

Three quarters of the world’s deaths by AIDS reduce overall life expectancy by ten to twenty years.
For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.
Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Cause of Poverty
-The truth revealed
Assessment written by
Joakim Kalbakk
Causes of Poverty
- The truth revealed
“Almost half the world, over 3 billion people, lives on less than $2.50 a day. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day)” - Anup Shah (Global Issues, 2009.02.20)
Living in a world where being considered poor increases as the wealth increases. The riches are getting richer and the poorest are getting poorer. The article will present the subject poverty in the right perspective and discuss various factors which affect poverty, trying to locate the cause of poverty. The factors which are up to discussion are globalization and consumerism. The main subject of the assessment is however poverty. Just a few factors are mentioned, though including them all would increase the number of pages dramatically.
A world in constant change
As in 2009 the world changes rapidly. On daily bases thousands of newborns open their eyes for the very first time and another thousand closes theirs. New inventions and technology blossoms within the brains of young men and women at CERN and other institutes. It is spring. The air is getting warmer, vast areas of ice is melting, some never to return. The plants and the trees start to reproduce oxygen from carbon dioxide. The globalization continues.
Though the expression globalization has been used since the 1920’s it is a better known subject today than about 90 years ago. The definitions are many but basically they speak of change. Having one idea and affect others to take part in that idea connecting countries even on a continental basis. The word is most used when speaking of culture, religion, business, politics and ideals. This phenomenon in reality spreads western ideals and especially American ideals. One of the issues with the American ideals can be found in the Declaration of Independence stating; ”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” . During the 1920’s to World War II (1940) a new ideology emerged. Consumerism, a constant need for products and services, greed.
“Greed before Need”
As the demand increases the supply must meet the demand. Basic knowledge, or is it? All markets affected by the free-market-theory, also known as supply and demand credited to Adam Smith published in his book “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776 presents the idea. It predicts “that in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity” (wikipedia, 2009.02.20). In theory it will result in companies depending on the demand. If they do not meet the demand, they will simply go bankrupt and be removed from the market. On the other hand, if the demand increases, the supply must find a way to please the costumers. What globalization and consumerism do, is to force the nations of the world, with soft powers, in a way that will make them want to be like the industrialized world. However, the market only supplies the demand as anything less or more would be inefficient.
Filling the blanks
Ecological Footprints, a method to measure how one national inhabitants consumption, multiplied by the amount of inhabitants on Earth will affect the usage of the Earths resources. The measures gives a picture on how long time it will take for the Earth to reproduce our used and wasted resources.
2008 figures from the Global Footprint Network shows that on an international level High Income Countries [1] with a population of 970 million people have a Total Ecological Footprint (TEF) of 6,4. Comparing to Middle Income Countries [2] with a population of 3 098 million people, TEF of 2, 2 and Low Income Countries [3] with a population of 2 371 million people, TEF of 1, 0. Simple math will show that approximately 15% of the world’s population alone use 6, 4 times more resources than the Earth is capable of reproducing in a one-year period.
The figures also shows that the nation which in globalization started, where the free-market theory is well practiced and where consumerism spread as a result of globalization, the United States of America has a TEF of 9,4. Eventually, a TEF of 9, 4 of the entire world is what to be expected if globalization keeps on. This of course if no great leaps are made in the search for renewable technology. The optimal choice would be for the High- and Middle Income Countries to aim for the Low Income Countries usage of resources, perfectly reaping what they sow.
“What comes around goes around”
One of the negative outcomes of globalization is global warming. A definition by USA government National Weather Service characterizes global warming as: “An overall increase in world temperatures which may be caused by additional heat being trapped by greenhouse gases”. (NWS JetStream: 2009.02.20).