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We Must Eradicate Poverty Armstrong Williams "Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not."
— Bono We've all read the statistics: One billion people live on less than a dollar per day; a child dies every three seconds from AIDS and extreme poverty; and 10,000 Africans die every day from AIDS, TB, and malaria. We've all heard the pleas from outreach campaigns, non-profit groups, charity programs, and non-government organizations. And we've all seen the faces of poverty — maybe not in person, but certainly on television. Yet, we hardly lift a finger, raise an eye, or have a second thought for the men, women, and children who live and die every day in extreme poverty.
Oh, I'm not talking about you and me. We — and Americans like us — are an altruistic bunch. Not only do we pay our taxes, but we also (according to the latest studies) freely give a church or charity another 10 percent of our incomes. And when confronted with an urgent challenge like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11, we proudly step up to the plate and open up our check books. The millions of dollars donated to the world's poor and needy every year shows that individual Americans readily donate their hard earned money to help those less fortunate. It's the government that I'm talking about — the United States government. Our government has virtually abandoned the world's poor over the last 50 years. Yes, we've sent them millions of dollars, dropped tons of food from the sky, and sent a vast array of medical supplies, but we've never truly done what it takes to end poverty and save poor people. People are dying because there is literally no food to eat.
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People cannot work because there is no job to be had. People cannot get healthy because they have no access to medicine. People see their children die from malnutrition and their wives die from childbirth. People cannot get an education because there are no schools and people cannot raise themselves up, because the hole they're in is just too deep. These are the people — our very own brothers and sisters — who the U.S. government has left behind. Since the Marshall Plan stabilized Europe after World War II, the American government has steadily decreased the amount of foreign aid provided. Democratic and Republican-led governments alike have continually cut the resources headed overseas. Currently the U.S. gives some 0.2 percent of its Gross National Product (GNP) to Official Development Assistance, which is a far cry from the 0.7 percent that we promised the world at the Monterrey Consensus in 2002. (The U.S. and other signatories agreed that day to "make concrete efforts toward the goal 0.7 percent of GNP as official development assistance.") The 0.2 percent that we currently give is an even farther cry from the 2.0 percent that we gave during the prime years of the Marshall Plan.
For those of you who forgot, the Marshall Plan helped prevent Europe from falling into depression, desperation, and despair after World War II. The post World War II planners learned from the sad aftermath of World War I, that without substantial aid, war torn countries could not recover. And if they do not recover, they can easily be overtaken by tyrants, become breeding grounds for terrorists and disease ridden lands for citizens. And then the downward spiral begins. Trade decreases, the economy suffers, and money becomes scarce. The government's debts increase, and because of a lack of tax and export revenue, it cannot find a source of income. The downward spiral continues. Conversely, with substantial foreign assistance, these countries can get a foothold on the ladder to economic prosperity, which will prevent the very dangerous things we are currently seeing all across the Middle East, and parts of Asia and Africa. Many people argue that now is not the proper time for the U.S. to take on the world poverty issue. They say that because of our enormous debt, responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, and overwhelming needs at home, the world's poor need to just hold on until we gain traction. Many also argue that we're already doing enough (or even too much) to help the poor and that these people need to pull themselves out of poverty themselves. But I'm here to tell you this is wrong. Not only are we not doing enough, we aren't doing even close to enough. (America is at the bottom of the list when it comes to the amount of foreign aid provided in relation to its GNP.) And these people cannot pull themselves up without a hand — I promise you that they've tried. There is no better time for America to increase its foreign aid for the world's poor and needy. We've clearly seen that military means alone cannot secure peace and prosperity across the world. Something else is needed. By increasing our donor amount to 0.7 percent of our GNP as we promised, we will not only eliminate extreme poverty but we can begin to alleviate many of the global problems we face today. Through real foreign aid, we can help build democracies, stabilize economies, wipe out terrorist breeding grounds, create trade partners, expand our list of friends and allies, and make our country a safer place. Ending poverty is the right thing to do. By God, it's the only thing to do. www.armstrongwilliams.com
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