Reading the article "Why the Devil Takes Visa" made me think about what exactly Americans are doing with the money we have. The amount of money we spend on needless things is astonishing. Credit cards have only added to this problem by allowing people to spend money they don't even have. What if we spent they money in ways that benefit others instead of ourselves?
Here are some statistics that bring this problem to light:
Top 5 Alarming World Poverty Statistics:
5. More than 800 million people suffer from malnutrition.
4. The United States spends 0.16% of its budget on aid to poor countries, the second lowest percentage among all developed countries.
3. A worker in Bangladesh making garments for Disney would have to work 210 years in order to earn what Disney’s CEO gets paid in one hour.
2. 35,000 children a day die from diseases related to malnutrition, or 1 every 2 seconds.
1. Over three billion people (roughly half the world’s population) live on less than two dollars a day.
Other Random Statistics
Only 15% of Americans report that they would be satisfied with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
The average American consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than someone from India.
Think about these statistics along with the quote from the original text:
"Never turn away the needy; share all your possessions with your brother, and do not claim that anything is your own. If you and he are joint participators in things immortal, how much more so in things that are mortal?"
Is it up to America give to other countries? And is there a way to do that while also giving them the opportunity to be prosperous on their own? I wonder what would happen if Lipscomb students were told they had to live on $2 a day. True a good number of us will spend a week to ten days "being Jesus" to impoverished people and serving them and seeing how they live. But after that short time we will come back to the comforts of our lives here and rarely think about what it would be like to live like those people live. I don't want to take anything away from all the good that will be done over Spring Break but how much more could we do if we stopped spending on the stuff that we don't need.
Why have we become so accustomed to spending so much money on needless things when there are millions of people going without the daily necessities? And what are we going to go now, where do we go from here in order to change those statistics? We would have to stop focusing on ourselves our greed and focus on others who have needs we cannot even imagine.
http://disciplineforjustice.blogspot.com/2007/04/wake-up-and-smell-numbers.html
Here are some statistics that bring this problem to light:
Top 5 Alarming World Poverty Statistics:
5. More than 800 million people suffer from malnutrition.
4. The United States spends 0.16% of its budget on aid to poor countries, the second lowest percentage among all developed countries.
3. A worker in Bangladesh making garments for Disney would have to work 210 years in order to earn what Disney’s CEO gets paid in one hour.
2. 35,000 children a day die from diseases related to malnutrition, or 1 every 2 seconds.
1. Over three billion people (roughly half the world’s population) live on less than two dollars a day.
Other Random Statistics
Only 15% of Americans report that they would be satisfied with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
The average American consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than someone from India.
Think about these statistics along with the quote from the original text:
"Never turn away the needy; share all your possessions with your brother, and do not claim that anything is your own. If you and he are joint participators in things immortal, how much more so in things that are mortal?"
Is it up to America give to other countries? And is there a way to do that while also giving them the opportunity to be prosperous on their own? I wonder what would happen if Lipscomb students were told they had to live on $2 a day. True a good number of us will spend a week to ten days "being Jesus" to impoverished people and serving them and seeing how they live. But after that short time we will come back to the comforts of our lives here and rarely think about what it would be like to live like those people live. I don't want to take anything away from all the good that will be done over Spring Break but how much more could we do if we stopped spending on the stuff that we don't need.
Why have we become so accustomed to spending so much money on needless things when there are millions of people going without the daily necessities? And what are we going to go now, where do we go from here in order to change those statistics? We would have to stop focusing on ourselves our greed and focus on others who have needs we cannot even imagine.
http://disciplineforjustice.blogspot.com/2007/04/wake-up-and-smell-numbers.html
First of all, those statistics are CRAZY! The one about the Bangladeshi worker for Disney just blew my mind! I told my roommate about it and she couldn't believe it either. It awes me to see how lazy and demanding Americans can be some times. But I know that I have trouble with giving to those in need too.
ReplyDeleteOn Sunday mornings at my church back home, I would give to a fund for a church in Africa instead of the regular old collection plate. I did this because I knew that my church would be fine if we didn't have all the money we expected to have. But this church in Africa ran on only $100 a month and that included the minister's salary. I think that it was a greater cause to give to.
I love how happy impoverished people always seem to be. The facilities workers here are far from impoverished but they don't make as much as many employees at Lipscomb. I find myself smiling back at all of them because they always have a smile on their own face. They have a great servant-like attitude that I admire.
As Siobahn said, many of us will be going on mission trips. Those trips, especially help us richer, haughtier, American teenagers come back to reality. The kids in those countries are the easiest to see pure joy coming out of poverty. Many are not just poor, but they have also been abandoned or abused. It's hard to imagine being that happy in those circumstances.
I hope one day, those impoverished countries will be able to stand without the aid of American funds, but until then we should continue to aid those in need. By giving up fast food or movie tickets, students here at Lipscomb could greatly contribute to helping countries in need.
^I do the same thing with my contribution! If you look at what a church budget is spent on, you start to wonder if you're really giving to God, or at least I did. I felt like I was giving to a slush fund where sometimes the money helped those who really needed, and sometimes it just went to pay for someone's meal at P.F. Chang's. James says true religion is helping the widows and orphans, those who can't help themselves. I doubt our churches are really that focused on true religion as opposed to that shiney new wing with the basketball court.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah... back to the main point. With the amount of money we produce, and the amount we spend on random crap, and with the amount of energy we put into taking ver foreign countries, wouldn't it kae sense to spend some cash on the countries we're invading or just help out our neighbors? Is it that hard to help some dying villages in Africa by digging them a well that will provide water for the whole village for years for less cash than we spend on food in a month? Just imagine what the amount of money spent on a sleek new F-22 Raptor could do for the starving in Uganda or the displaced in the Congo?
