In 2000, 147 government leaders had pledged to cut the world's percentage of people living in dire poverty, that is making less than $1.25 a day, in half using the poverty level in 1990 as their baseline. Many of the other goals set by the United Nations, that they call the "millennium development goals", have not been met, but this one has. In just 20 years the world's poverty level has been cut in half. This got people thinking, it we could cut the poverty level by 50 percent in twenty years, could we get rid of the other half in the next 20 years?
At a press conference in April 2013 the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, wrote the number 2030 on a piece of paper, held it up to the audience and said that that was the year we would completely eradicate poverty. However, he was not the first person to make this pledge. Earlier that year Barack Obama had said that within the next two decades there would be no more poverty. Many other people of influence have said this in the past, as well. While things are looking good, and great progress is being made, it will be quite the challenge to completely eradicate poverty in the next 20 years. Despite the apparent difficulty, it is a challenge that many world leaders are willing to take on.
I feel as though a complete elimination of global poverty in the next 20 years is a stretch. No matter how much money and resources are thrown at the issue it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to reach this goal.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue will take more than 20 years to resolve. I agree with Max about the use of resources will affect this goal.
ReplyDeletePoverty is an issue that more people need to focus on. I do not think it will ever be completely eliminated, but I do think it will improve over time.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with billy on that, because there will be only more and more people over time. So therefore we will not be able to keep up with all the needs and those people will live in poverty. So over time it will just get worse.
ReplyDeleteThere will be zero poverty in the world because of how the world works. There would not be a middle and upper class without some poverty around.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that there would not be an upper or middle class without the poor, I feel as though there can still be a lower class but they don't necessarily have to be impoverished.
DeletePoverty is something that has been around since the dawn of all humanity. Since ancient times, there was a portion of people who were poor. I believe that this will never change and it's irrational to try and completely eliminate it.
ReplyDeleteLike I said to Kevin, there can still be a poorer lower class, but that class of people doesn't need to be totally impoverished.
Delete