Overcoming Poverty

Everyone deserves to live in conditions where they have at least enough money for the basic necessities of life such as adequate food, water, and shelter.

Unfortunately, there is ever growing divide between the poor and the rich: more than one-half of us lives on less than 2 dollars a day.

The gap between those who 'have' and 'have not' is growing wider every day - a breeding ground for violence and terrorism.

At the purely physical level, in the material world, resources are ultimately finite. In that sense, those who claim that life is a zero-sum game have some legitimacy.

But existing resources, fairly and well managed are able to sustain humanity for millennia to come.

Creative solutions to ending poverty must be pursued.

Existing resources if better managed and re-distributed can help ensure that everybody has their needs meet.

Fortunately, there are some proposals offered as solutions for re-balancing resources:

• Foreign Aid
• Drop The Debt Campaign...
  This worldwide campaign calls for the richest countries of the world to release the poorest of their debt. Supporters of this approach claim that by being released of their debts, these countries can spend the money domestically on development, health care, and education.
• The Tobin Tax...
  The Tobin Tax proposes a system that would place a tax on cross-border currency trade, thus creating both greater overall financial stability and, more importantly, billions in extra revenue that could be earmarked for global projects in education, health, poverty reduction and food ( see: http:// www.ceedweb.org/iirp/factsheet.htm)
• International Clearing Union…
  This system would help to level the distribution of resources worldwide. Even though there are ample resources they become unevenly distributed because of both the rules or conditions of trade and the balance of trade. An International Clearing Union would be helpful to allow developing countries to catch up while holding the richest in deficit position.
• Enhance the Environment…
  If Western countries are unwilling or ineffective at re-distributing resources to the poorest nations, then efforts can also be made to enhance the environment of those poorest nations such that there are sustainable supplies of food and energy.