both been children, arguing back and forth on this issue, so I’ll be the bigger person and step away for it. I’ll not check this page again. If you wish to continue our child-like behavior, go on and keep posting.

Much Love Your Way,

MrFhan

So tragic to see this huge divide…no wonder there is so much violence today. If only there was a way to achieve a harmonious balance, and yet society could still move ahead with discoveries and positive works….what a challenge we have ahead of us…

Keith Johnson, Hallandale, FL, USA

The poor, if they scaled the wall, would be branded as terrorists and hunted down

Some people here seem to imply that being uneducated is one of the reasons why these people are poor. I don’t know what sources of information these people have, but I know university graduates who can’t find a job and are poor. Also, I see every day in the media major idiots like Paris Hilton who can’t even read and are in posession of large amounts of money.
Pretending that poverty is the poor’s fault is something that makes me sick.
On the other hand, birth control might not solve the problem of poverty, but it will surelly make the lives of the poor easier. I mean, it’s easier to maintain a family of three than a family of te, isn’t it? In many poor countries in the world condoms and contraceptive pills are provided by the state free of charge.
What poor people need is to be taken into acount like the citizens they are, and not ignored or only given “presents” before the elections.

Very good pictures.

I come from Caracas. To the left the neighborhood is called “La Urbina” (nice buildings), to the right it is Petare (ranchos).

I think Caracas may have the dubious distinction of having the greatest contrasts of all in the world. There are even better examples in the same city

I think ignorance (lack of education), coupled with religion & poverty make a potent cocktail that justifies and condones such dehumanized, rights-and-responsibilities-free existence.

But first, I will fault the churches of all religions, who are sitting on piles of money and wield substantial power. These are the ultimate undemocratic institutions that come under no checks or balances.

In the Lake Victoria region of East Africa, where poor men from the hinterland migrate to survive by catching fish, I will say that the Church is *murdering* people in their prime. How? By rejecting the use of condoms. The only entertainment these fishermen have is sex, and AIDS is rampant. The preachers do not advocate condoms, as the “Book” doesn’t permit them to do it, although they realize that this *kills* young men and women.

As a radical humanist and atheist, I find all religions only interested in consolidating their power base, thereby propping up political establishments that foster asymmetry–of resources, information and power.

Do not be blinded by religion…one can live a much more moral and satisfying life without it.

Malodorous_Feline

For those that are arguing that (voluntary) population control in the form of birth control is pointless, that procreating is “in our nature”, I’m calling bullshit. It’s arguably “in our nature” to do a lot of things- fight, kill, steal, cheat on loved ones, etc, but the point of civilization is to subdue those urges for the common good. Several good points have been made about how population reduction will ultimately help reduce poverty.

I think the point IS to be educated- for example, if you’re ignorant about the mechanics of sex, it’s a lot more likely you’ll accidentally end up pregnant. If you don’t know how to invest/budget/save money, it’s more likely you’ll end up wasting it. I’m a law student, and there’s a lot people don’t know about the legal system- I taught a class to inner city Philly kids about their basic civil rights, and it’s amazing what they are never told. If people are informed, they’ll question what some corrupt government official/religious leader tells them to do.

Welcome to our future.

Jamie,

It´s your pool in the picture?

This is what NAFTA and amnesty is going to do to America. This is what the elites want. To live lavish lifestyles and look down on poverty. Altho Mexico is wealthy and the man who “owns” Mexico just passed Bill Gates in wealth. But he lets his people come here and get free medical, SS.free schooling and they undercut our jobs. I know people who have gone out of business because of their competition hiring illegals. Hillary, Obama and Edwards were here in Vegas visiting Hispanic neighborhoods. Do you need any more proof that illegals are voting?
Some of you say all you have to do it get a job. Hillary gets millions of dollars from India for campaign money. She also gets a salary from them as a consultant. My husband lost his job as a programmar because of the business bringing in people from India.
We have to stop this. Call your representatives every day and tell them you want the fence built and the illegals deported.

I wrote this long post, and decided shorten it, it was too much…..
So here it goes,

Society is becoming more educated and actually starting to understand what it takes. Change takes time, think about building all a house and all the red tape you have to go through to get it built. Now think about a country like Brazil that is poor and the majority are uneducated, that makes for a lot of red tape.

Finally people are wanting a change and are getting fed up with their government systems. Don’t forget, each generation moves at a different pace and this 21st Century and it’s moving at a fast digital speed. So as the shift progresses the massive change will become a transformation, and will constantly evolve from there.

