In America we read a lot of news stories about the starving dying people in poor countries around the world. Sometimes we even give in to the sad commercials displaying boney babies and send 15 dollars checks off in the mail. But how often do we actually stop and think about how directly the individual American’s lifestyle affects the poor? Not often.
When I went to Ecuador I went for 7 days. I was only allowed to bring 20 dollars with me. I came back with 14 dollars. A dollar a day is more than enough for the average person in South America or Africa, or any third world country to live on. 80% of the world is third world. 80% of people are uneducated, poor, starving.
Unfortunately our 15 dollar donations to random charities can not help those people. What would really help them would be for Americans to stop buying the clothing that they slave to make but get barely any money for. It would help if our children did not play with the toys their children make in sweat shops. It would help them if trade was fair.
But we are far too tangled in our capitalist society to stop this madness. The poor continue to get poorer and the rich continue to get richer within “The American Dream.”
Now this one has the wow factor with the numbers. (Where’s the attribution for the 80% of the world is third-world and 80% are uneducated, poor and starving?)
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Comment by prof washburn — April 24, 2006 @ 10:47 pm
There are views that big corporations are creating jobs for these poorer nations & thus, making their (poorer nations) lives richer. Yet, in some way, it makes them dependant on outsiders to help. But if they wanted to be independent, they could start something by themselves with guides from other developed countries.
I think these countries do want to improve themselves – if they have sth that is valuable to other countries & themselves – & sell it at the accurate value instead of being taken advantage of – they would certainly succeed.
Comment by ☆*°^` Rainbow — April 27, 2006 @ 4:02 am
and a billion people cant read or right. What can we do though_ it seams our leaders are letting us down.
Comment by david bamford — June 28, 2006 @ 10:22 pm
I try not to buy from companies that have ben accused of using slave labour. But would the people employeed by these companies be better off with or without the miserable amount of money they’re paid?
I think what would really help was if American policies didn’t destablize these nations. If we left them (3rd world nations) alone, they would probably be better off. Also if we gave them aid, to help with better education, health, jobs, and what not, the people would be better off than if we just gave them bags of rice.
Comment by Joshua Davis — July 10, 2006 @ 1:51 am