Eradicating Poverty

In September of 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations headquarters in New York to form a set of aspirations that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals. There are eight goals that the countries have agreed to achieve by the year 2015; the first of which is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger worldwide.

The are three targets to end poverty and hunger by 2015. The first is to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day between 1990 and 2015. The second is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people. The third is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

As of now, approximately 50,000 deaths a day are due to poverty-related causes. Also, one child dies every three seconds because of hunger and preventable diseases. It has become a world-wide goal to end extreme poverty within five years and to put an end to statistics such as these. This goal is well within reach. Failure to do so would be an unacceptable embarrassment. “Economic growth is the ‘only path to end mass poverty,’ says economist Ian Vásquez…” This matches well with the second target of the goal to end poverty. Economic growth would create jobs (hopefully sustainable) which would allow people to earn money. If this money was put into the same economy, it would further growth. Studies by the World Bank show that developing countries that experience economic growth will see a reduction in poverty related to the growth. The faster the growth, the faster poverty will be reduced. Vásquez argues that free enterprise and protection of private property is the way to encourage economic growth.

Another way that everyone can help reduce poverty is through proper purchasing decisions. Rather than support short sighted marketing decisions, consumers can look for products such as Fair Trade, which guarantee a minimum price to farmers, as well as premiums if their products are organic and environmentally sustainable. Supporting these products will help ensure that farmers are paid a living wage, and will make strides towards the first target of bringing people up out of an income of a dollar a day. An example of this is the banana price war that took place in the United Kingdoms. Supermarket chains began drastically cutting banana prices and forcing others to follow suit. From 2002 to 2009, the price of loose bananas in Britain’s supermarkets was 1.10 pounds per kilo. In 2009, one supermarket chain (Asda) cut the price of bananas per kilo to 38 pence. This is a drop of about $1.10, or a decrease of 65%. The farmers cannot make a living off of such prices, which will lead to unemployment and poverty. Without farmers, the product will no longer be available. Such low prices foster the image that the product can be sustainably produced at such a low price, which is not the case. Support of this reckless behavior will only be damaging in the long term.

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