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Nathan Bingham

Ms. Gardner

English 10 Honors, Per. 5

2 May 2018

Pulling Others Out Of Poverty

Imagine trying to live your life- buy all your food, buy all your clothes, buy everything

you need in order to live a normal life- on just under two dollars a day. That was the reality for as

many as “1.99 billion in 1981” according to the World Bank, an international financial institution

(qtd. in Sundaram). These conditions are considered extremely impoverish and translate to

“people living on less than US $1.25 a day”explained the Open Working Group of Member

States, a UN council designated to create sustainable development goals for the international

community (qtd. in Kenny). Poverty and living in impoverished conditions affects hundreds

upon hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe, especially those who live developing

countries. These conditions have forced the global community and the UN to create solutions

and provide aid to these countries in order to improve the livelihood of their citizens. This war on

poverty by the global community has therefore been successful through it’s establishment of

international rules as preventative measures, improvement of global trade, and reduction of

global poverty levels worldwide.

Some may argue that initiatives made by governing bodies like the UN and the U.S. to

reduce global poverty have been futile or pointless. For instance, while the American

government was using its money to provide aid for the impoverished in its own country, Michael
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Tanner, a journalist for ​USA Today ​noted that “the poverty rate has risen to 15.1%...perilously

close to where we began more than 40 years ago” (Tanner). Additionally, argues Tanner, “the

U.S.spends nearly one trillion every year to fight poverty. That amounts to $20,610 for every

poor person in America”(Tanner). Doug Bandow, a columnist for ​Forbes​, argued in an article on

the“Foundation for Economic Freedom”website that “Fifty years and hundreds of billions of

dollars of aid from Western governments—tunneled through the IMF, the World Bank, and a

number of other multilateral aid agencies—have had an impact on world poverty: it has helped

keep the Third World poor just that—poor” (Bandow 1995). And Robert Rector, a leading

authority on poverty, welfare programs, and immigration in America, concluded in an article

that:

The U.S. Census Bureau has just released its annual poverty report. The report claims

that in 2013, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor. Remarkably, that's almost the same

poverty rate as in 1967, three years after the War on Poverty started. How can that be?

How can government spend $9,000 per recipient and have no effect on poverty? The

answer is - it can't. (Rector)

To those who have a viewpoint such as Tanner, Bandow and Rector’s, the enormous

amount of money spent by the U.S. has effectively done nothing to combat poverty. Granted,

that may hold true in terms of poverty in the United States. Nevertheless, efforts by the U.S. and

its allies to combat poverty in the developing world have been successful.

Admittedly, the amount of money spent with little success gives the impression of an

impending problem with no solution in sight. However, when one reflects upon the great amount
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of good that money has provided for those in the developing world in dire need, in part due to

improvement of global trade, the benefits heavily outweigh the drawbacks. For instance, Michael

J. Mazarr, a writer for ​Foreign Affairs​, asserts that “The international financial institutions have

boosted trade and stabilized the global economy”(Mazarr). “There was a proliferation of new

trade agreements during the 1990’s,” reports Jessie Romero, a journalist for ​Econ Focus​,

“including the Uruguay round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(the precursor to the WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement. By 2001 there were

more than 200 regional trade agreements” (Romero). “Another factor”, says Romero, “was the

dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, which started a process of economic liberalization in

Eastern European countries and allowed them to begin trading with the world” (Romero). Based

on this evidence, economic freedom and UN-led actions allowed for an improvement to

countries as a whole. Consequently, the establishment of goals set by the UN and agreed upon by

nations to reduce poverty provided the framework for further action.

These goals established baselines and plans of action for sovereign nations to follow in

order to reduce poverty. To illustrate, ​The Economist​, a weekly magazine-format newspaper,

noted that “In September 2000 the heads of 147 governments pledged that they would halve the

proportions of people on the Earth living in the direst poverty by 2015, using the poverty rate in

1990 as a baseline” (“Not”). Furthermore, stated ​The Economist​, “Many of these aims-- such as

cutting maternal mortality by three quarters and and child mortality by two thirds-- have not been

met. But the goal of halving poverty has been. Indeed, it was achieved five years early” (“Not”).

Evidently, these frameworks greatly improved the lives of countless thousands and hopefully
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thousands more. As a result, the efforts by the UN and other governing bodies have proven

extremely successful in their mission towards the eradication of poverty in the developing world.

Ultimately, UN lead efforts to combat and eradicate extreme poverty in the developing

world have proved extremely successful. For example, according to the World Bank, “12.7

percent of the world’s population lived at or below $1.90 a day in 2012, compared with 37

percent in 1990 and 44 percent in 1981” (qtd. in Sundaram). Similarly ​The Economist ​stated that

“The world has made amazing progress in eradicating extreme poverty….the number of people

living in absolute poverty has fallen by about 1bn and the number of non-poor people has gone

up by roughly 4bn” (“Fewer”). Through these statistics, one can see how the efforts of the UN

and its allies to reduce extreme poverty in the developing world have not been in vain or without

lasting positive effects.

Taking everything into account, the global war on extreme poverty has been successful

due to framework laid out by the UN and its allies, improvement economic freedom and growth,

and overall poverty decline. Less poverty has and will continue to allow for more economic

freedom, bolstering the global economy as a whole. This decline will have a rippling effect that

will last for generations as more children will be able to grow up in conditions that will allow

them to not only reach their full potential, but hopefully exceed it and change the world for the

betterment of all.
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Works Cited

Bandow, Doug. “Perpetuating Poverty: The World Bank, the IMF, and the Developing World |

Doug Bandow, Ken S. Ewert.” ​FEE​, Foundation for Economic Education, 1 Apr. 1995,

fee.org/articles/perpetuating-poverty-the-world-bank-the-imf-and-the-developing-world/.

"Fewer, but Still with Us; the War on Poverty."​ Economist​, Apr, 2017, pp. 55​. SIRS Issues

Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.

Kenny, Charles. "End Poverty in all its Forms Everywhere."​ UN Chronicle​, Jan, 2014, pp. 4​.

SIRS Issues Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.

Mazarr, Michael J. "The Once and Future Order: What Comes After Hegemony?"​ Foreign

Affairs​, 2017, pp. 25​. SIRS Issues Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.

"Not always with Us."​ Economist​, Jun, 2013, pp. p. 22​. SIRS Issues Researcher​,

https://sks.sirs.com​.

Rector, Robert. “The War on Poverty: 50 Years of Failure.” ​The Heritage Foundation​,

www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/commentary/the-war-poverty-50-years-failure.

Romero, Jessie. "Goodbye, Globalization?"​ Econ Focus​, 2015, pp. 20​. SIRS Issues

Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.

Sundaram, Jomo K. "The Geography of Poverty."​ Inter Press Service​, 30 Jun, 2016​.

SIRS Issues Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.

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Tanner, Michael. "The 15 Trillion Dollar War on Poverty is a Failure."​ USA Today

(Farmingdale)​, Sep, 2012, pp. 10​. SIRS Issues Researcher​,​ https://sks.sirs.com​.