This is a continuation of my on solving Asia’s poverty problem which is my official entry to the Asia Challenge 2010. Click here to view Solving Asia’s Poverty Problem – Part 1 and click here to view Part 2.
Poverty is a world wide problem no doubt, and it should be solved at a world wide scale. However it is important to focus our solution in Asia since Asia encompasses half of the world’s population. Solving Asia’s poverty problem would help solve the poverty problem of the world.
But what is the solution to the poverty problem? The United Nations, the World bank and various non-government organizations as well as governments all over the world has been trying to solve the poverty problem for several decades now. Billions of dollars has been spent in trying to do research on how to solve the poverty problem. The greatest minds in the world have tried to solve the problem, but it seems we are making a little progress after decades of research and after spending billions of dollars on how to solve the poverty problem.
If you ask people who has worked on the poverty problem as to what is the solution to the problem, answers will vary depending on their personal biases. Some say education is the key to solving the poverty problem; others would want to resort to population control. I have discussed both of these extensively and have pointed out that education and curtailing population growth is not going to solve the poverty problem.
The primary reason for the little or lack of progress in solving the poverty problem is because all along, those tasked in solving the problem has treated the causes of the problem and not faced the problem itself. The problem is poverty so to solve the poverty problem we need to honestly ask ourselves why are a lot of people in Asia living in poverty?
If poverty can be reduced into an equation what is it? What is the solution to the equation? Surely poverty can’t be reduced to a simple equation because it is a multidimensional concept.
But since poverty is a real problem that requires a real solution, poverty must be measured and quantified in order for us to be able to measure as to whether or not we have solved the poverty problem.
To quantify or give an equation to poverty the world’s best acne treatment mind has come up with what is called as the “Poverty Line” or the “Poverty threshold.” Wikipedia defines the poverty threshold as “the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country.”13 The poverty line is based on “consumption.” As one study on the “poverty line” points out “When individual consumption is compared with the corresponding poverty line value, classified as poor are those whose level of consumption are below the poverty line.” 14
Now isn’t it quite obvious that the solution to the poverty problem is staring us in the face? To make people cross the poverty line, the solution then is to give them a higher wage in order that they can have more purchasing power so that their level of consumption will be above the poverty line.
Come back for more on “Solving Asia’s Poverty Problem – Part 4“
Sources:
5.http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf
6.http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/Prospects/ProspectsOpenFiles/pr115ofe.pdf
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_growth_rate
8. http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/populationgrowth.htm
9. http://www.hawkinscheung.com/html/hcarticle1.htm
10. http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9612/articles/mcgurn.html
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong
12. http://www.info.gov.hk/info/population/eng/pdf/chapter2_e.pdf
13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_threshold
14. http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/conference/papers/1_Cambodia%20-%20Poverty%20measure.pdf
Leave a Reply