The one thing different about this new generation is that we are extremely more aware and involved. We also are open to change because it’s what sets us apart and we provide an enormous amount of pressure to the corporate world.

Think about it. Five years ago was there such a thing as L.E.E.D. ?

I think that’s progress, we as a people can start the wheel moving and let gravity take it from there!!!

Don’t forget, you have to have some bad to get some good! Otherwise what would we as designers do if there wasn’t anything for us to do…We’d be bored uninspired trolls.

K everyone, chillax.

Lots of points people are making, surprised at how common many misconceptions & biases recur in the posts, and how much common desire on all sides, to make the world a better place the best way they know how.

Re: Population control
Educated, voluntary decision = moral. Forced or coerced = immoral.

Re: Limited Resources
Common misconception. Yes, raw resources are limited. Efficiency of use is unlimited.
Ex: recent boom in alternative energy. More people = more brains to innovate & find ways to use the resources available. (research this before flogging me please)

Re: Gap tween Rich & Poor
Biggest obstacle= Rich have property rights, ergo access to credit to invest and make more money, Poor have weak property rights due to excessive regulatory barriers to enter the legit market. (black markets abound) Ergo, no access to credit. Ask any business. Credit is key.

We won’t change their laws. Too many interests. Working around them through Microcredit is a good start for now.

Re: Rich & Poor, Smart and Dumb
The poor are extremely entrepreneurial and creative. Again, microcredit and other opportunities to give them access to solid propery/credit, and you’ll see how they do. Lots of talent in these communities.

Re: Wealth redistribution
I see no problem with tying financial subsidies to economic growth, preferably through a flat consumption tax instead of an income tax. The rich are good at increasing wealth. So turn that into a resource for all by giving a small percentage to the poor to do with as they please. They know their needs more than anyone else.

For those who feel a flat tax would hurt the poorest, a “baseline payback” can be established to offset that reasonable concern. Let the rich serve the poor by doing what they do best.

Re: Equality = bad, Equal opportunity = good
For those with real concerns about network advantages and nepotism, see the wealth redistribution bit above. Trying to control people’s private relationships would do more harm than good.

Re: Inheritance
Most millionaires in the US did make their own fortunes. Don’t have data for the rest of world. Many of the wealthiest in US made their fortunes in tech/computer sector. A brain can produce more value than the food and resources required to keep it alive.

These are not new ideas. They are however born of research & science and not political agenda. If more well intentioned activists took the time to learn about markets and how the world works, they might find means of achieving their goals in ways they never imagined. Some already and, and the results are inspiring.

Here’s to good intentions, and the maturity to, instead of judging, understand what works and use it towards your aims.

I live in Brazil and I see that everyday. I think what Brazil (maybe the other places too) needs is a good education system. Giving information, culture and knowledge to our children, in the future they will know that they have to use condom not only to prevent an unexpected birth but sexuals diseases like SIDA. They will see lot of oportunities to have a better life if they study at a good college/university and then they will not move to big cities like São Paulo to try to get a job or they will be more than an employe and generate more jobs.

In my mind the Brazilian government have to solve the problem of education for this people first than give condoms, pills and that “superficial” stuff.

This is a very complicated problem for all the world

Michel Téo Sin

I live in the building in the first photo, the one on the right.

It’s like, SO ANNOYING when I’m playing tennis with my friends, and a tennis ball goes over into the slums.

They never throw the ball back!

Hmph. People these days.

I live in Venezuela, I could write pages on these issues, will try to be brief. To me it’s simply bad Governments. Who is truly rich here? The Government. The Government owns the wealth and for the last fifty years, including Chavez’ era, has tried to control every detail of the economy. The result? Little growth, a straight jacket on the economy and the wealthy get wealthier. When Chavez got to power, there was a group of architects, pro-Chavez, that had for years been studying the housing problem. Their premise was that with a US$ 60 billion program funded by multilaterals, you could eliminate all of the shacks in the country. They were booted out of the Government the first two years, because of politics. Don’t you think that with the oil income Chavez’ has had, he could have funded it?. Instead, Chavez has built less housing in each of his eight years in Government than than in any year in the ten years prior to his Presidency. Just think of the economic benefits of a building project like that. Go figure!

You all may be interested in this talk:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

which shows how standard of living has changed across the planet in the last 40 years. Good food for thought!

The world is full of inequalities… oh my God…!!!
A poor person in a poor area is not a poor but a poor in a rich area is really a poor.
The great amount of money that which the government reserve for the poor annually where it goes..? who knows…???

