Causes of Poverty
• by Anup Shah
• This Page Last Updated Saturday, April 15, 2006
• Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
• Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
• 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world).
640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5.
Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their government? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But often less discussed are deeper and more global causes of poverty.
The Term Paper on Third World Poverty People Poor Countries
... of the poor people and how the Third World helps out the First World. Third World poverty is poverty found in poor countries such ... countries where the poverty occurs, there are many different locations which the poor live in. The poor people live in places ranging ... towards war and machinery to kill people or the Canadian government spend millions of dollars on infrastructure and technology. ...
Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization, are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.
In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.
• This page: http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp.
• To print full details (expanded/alternative links, side notes, etc.) use the printer-friendly version:
o http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp?p=1
Response
Letter to the Editor
Dear Mr. Shah,
Ref. to your article titled ” Causes of Poverty’ dated April 15, 2006, I would like to comment on the following.
Introduction: (Stating the problem )
A) Poverty figures showed that the picture is really black and gloomy & time for UNDP to deal with the problem with another way in the shortest time possible.
Body : ( Commenting on the Causes of problem )
A) Minor Causes: Poor countries are responsible for their own poverty: Agree with you ( In Egypt: the wrong policies followed by the rulers of Egypt during the time of Naser & Sadat & the country’s main budget was directed to the army and the war which slowed the development phase and resulted in more poverty ).
B) Major Causes: I believe this is the main cause .
1- Rich countries are controlling the poor ones. The poor nations are powerless infront of the big ones. ( e.g. U.S. & Iraq ).
2- Eg. Most of the trade policies was in favor of the rich ones (e.g. GATT or FREE TRADE TREATY ) .
Conclusion: New Role for UNDP
Taking all these causes into consideration, the UNDP must fine tune its programeso deal efficiently with the poverty problems.
The Essay on How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor
How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor By Erik S. Reinert The book How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor is written by Erik S. Reinert and it is published in 2007. Reinert is a 62-year-old Norwegian economist who specializes in development economics and economic history (Wikipedia). Reinert attended the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (where he ...
GATT Treaty ( Free trade : meaning that there will be no customs among the countries of the world, so an Egyptian citizen might prefer to buy an American product more than an Egyptian one as it is cheaper & better quality = which means destroying the economy of Egypt + more unemployment as lot of Egyptian companies will shut down ).
