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Erika Osborne English 102 Summary Reaction Essay- Final 2 March 2013 Failure to Acknowledge Poverty The majority of the people living on Earth live in a state of poverty. Why is it that professional athletes receive billions of dollars a year as their salary yet this world struggles in a depth of poverty? Maybe the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank could help the people and their nations out of poverty. Unfortunately, they only worsen the conditions the poor are living in. The structural adjustment policies given by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have resulted in cutbacks in education, health, and other important social services. Due to these conditions, a lack of sanitation attracts disease to the poor killing millions of children a year. To worsen their situation, food and water are scarce within their communities. On the other hand, the rich have plenty of these resources causing the gap between the rich and the poor to grow. If poor governments and their people have little say in economic policies, can they ever save themselves from poverty? Economic policies and debt repayment are the priority while the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank demand poor nations to lower their standard of living. These developing nations are required to compete with richer industrialized nations and their economic systems. In order for them to make an investment, the poor nations are forced to provide cheaper resources and products, reduced wages, and overall lower their standards. During the year 2008, households that could not afford medical services increased from six to thirty percent. Entering the 21st century were nearly a billion people who could not simply read a book or sign their

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name. Enrollment data shows how in the year 2005 about 72 million children in the world were not in school (Shah). These statistics prove that there has been a huge reduction on the spending of health, education, and development. Wealthy governments only think for themselves, making economic policies that benefit them a priority as well as paying off any debt they may have. If poor governments are forced to compete with ones that are better off, they will never improve themselves as a whole and have no chance of winning against them. This competition is setting the poor up for failure because of how low they must set their standards. The fact that nearly a billion people did not know how to sign their name in the 21st century proves how funding for education has failed. Millions do not have the opportunity to be educated or simply cannot afford it because it is not a top priority in the world. With little access to health services and millions of children without schooling, these people will continue to live in poverty unless something is done. Infectious diseases strike the poor at a very high rate due to the lack of sanitation within their communities. Worldwide, 2.2 million children die each year simply because they do not have their immunizations (Shah). People of poor countries cannot afford health services which makes it easy for disease to claim them as victims. In other terms, it is estimated that about 270 million people have no access to health services. That is one in every seventh person in the world that cannot receive the benefits of living a healthy life (Shah). Also lacking sanitation is the air they breathe which is being polluted by solid fuels. To cook their meals they often have to rely on charcoal, fuel wood, and animal dung as the source of energy. Shah states that these actions result in indoor air pollution killing 1.5 million people a year with more than half of them being under the age of five.

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Little spending on health services causes disease and illness to spread like wildfire. The worlds priorities need to change in order to provide health benefits and lower the number of children dying from lack of sanitation. Developed nations spend their money on entertainment and unnecessary items like alcohol and cigarettes. What they need to spend that money on is the countries who simply cannot afford food, let alone entertainment or drinks. It appears that the wealthy governments only think of themselves and not in a way that could benefit the world. While they enjoy spending their money on luxuries, the poor are struggling to fight disease. Most people think that the poor go hungry because there is a lack of availability of food. In reality, it is the inability to purchase food that causes them to starve. It is estimated that around 27 to 28 percent of children living in developing countries are either stunted in growth or underweight. Of all the food harvested in the United States, 40 to 50 percent of it is never eaten (Shah). While poor developing countries lack the resource of food, the level of food wastage by rich countries is high. Not only is food a resource the poor struggle without, but water as well. About 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water and two in three of those people live on less than two dollars a day. Once again the selfishness of developed nations is shown through their increasing amounts of food dumping. Instead of donating the leftovers to those less fortunate they simply rid of the excess food. Malnutrition between the poor is very common and it often results in death. The lack of food is hard on their communities as well as having little to no access to clean water. Countries that take advantage of the amount of water they use a day should help in some way to provide water to those without it. When those citizens do not help the poor, inequality between countries rises to a higher level.

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Inequality is the result of power, greed, and money. Even when governments have good intentions it can be the individual actions and policy decisions that have an effect on inequality itself. Factors like health and social problems are worse in countries that are unequal. Child well-being is better and life expectancy is longer in countries that are more equally rich. Overall, problems that arise in societies that are unequal tend to be far worse than in countries whose gap between the rich and poor is small. When a nation is in the developing process economic growth is very important, but in the long run it is equality that is more important. Countries who show less inequality thrive more economically and socially than countries who do not. This is where the wealthy need to show the effort of helping provide to the poor. If they help out in any way the gap between the two social classes will lessen and therefore better the world economy. This will result in better outcomes to many situations like child behavior or social interactions. Lessening this gap benefits both parties to create a living environment that is better for the both of them. Greed will only result in problems economically and socially, so efforts to help the poor will help everyone thrive as a country. The poor are often ignored by society and have little representation in public and political debates. This makes it even harder for them to escape poverty due to the lack of voice they have in any political issue. For example, every one dollar in aid a developing country is given, over twenty-five dollars is spent on debt repayment (Shah). Stated before, debt repayment is one of a nations top priority. While it may look like a country in need of help is receiving it, there are areas where help is being provided to even more. Unfortunately, the poor have no choice but to accept the political agenda of the wealthy. When political opportunities rise, developing nations have no room to thrive because of their poor conditions.

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Those that are better off than others often tend to make decisions that continue to only benefit themselves. As long as the wealthy continue to portray the traits of being greedy and selfish, the poor will have a difficult time rising up from poverty. Developing nations need the established governments to help better their societies. What the rich nations do not see is how providing aid to the poor will benefit not only the poor, but them as well. Poverty would be an easy battle to win if every country worked together as a team to help each other out economically. Even though poverty is one of the top global issues in the world, it does not receive the attention it needs. Those who do not have to experience poor standards of living do not worry about people who are in those conditions. The less fortunate would love to higher their standards of living but cannot do so when the governments do not listen to them. It is hard for them to be heard when only the rich and powerful make economic decisions. For example, when the governments reduce spending on health and education they do not ask for the opinions of the lower class. Instead, the poor are forced to fight off disease for the rest of the short life they will be living due to lack of sanitation. The nations who can afford to buy luxuries for themselves need to consider helping other countries in providing food and water to their people. Wealthy citizens and their governments need to open their eyes to the global issues around them instead of being so self-centered and greedy.

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Works Cited Shah, Anup. Causes of Hunger are related to Poverty. Global Issues. 03 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. ___,___. Causes of Poverty. Global Issues. 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. ___,___. Poverty Around The World. Global Issues. 12 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. ___,___. Poverty Facts and Stats. Global Issues. 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. ___,___. Structural Adjustmenta Major Cause of Poverty. Global Issues. 23 Nov. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. Faiz Muhammad Shaikh, et al. "Poverty As An Unfinished Agenda For The Third World Countries, Impact Of Social And Economic Factors On Poverty, A Case Study Of Sindh." Journal Of Sustainable Development 4.5 (2011): 107-114. Environment Complete. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.