Margaret-
There are plenty of LEGALLY immigrated Hispanics/naturally born Hispanic citizens here as well. Not that illegal immigration isn’t a huge issue, but to insinuate that some Democratic candidates visiting Hispanic neighborhoods means they’re catering to the “illegal” vote is fairly ignorant. Even if illegal aliens are registered to vote due to aggressive voter drives, they rarely vote. Illegal voting is a felony charge, and if they were found out, they’d instantly be deported.

Also, the “fence” idea? What a waste of taxpayer money, and pretty ineffective to boot. There are lots of ways to get in this country illegally that aren’t across the U.S./Mexico land border.

You will find same picture at Jakarta, Indonesia

I lived for 3 years near the site shown in the first picture. From street level you can see that the luxury building´s gardens seem intended to block the favela’s view from inside the apartments.

Greed is bad, but Envy is worse.

I think you are naive and it isn’t nice to call someone ignorant bedause they disagee with you. I can tell you are a Hillary fan because anything that makes sense and 87% of the country wants is wrong to you if it is against what Hillary wants.
Why do you think the Dems are against a voter ID bill? I agree there are plenty of ways to get into the country illegaly. Does that mean we shouldn’t stop them when we can. I didn’t say a fence would stop all of them but it would stop some of the thousands coming across where the fence is. Do you also Hillary should take millions of dollars from the corrupt politicians in India and promise them that outsourcing will never stop. She brings people from India here to take high tech jobs from Americans. Is stopping that as silly to you as building a fence. Several hsptls and health care places in Ca are closing because they cannot afford what they lose by treating illegals while there are Americans who can’t get health care. Is that silly to you too?
You are the one who is ignorant if you think illegals are not using someone else’s SSN and voting. Hillarys health plan also covers illegals. She says it will cost 10 billion a year and she will have to impose taxes to pay for it. Do you want your tax money to go to support illegals? If you do I guess you just have a better heart than I do. Just like Hillary…she is so concerned for the children. She is only concerned with votes and low wages for big business.
Think of this when so many terrorists come across the border along with the high #of Muslims living here and in other countries that Osama will soon be able to ride into town in the back of an open convertible. And when he starts beheading people I hope you remember how silly you thought it was to build a fence

Why do the poor remain behind their wall? Because the rich will shoot them and set fire to their slums. If you’ve heard what happens when a slum sets to fire, you’d fear it too.

If you really want to know what is going on in America go here
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin402.htm

I have never seen so many cruel, heartless and ignorant comments in one place. The majority absolutely sicken me. You want to know why there are so many poor people? Look in the mirror.

Why or how did those photos provoke people to leap to America. If the richest nations weren’t so egocentric, things may look a bit different. Thumbs up to all the people making a difference.

Thanks for posting this! I’m glad it’s spurred so much conversation. I used to work for Class Action, a nonprofit that deals with issues of class and addresses classism, so it was intriguing to read reactions here.

Holy shit.

I’d echo BenF’s comments about the cruel, heartless and ignorant posts here. It’s appalling to see the lack of compassion amongst a large number of the posters. I get the impression that coming up with some glib “one size fits all” answer such as “poor people are all stupid” makes the (presumably) relatively rich people here feel like they’ve answered the issue and they don’t have to think about it anymore.

These trite comments are NOT an answer to the issues of poverty. There is no one answer. Poor people are NOT all stupid - I’ve been to poor countries and found plenty of clever, entrepreneurial spirits doing very well with what they’ve got. Whatever the solutions to poverty are, we won’t make a single step in the right direction with people starting out with the belief that the poor are all stupid and ignorant, or somehow ‘deserve’ poverty. Most poor people are born into poverty just as most rich people are born into privileged lives (access to education, resources etc) . Choice is much much less of an issue that happenstance of birth.

Vandana Shiva–Two Myths That Keep the World Poor

Two myths that keep the world poor
http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4192
Vandana Shiva
This article appeared in Ode issue: 28

Global poverty is a hot topic right now. But anyone serious about ending it
needs to understand the true causes, argues Indian environmentalist Vandana
Shiva.

From rock singer Bob Geldof to UK politician Gordon Brown, the world
suddenly seems to be full of high-profile people with their own plans to end
poverty. Jeffrey Sachs, however, is not a simply a do-gooder but one of the
world¹s leading economists, head of the Earth Institute and in charge of a
UN panel set up to promote rapid development. So when he launched his book
The End of Poverty, people everywhere took notice. Time magazine even made
it into a cover story.

