If you are going to start trying to end poverty on Earth, how would you do it?

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I don't intend this to be political at all, but simply to think about how to make a positive impact on ending poverty on Earth.

If you are going to start trying to end poverty on Earth, how would you do it?

I might donate time or money to a non-profit to help. I'm sure there are many ways.
#off topic forum
  • I'm not going to be too political here either but the solution is NOT socialism as many think.
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    • taskemann,

      There are a lot of people in the USA that would disagree...

      The problem with socialism is... You would need 100% "pure" socialism... Where everyone is "equal" and has the same amount of money...

      It seems like everyone I talk to from a "socialist" country... Mentions there are still are "classes" like a capitalist country.... Whether there are two or three.... So, in practice, socialism is not an answer....

      Take Care,

      Rich Beck
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  • [DELETED]
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  • Some poor people DON'T want it to end! If people restrained themselves, and realized that money should only be used as a form of universal barter, we could probably relatively quickly end poverty AND starvation. IMAGINE if there were fewer people on the planet and they tried to work for the common good and got paid in return. It could be a veritable UTOPIA!

    But they WON'T, and DON'T, so we CAN'T!

    I actually thought long and hard about this. I worked in some charities that helped. I created a BBS to help. The idea was to provide a centralized 24/7/365 database to provide all sorts of assistance. I went to a city council meeting dedicated to helping. I was specifically invited, and was one of maybe a dozen people there. It become a favorite anecdote of mine about how government DOESN'T work.

    There is one charity, and I wish I could remember the name. It is unusual in that it is for MEN ONLY, but they get the person cleaned up, in good order, get them a suit, and help out with training, etc... The catch? You have only so long, I think it is like a couple months. If you don't get started, they kick you out. And they DO kick out people.

    Steve
  • In the past, people went to war for land, unless it was some never before inhabited land. TODAY, they want PAYMENT, if they are selling, and much of it i used for HOMES! SO....

    Steve
  • Control Birth Rate...
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    • There are no circumstances that would allow me to end poverty on earth.

      Thinking about how I would do it is daydreaming. What I can do is donate to the local homeless shelter or food bank, leave an anonymous bag of food at the door of a family where I know there's not enough to feed the kids. I can also try not to waste food myself so I don't use more resources than I'm worth.

      We all would like to do something grand to end suffering in a big way but very few of us will have that opportunity. Sometimes it's better to think small and give real help to one child, one person or one family at a time...it helps more than you would think.

      The solution to hunger and poverty is not, and never has been, a political or ideological solution in my opinion.
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  • THE ONE WORLD SCHOOLHOUSE - Education Re-imagined.
    https://www.khanacademy.org/
  • I would attempt to decrease poverty by increasing the standards of education, reforming education in countries of lesser educated children and young adults by taking notes from countries who do excel at educational testing while working within their own local culture. I would fund math and sciences.

    I personally don't have an answer or a plan of action of what Would end things like world hunger (the hungry is who I define as being those in a state of poverty, rather than classifying something like the bottom 20% of income earners), but I hope those who have the ability to figure out the answer will receive the education they can utilize to actually form the answer and make it happen.
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  • Thanks for bringing up this interesting question.

    While, unfortunately, I think it is not possible to end poverty and suffering nevertheless we should try to help individually on a small scale.

    Wherever you look in nature it is always the same: If there is enough food/energy a given population will multiply to use the resources at hand. They will multiply until the resources are not sufficient any more, and then there will be a certain percentage of the population suffering.

    That is why I think there is no solution. We should be intelligent enough to control circumstances so to avoid that development but we are all individuals with our own wellbeing having the highest priority, so intelligence will probably not help.

    But, to help poor people locally is certainly a good thing. Just check this unbelievable guy and what he achieves:

    Agriculturalist Will Allen: 2008 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation - YouTube
    "I don't build fences around my gardens"

    He is my hero! Helping lots of poor people to get food and find a meaning of life.

    Food = Energy and I have specialised in supplying people in developing countries with energy, locally and lo tech. As I explained some time ago in this thread in posting #1386

    Quite a long posting, however, there you can see why I started a non profit organisation, and why I am trying to use Internet Marketing for seed funding.

    Still interested in partners BTW

    Cheers
    Dan Hower
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  • If I had the power, I would bring all the military back to the U.S. and have them help rebuild the U.S. when the U.S. is in good shape they could branch out to other areas and help them.

    I would get rid of the parties. Everyone in Congress would be independent so that they have the freedom to do what they say when voted in. Probably would have to fire all of them.

    Bring in average Americans that know what we are going through. Give them average wages. They will get things done.

    Stop importing things we don't need to import. That will increase jobs. It seems that as America gets strong so does the world.

    Bring back good morals to the world. Stop the reality shows. LOL
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    • Now THAT I can agree with. It will certainly help reduce poverty. When you thn of all that we are paying politicians? We DON'T have 3 classes!!!!!! We have FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

      BTW for reference sake, I am in the send from the bottom, called middle. I don't know if I would ever make it to the upper class, which STILL isn't the top. The TOP, get things like multi million dollar vacations(for free!), long periods off every year(WITH PAY), a high salary with an equally high additive pension, protected income, advanced notice of things illegal for people like me, etc...

      Steve
  • Donating money, redistributing wealth, etc. would be futile w/out teaching the people financial education. People have got to ask themselves...why is there poverty in the first place? It's definitely not that there isn't enough money to go around. It's because some people are smarter in the game than others. Why do you think that no matter how much people donate and attempt to redistribute wealth, that money ends up right back where it was before? But of course people don't wanna delve into that because that means holding people responsible, and the last thing they'd wanna do is hold people responsible for their own actions.
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    • Well, the "smarter in the game" explains the difference between some upper, and the middle. OK, MAYBE some lower and middle as well, but MOST lower COULD be middle if they really WANTED to be. Listen to the Work v. unemployment arguments currently given and you will see part of what I am talking about.

      Steve
  • This question caught my eye - and although I visit the WF mainly to find people's opinions on various products or to find an answer to a question, I liked this question, and thought I'd throw in my 2-cents.

    Since I'm reading your question as to how I, personally, would do to try ending poverty, my answer starts with a quote attributed to the great Mahatma Gandhi which is to "be the change you want to see in the world."

    So, I want to be a person who reaches out to help an individual - and perhaps then THAT person will reach out to help someone else. I truly believe that I, personally, have to become as much as I can be so I can give and teach others.

    I would like to help people learn how to rise above their current situations - encourage them to take the actions necessary to move out of poverty. I would try to teach them the value of taking responsibility for their thoughts and actions, and teach them ways of thinking that they have never been exposed to.

    Having worked with a lot of people in poverty when I was involved with a variety of grant-funded positions, I can say with confidence that a lot of the people who were living in poverty had no clue how they got there in the first place.

    Because I read a lot of stuff by Ernest Holmes, Joseph Murphy, and similar teachers, I would try to help people using ideas and techniques that I have learned from them.

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