But more importantly, how do we, individually, do that? How will we do that tomorrow?
*is done preaching*
I feel like a huge hypocrite writing anything about poverty in the world and my consumerism as a christian in America. As i write this i have my guitar on my lap that was made in china by someone in a sweatshop. I just ate a brownie. The amount of calories i consumed today has to be ridiculous compared to what someone in an impoverished nation eats. I just texted my friend on a $100 cell phone. If i had gotten the free phone I could have supported that church for a month single handedly. If i sold my guitar for $300 I could feed a kid in africa for 10 months. 10 months of a healthy life!. When i was 16 I got a car that was $4500. That could feed him for 150 months or more than 12 years. I got an ipod that I don't really use for $250. 8 months. I got to lipscomb instead of a state school with a difference of at the very least $10,000. Did i make a christ-like decision?. My cologne $40 which could feed someone for a month. My playstation back home cost $200. 6 months. I am soooooo blessed. I am spoiled rotten and have been isolated. Well have i really?. I know that people are suffering but I have done hardly anything about it! Does this mean I'm lukewarm? I am rich and lukewarm. Not a good combination in christianity. I am case and point that the change needs to happen from the bottom up.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the problem with poverty is that it’s a disease. Acting in the gruesome fashion of necrotizing fasciitis or a malignant tumor, it spreads and multiplies unchecked across the planet. Billions of dollars, like useless antibiotics, are been poured out to fix the problem. What happens? Theses impoverished nations use this gracefully given gift to buy drugs, bombs, and gun. Food is sent and it simply ignites conflict, killing more than it was meant to help. No infrastructure is improved, no permanent solution erected. This cycle of dependency is more than criminal.
ReplyDeleteCan we justify dedicating ourselves to those who refuse to help themselves? Nations simply grow in corruption when money is given to their leaders. These influential men use it to finance their private mansions and lush estates instead of setting example for the people they claim to serve. Countries dive into genocide and civil war when their people find they have no food, clean water or chance of improving their circumstances. And when the war is over the survivors find they have nothing left: no jobs, no infrastructure, and no future.
These helpless nations simply compound their own problems as their populations spiral out of control. Blame it on lack of birth control or commonsense, either way when someone below the poverty index decides to reproduce they simply add another mouth that needs to be fed, clothed, and educated. Their actions only drive them evenly lower on the poverty scale.
To not mention how these overpopulated and underprivileged nations help to extenuate the problem of global warming and planetary destabilization would be immoral. Their countries strip mine, clear cut, and overgraze. Their land is left dead, polluted with deadly chemicals, no longer able to produce crops, battered by severe weather as their forest are no longer able to shield the land. With no forests to consume CO2 they do more damage than a fleet of cars. This is without taking time to mention the countless species of animals that are lost or the absolute lack of environmental over watch to be found.
The only way to cure a disease like this is to cut away the infected areas, like a limb infected with gangrene. For that we are far more than prepared. Countless civilized countries have stockpiled everything from covenantal to atomic weapons, each of which could help to prevent the spread of this terminal cancer. If these people are only going to go after each other, allowing the survivors repopulate the shattered land with more helpless souls. Why should we not help them speed along the process? Several thousand pounds of ordinance would put a noticeable dent in this plague. Simply look at it being akin to cutting off a hand or foot, or even a massive dose of chemotherapy. Repeated “check-ups” would help keep the problem in remission.
Of course, if one is of the more squeamish persuasion, there are more humane ways to accomplish the above. Rest assured there is some biological or chemical manipulation buried deep in government vaults that would resolve issue. A mystery cure as potent and sought after as if it was the cure for cancer. Perhaps it is a method of viral sterilization, or a painless never agent. But should we mind the method or only its results.
Assuredly, something must be done, and done soon. If not our entire planet is at risk of being overrun in the fashion of the French royalty. When humanity neglected to respond to a modest solution all those years ago, it set itself up for an unfortunate awaking.
Wow. Callie, amen.
ReplyDeleteI went to NOLA for a mission trip a few months after Hurricane Katrina. Though you could say, I guess, that we were a bunch of haughty rich kids trying to satiate our consciences, that wasn't what we were about when we got there. The most main lesson we came away from the experience of mucking out houses was; It All Goes to the Curb. Whether it was a treasured family heirloom, a wedding album, or just some dime-store trinket, everything had to be thrown away. It was a gut check, at the time, though I cant say it changed the way we live our lives. I mean, look at me. I go to Lipscomb, I have all these expensive technologies and quality things in my life. What would I do if it all got sent to the curb? What would any of us do? In order to live right and be good stewards of what God has given us, we need to be broken down, so that we may be rebuilt. But I kind of hope that doesnt happen. Oops.
Another problem with all of this is that so few Americans actually know about how poorly people in 3rd world countries live. The poor in America are nothing compared to the poor in many countries, but it is shocking how few people know that. I've been to the two poorest countries on this side of the world (Honduras and Haiti) on mission trips, and I'll admit, I was shocked the first time I went to these countries. The poor there live in houses the size of my dorm room, but they have anywhere from 4 to 8 people living in them (this is no exaggeration at all) and live off one meal a day if they're lucky. When my youth group from home goes to Honduras every summer, we build them houses that are 18'x16' that would be a decent-sized tool shed in America, but to them it's a mansion. In America, you would never see tears of joy flood someone's face when you built them a room out of warped, thin wood with a tin roof overhead. Most Americans can't even fathom having to fit a family or two in there to live together. As I said before, we just don't know what's going on in these countries. Our problems start with our own ignorance.
ReplyDelete