But, there is a problem with Sachs’ how-to-end poverty prescriptions. He
simply doesn’t understand where poverty comes from. He seems to view it as
the original sin. “A few generations ago, almost everybody was poor,” he
writes, then adding: “The Industrial Revolution led to new riches, but much
of the world was left far behind.”

This is a totally false history of poverty. The poor are not those who have
been “left behind”; they are the ones who have been robbed. The wealth
accumulated by Europe and North America are largely based on riches taken
from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Without the destruction of India’s rich
textile industry, without the takeover of the spice trade, without the
genocide of the native American tribes, without African slavery, the
Industrial Revolution would not have resulted in new riches for Europe or
North America. It was this violent takeover of Third World resources and
markets that created wealth in the North and poverty in the South.

Two of the great economic myths of our time allow people to deny this
intimate link, and spread misconceptions about what poverty is.
First, the destruction of nature and of people’s ability to look after
themselves are blamed not on industrial growth and economic colonialism, but
on poor people themselves. Poverty, it is stated, causes environmental
destruction. The disease is then offered as a cure: further economic growth
is supposed to solve the very problems of poverty and ecological decline
that it gave rise to in the first place. This is the message at the heart of
Sachs¹ analysis.

The second myth is an assumption that if you consume what you produce, you
do not really produce, at least not economically speaking. If I grow my own
food, and do not sell it, then it doesn’t contribute to GDP, and therefore
does not contribute towards “growth”.

People are perceived as “poor” if they eat food they have grown rather than
commercially distributed junk foods sold by global agri-business. They are
seen as poor if they live in self-built housing made from ecologically
well-adapted materials like bamboo and mud rather than in cinder block or
cement houses. They are seen as poor if they wear garments manufactured from
handmade natural fibres rather than synthetics.

Yet sustenance living, which the wealthy West perceives as poverty, does not
necessarily mean a low quality of life. On the contrary, by their very
nature economies based on sustenance ensure a high quality of life measured
in terms of access to good food and water, opportunities for sustainable
livelihoods, robust social and cultural identity, and a sense of
meaning in people’s lives . Because these poor don’t share in the perceived
benefits of economic growth, however, they are portrayed as those “left
behind”.

This false distinction between the factors that create affluence and those
that create poverty is at the core of Sachs’ analysis. And because of this,
his prescriptions will aggravate and deepen poverty instead of ending it.
Modern concepts of economic development, which Sachs sees as the “cure” for
poverty, have been in place for only a tiny portion of human history. For
centuries, the principles of sustenance allowed societies all over the
planet to survive and even thrive. Limits in nature were respected in these
societies and guided the limits of human consumption. When society’s
relationship with nature is based on sustenance, nature exists as a form of
common wealth. It is redefined as a “resource” only when profit becomes the
organising principle of society and sets off a financial imperative for the
development and destruction of these resources for the market.

However much we choose to forget or deny it, all people in all societies
still depend on nature. Without clean water, fertile soils and genetic
diversity, human survival is not possible. Today, economic development is
destroying these onetime commons, resulting in the creation of a new
contradiction: development deprives the very people it professes to help of
their traditional land and means of sustenance, forcing them to survive in
an increasingly eroded natural world.

A system like the economic growth model we know today creates trillions of
dollars of super profits for corporations while condemning billions of
people to poverty. Poverty is not, as Sachs suggests, an initial state of
human progress from which to escape. It is a final state people fall into
when one-sided development destroys the ecological and social systems that
have maintained the life, health and sustenance of people and the planet for
ages. The reality is that people do not die for lack of income. They die for
lack of access to the wealth of the commons. Here, too, Sachs is wrong when
he says: “In a world of plenty, 1 billion people are so poor their lives are
in danger.” The indigenous people in the Amazon, the mountain communities in
the Himalayas, peasants anywhere whose land has not been appropriated and
whose water and biodiversity have not been destroyed by debt-creating
industrial agriculture are ecologically rich, even though they earn less
than a dollar a day.

On the other hand, people are poor if they have to purchase their basic
needs at high prices no matter how much income they make. Take the case of
India. Because of cheap food and fibre being dumped by developed nations
and lessened trade protections enacted by the government, farm prices in
India are tumbling, which means that the country¹s peasants are losing $26
billion U.S. each year. Unable to survive under these new economic
conditions, many peasants are now poverty-stricken and thousands commit
suicide each year. Elsewhere in the world, drinking water is privatised so
that corporations can now profit to the tune of $1 trillion U.S. a year by
selling an essential resource to the poor that was once free. And the $50
billion U.S. of “aid” trickling North to South is but a tenth of the $500
billion being sucked in the other direction due to interest payments and
other unjust mechanisms in the global economy imposed by the World Bank and
the IMF.

