Morpho Designs

Poverty Inaction

October 15th, 2008 | by Mitchell Allen |

Really Thinking About Poverty

There are thousands of resources dedicated to the age-old problem of poverty. The causes, symptoms and proposed solutions are well documented:

There is no single cause of poverty. Poverty is too complex an issue to be the result of just one problem. There are, however, many interrelated factors that contribute to poverty in developing nations. ^[1]

My goal for Blog Action Day is to awaken my self-awareness of the issues and factors concerning poverty. In so doing, I can move from Inaction to Action, contribute to the efforts to fight poverty and gain more respect for the challenges that face us all.

There is much to learn. What are the relationships between unalienable rights, the social contract, ethical economics, economic democracy, the limitations of the Gini coefficient and the relevance of microeconomics in the context of a macroeconomic challenge?

Should we begin to question long-held beliefs about property rights? How does the Libertarian view of the land and labor contrast with capitalistic excess? Should we continue to honor gold and silver? Is monetary exchange an invisible barrier that exacerbates the denial of the natural right to free movement?

As I usually do, I draw analogies between complex systems and simplified examples in order to clarify my thinking.

Weed Control Provides a Clue

“Solving” world hunger by only increasing food production and not addressing root causes of hunger (i.e. poverty), would not alleviate the conditions that create poverty in the first place. If the poorer nations aren’t given the sufficient means to produce their own food, if they are not allowed to produce and create industry for themselves, then poverty and dependency will continue. ^[2]

• Hacking the Crown (mowing, using a weed whacker)
• Pulling (may fail to reach taproot)
• Changing the Cultural Landscape ^[3]
  • Prevent the problem (preemergence herbicides affect germinating seeds)
  • Treat the problem (postemergence herbicides kill growing weeds)
  • Maintain dense and vigorously growing turf cover
  • Adjust behavior (frequency of mowing, irrigation and/or fertilizing)

Beyond the Root

Three days of study hardly qualify me to suggest that we need to reconsider what works and what doesn’t. The questions I posed above are part of a mental swirl of conflicting theories, textbook definitions and nascent opinions. Once I sort them out, I will be just a bit more informed than I am today. No one blog post can wrap itself around a global problem. But one thing is certain: with all of us talking about it today and inspiring action tomorrow, the outlook is bright for the eradication of poverty.

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[1] A Dollar a Day – Causes of Poverty

[2] Anup Shah, Solving World Hunger Means Solving World Poverty, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Saturday, June 15, 2002

[3] Weed Control in Lawns and Other Turf