Global Poverty

Hurricane Katrina brought more than destruction to the people of southern Louisiana. It also brought to light the existence of poverty in one of the most powerful nations of the world. Many Americans and as well as the international community were shocked by the images of people stranded by the storm, dying from hunger and thirst due to the fact that they were too poor to find a way out. However, the Hurricane Katrina victims were not a unique instance in the world. The majority of the world's population live in poverty. Wealthy nations try to contribute by donating economic aid, organizing food drives, and by sending medical interventions. However, while helpful this does little to alleviate the poverty in the world. On the contrary, poverty only seems to be growing. With the growing of the world's population, reclining supplies of the earth's resources, and global warming global poverty will only continue to climb. Drastic change is needed to diminish global poverty and the wealthy nations of the world need to be the first to begin it.

Global poverty's roots can be found within globalization itself. Globalization is driven by the wealthy nations of the world such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan to name a few. Two of the main branches of globalization are the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These institutions spread globalization to the developing nations of the world through economic policies. The majority of these policies call on developing nations to enforce Structural Adjustment Policies in order to pay back debt to wealthy nations. In order to meet their debt payments, developing nations are forced to focus all their wealth on manufacturing and exporting goods. Developing nations are left to reduce spending on health care, education, and internal development in order to meet their payments. Economic competition imposed by the wealthier nations also forces the developing nations into a price war forcing them to sell their own resources at cheaper prices. Citizens of developing nations are left with lower wages and a lower standard of living as debt repayment and economic policies become the priority.

It's these very globalization policies that need to be changed. However, wealthy nations have too much at stake in global markets. The global policies of the IMF and the World Bank is mostly designed to further the wealth of already wealthy nations. Developing nations will continue to suffer from poverty until they stop directing their policies towards furthering the wealth of wealthier nations and focus instead on internal development. Wealthy nations can make more of a difference if they redesign their policies to building the wealth of the developing nations and not just their own.