World poverty has been an ongoing issue since the beginning of time and we globally still struggle on finding a way to tackle this issue. Global poverty can range from not being able to get an education, lack of medical facilities, no shelter, poor nutrition, unemployment and having limited to no fresh water. Poverty is caused by many factors, which include governmental, demographic, social and environmental factors. Misery in the Third World has reached a dramatic level with people having limited resources. This is a global catastrophe that has to be addressed more seriously by the world’s community.
Income distribution in the world is very uneven and one sided, “as of 2018 one percent of the people, controlled around eighty-two percent of the wealth in the world” (Corley, 2018), meaning that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The majority of the people that are being affected by uneven income distribution are the countries that have a low employment rate, lack of affordable education, low export rate and lack of sustainable infrastructure. Venezuela, for example, is going through its worst economic crisis and on the brink of collapse, although once being an economic powerhouse. This economic crisis has affected the unemployment rate dramatically. In 2015, Venezuela had a 6.82 percent unemployment rate but because of their current crisis it has risen to 44 percent as of 2019. It is also likely to hit 50 percent next year. This is leading to their people living in extreme poverty because almost half of their population is currently unemployed. Venezuela's inflation rate is at an all-time high, which has led to food prices to skyrocket. Most people won’t be able to afford those high prices for food, because they don’t have a way of making a sustainable income. Another factor affecting poverty is financial aid. Financial aid that goes to Third World countries rarely reaches the people that it was intended to help, “while U.S. business loses more than $600 billion a year to fraud, it's even worse in many parts of the developing world where corruption and fraud lead to the waste of vast amounts of aid and investment funds” (Kramer, 2002), diminishing corruption leads to minimizing the effects of poverty in the Third World.
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Natural disasters and climate change have also had a huge impact on poverty. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and tsunamis can cause people to go into poverty. “Floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and other extreme natural disasters push 26 million people into poverty each year and cost the global economy more than half a trillion dollars in lost consumption” (Elliott, 2016). Natural disasters affect poor people tremendously because they do not have the financial resources to rebuild their lives. For example, in 2004 a tsunami hit Sumatra, Indonesia. While already being an impoverished country, the direct effect of the Tsunami rose the poverty rate by 5 percent, as well as left 1.7 million people homeless. A new factor that has risen in the past 20 years that has had a huge impact on poverty is climate change, “Severe climate shocks threaten to roll back decades of progress against poverty. Storms, floods, and droughts have dire human and economic consequences, with poor people often paying the heaviest price” (Kim, 2016), as well as the financial aid that goes to help them rebuild does not always get to the poor. Financial aid after a natural disaster tends to go to businesses and landowners, while the poor do not have the money to repair their houses. The wealthy are able to restart their lives if a natural disaster happens, “The poverty gap is worst in Aceh, the Indonesian province which was the most badly affected area and was already impoverished by conflict before the tsunami hit. Half a million people in Aceh are now homeless - but Oxfam found that it is largely the wealthiest survivors who have been able to start rebuilding their lives” (Hill, 2005), while the poor continue to struggle. Lastly, many of these people that live in poverty in a Third World country use farming as a way to provide for themselves. Although climate change may affect their way of farming, if there is a drought during the growing season, they will not be able to grow crops. In Third World countries, where most people are farmers, they will be directly affected by climate change. They won't be able to eat if climate change affects the course of the growing season.
Government can play a huge part on diminishing poverty in the Third World. When you have a government that does not care about its people, then you don’t have a proper government. “Overpopulation in some areas, but greed and corruption is the greatest cause. India can afford nuclear weapons and a space program, for example, but seems unwilling or unable to look after huge numbers of its population” (Downes, 2012). India’s government has enough money to buy nuclear weapons and a space program, while India’s poverty rate is 22 percent and an estimated 276 million people live in poverty. If governments shift priorities into helping poverty, then it would help decrease it dramatically. Another example of the effects of poor governing towards its citizens is in North Korea, and leader Kim Jong Un. Almost half of the population in North Korea are in extreme poverty, mixed with having food shortages. Many of these citizens live in extreme poverty and struggle day after day to figure out what they will eat. But on the other hand, this problem could be decreased dramatically. “North Korea spends a lot of its funds on the military. In 2001, the country spent more than $5 billion on military spending alone, which is more than 30 percent of the country’s GDP” (Guadiana, 2016). North Korea can spend 5 billion dollars on nuclear weapons and strengthening their army but can’t spend that money on providing for their citizens who are living in extreme poverty. In comparison, Canada only spends 1.2 percent of its GDP on the military and as of 2017 only 9.2 percent of the population live in poverty. Which is almost down one percent from 2016. With lack of investments by the government, “Lack of education is the main cause - the people have no way to get out of the situation. Coupled with a lack of facilities (some have no water or electricity), lack of investment by their governments, corruption of the governments, and lack of social services” (Downes, 2012), these can all help decrease poverty, but some governments believe that it is not important to transfer resources to one of the biggest global issues. As you can see if there is not a proper government in charge, it can lead to its own people suffering in extreme poverty.
In conclusion, although we, as a global community, are trying to reduce poverty in the Third World there is still a huge problem in the world today. It is estimated that almost 3 billion people live in poverty, over the worlds 7 billion people population, with no signs of stopping. Poverty is caused by many factors that include governmental, social, economic and environmental. This can extend from people not being able to access food or fresh water, lack of medical facilities, no education and no shelter. Every country deals with poverty, but it is worse in the Third World where financial aid does not reach where it is intended to reach, economic crisis are very frequent, natural disasters are more likely to hit and corrupt governments is in power. Poverty is a critical global issue that affects almost half the world's population and should be taken very seriously.
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