If we are serious about ending poverty, we have to be serious about ending
the systems that create poverty by robbing the poor of their common wealth,
livelihoods and incomes. Before we can make poverty history, we need to get
the history of poverty right. It¹s not about how much wealthy nations can
give, so much as how much less they can take.

Rich versus poor comes down to nurture, not nature. Either you are raised in a family that teaches you to have the capacity to prey on the poor and believe you are entitled to do so, or you are raised to think that exploiting others to enrich yourself is improper. It’s not a matter of education. It’s a matter of certain families having a culture of entitlement.

Hexayurt Project on Sep 19th, 2007 said:

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Hexayurt Project is a Free / Open Source housing design that costs $100 - $500 per home, depending on the precise location and anticipated uses. We’ve been working on the design and utilities package off and on for about five years.

The idea isn’t to make the poor richer. That’s very, very hard and there are lots of people trying that already.

Instead, the idea is to use appropriate technology to increase the quality of life of the poor, by making it affordable for them to have light, clean water to drink, and so on, all on their $1 per day.

It doesn’t take away the slums, but maybe one day it will improve the quality of life in them.

I WANT MY ELECTRICITY AND SO ON FOR $1 A DAY! FUCK THE POOR.

Margaret,
I don’t care about playing nice in a debate. And you call me ignorant as well, so I think whining about what I think of you is irrelevant.

From what I could make out of your argument (and poor punctuation may be the least of your concerns, from what I gather), you first of all threw out some badly bungled statistic, and called me a Hillary fan.

Hillary is not my favorite candidate actually, but that’s not at issue (so I’m ignoring the vast majority of your argument, which centers around how well you think you know me as such). While we’re playing the guessing game here, I’m going to throw out that you might be a Republican, as you tend to mix in irrational fears/conspiracy theories with your immigration argument (something about Osama and a convertible). Just so we’re clear, this is what I’m saying: a fence is a waste of taxpayer money because it is not the most effective way to spend taxpayer money on the problem of illegal immigration. Also, ALL politicians try to appeal to minority voters- which include legal Hispanics.

By the way I followed your link, and it turned up some pastor’s site. I browsed it, but I generally don’t subscribe to the opinion of anyone who graduated from Liberty University. I couldn’t find a REAL credential in his background to save my life. I also refuse to follow the fearmongerers.

Ruben wrote:
“I have never seen so many cruel, heartless and ignorant comments in one place. The majority absolutely sicken me. You want to know why there are so many poor people? Look in the mirror.”

Thank you Ruben.

How many of us are a part of that rich elite that is oppressing the poor? look at the tag on your shirt. Where was it made? Did the person who made it earn a fair wage… did they have healthy working conditions? Look in your kitchen cupboard… do you have any sugar? coffee? rice? Chocolate? Do you own any gold jewlery? how about diamonds? When is the last time you ate a banana? When is the last time you threw something away(America ships much of it’s garbage to other countries, making living conditions worse for the poor)?

If we demanded products that are not created in a oppressive environment, poverty could be greatly decreased.

no, the answer is not birth control. First of all, to say that it is is to blame the poor for their condition. once again, if you want to know who is at fault, look in the mirror. Second, many poor families need the income that those extra children will bring. If you live in the states, you might have the luxury to not work until you are an adult, or if you do- to be able to spend the money you make on pleasure, but not everywhere is like the states. (and yes, “states” is lowercase intentionally. its about time the us became more humble.) also, if women are provided with the opportunity to be educated, then they marry later in life and are less likely to be taken advantage of- if you want less people in the world, then educate the poor. finally, if you say that birthcontrol is the answer, then it is apparent that you dont value life, and i dont understand why you care that the poor are poor. obviously if you think they shouldnt have the right to reproduce then you view them as somehow less than you. stop pretending you care, and start actually doing something to help.

thank you very much to everyone who is helping. every little thing makes a difference. And to those of you who haven’t started yet, don’t freak out- today is a new day- if you live on an income of $20,000 and someone else lives on an income of $1, imagine how great of an impact you can have!!! and if you have more income than $20,000…

There is lots of pain and brokenness in this world. but there is also hope.