Poverty...

Poverty. There is so much that can be said about this topic. With the health care bill being voted on probably as I type, it will be hard to avoid that aspect of the discussion but I wish not to start out there. I will start by first just talking about poverty in America. Not around the whole world but just in our own "perfect" country.
Poverty or living in poverty is determined by how much income one person or family receives. To live in a state of poverty means that one lives in an undesirable environment to the middle and upper classes. Poverty could also be called the poor class. Most people would agree that poverty is a bad thing. It is bad to have people living in boxes when others live in mansions. In America we want to believe that since we are a world power that poverty is not AS an issue than in other countries( these countries are often called third world). So in our country poverty exists but it is not as prevalent. In America poverty will always exist because of our capitalism economy. There must be a dumbest. There must be the poorest. Someone must clean the toilets. The problem with poverty is that it is very hard to work out of. What for sure needs to change is how poverty can entrap people into poverty based upon their birth. An African American child is born in the ghetto of Detroit. That child most likely trapped at birth based on its race and the income of its parents( also affected by his race). That aspect of poverty needs to be changed; but the fact is those types of changes are long term changes that take place over generations.
What is not the worry of the more privileged is the fact that this same child might join a gang because he accepts his place as being poor. That part of poverty is something that the individual must decide for themselves.
So what about philanthropy? What is the role of the privileged to help the poor? Some may say that it is the role as human beings to help other humans. We feel a connection to the needs of other humans and it hurts us to hear about the pain others experience. But we do not all feel the same for all causes. America is the most generous country in the world. For any natural disaster in our country or outside our borders we are always give the most and the longest. But in America we believe in working for your wealth. We look down on people that do not work and people that cause their own problems( this is how the AIDS charity was looked at when the disease was mainly restricted to homosexuals). Also Americans do not like to be told that they have to give to a cause. Essentially that is what the Health Care Bill would do. Since people believe that the government should be responsible for the well being of their citizens then the government should fight poverty through providing health care. The problem lies in that the government does not make any money outside of taking a portion of its citizens. So then the Government is now telling all of its citizens that they must pick up the tab for someone else. This is why a portion of Americans disapprove of the health care bill. Pass this time or not, it is obvious that something should be done. But whatever is done will be under heavy scrutiny. And whatever failure will rest solely on the shoulders of Obama in the eyes of the people.

Poverty and Philanthropy

The world today is going down in flames. The poverty rates are going up, and more and more people are ending up losing money. Times are tough right now, but hopefully soon the recession will be over, and things will start to change. Friday, while I was in Athens, there was this man in a motorized wheelchair trying to collect money for impaired people. When I handed him a dollar, his eyes grew wide. It was as if I had made his day.

I think helping out people in need to an extent is okay. There is such a thing as too much help. Welfare, for example is stupid. It only enables the people involved to take the governments money. The people under welfare think that since the government is helping, they can stop trying to find a job or a source in income. They also end up having more kids, which allows them to have more money. This is ridiculous. Honestly, they can try to support themselves. They are just lazy people and give up too easily.

I am in a situation right now where my uncle lives in my basement. He mooches off of my mom. This has been happening for several years, and in a way, he is like the people on welfare. My mom is like the government; she gives out money to help him. They will never go away, and eventually, the government needs to toughen up and realize that they are contributing to the deduction of the American economy.

Instead of giving money to the homeless, give clothes, food, shoes or blankets. Why give money to the homeless when they claim to need the bare essentials? If given money, the people do not know how to handle it. Most likely, they would end up buying crack. They would rather sit on the street corners while holding signs, hoping that someone will help them rather than going to a shelter. They should swallow their pride because it is not helping them out.

Society today is very competitive, and that means we should always keep trying. People tend to give up and think that being a bum is better than struggling to be a president of a huge company. Just because you are not fulfilling your dream, you should not give up on life. You can always start somewhere small and move up. According to the Peter Principle, we keep moving up until we can no longer can.

Philanthropy is the effort or inclination to increase the well being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations. Some modern days are Paul Newman, before he died, Bono, and Bill Gates. They all have given back to society or have started several charities. I think a lot of the motivation for celebrities to give back is solely based on a social aspect. I believe that since the new trend is to give back, everyone wants to be apart of it all. I mean, if it helps out society, then why not?

Poverty Blog

Poverty in our nation has been consistent for over 20 years. Many have done things such as philanthropic strategies to combat poverty but little has drastically changed. Philanthropy is the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations. Many people have donated millions worth of dollars to help poverty. The real question is what can we do to finally put a end to poverty? Some famous people have said there will always be the rich class and poor class in society. Some people say we have a moral need to help the poor but why should the successful people HAVE to help them. A lot of the poor is people who didn’t work hard in school and caused their social economic hardship by not working. Some of the poor may have been just people who had bad luck and tried to be successful but most of them aren’t. Charity can help ease poverty and make their life a little easier but most of the time it doesn’t stop it from occurring. People need to fight poverty by preventing people from having to go through. You can do this by making more people stay and work in school to help improve their future. If they work in school they would get good jobs because they got a good education. Getting jobs would provide money and they wouldn’t end up in poverty. Some groups have been to fight poverty by sending in groups of volunteers building homes and other facilities in poor areas. Other groups have also provided essential goods that people are lacking such as toilet paper and medicine. Basic items such as these could help people in poverty drastically and many groups ask for donations of not only money but these essential items to give to the poor. Some people believe that to many relief effort, such as the relief for Haiti, is given to foreign people and need to be focused on Americans first. This argument is understandable because we provide so much relief for foreign countries instead of sending the relief to people in poverty in our own country. Some people say this argument is selfish but I think it’s a logical argument and can’t be just thrown to the side. The overall belief for this is we need to fix our own problems before helping others. This makes since but what would happen if we didn’t help other countries and all of the sudden something devastating happened in our country causing us to need foreign help. If we weren’t helping other countries why would they want to help us? Shouldn’t we help ourselves become completely stable first before helping others? So as you can see, the status with poverty and philanthropy is not a easy subject and has may sides to it. A lot of people argue where philanthropy should be focused and how much it should be focused on one area. New techniques are being developed to battle poverty but as of right now the poverty rate has been at a constant level. Billions of relief money has been sent overseas to countries such as Haiti and countries in Africa. Hopefully one day someone will create a way to fight poverty but not fight to ease it but a successful fight in stopping it.

I am hungry, broke and under 18.

I hear it on the news everyday; people are in debt and this economy is putting people in hard times. However, who is getting put through these hard times? In 2007, according to The University of Michigan’s poverty center, nineteen percent of children were living in poverty. Those were the statistics when the economy was so called good. The statistics for today must be through the roof of children impoverished.

The fact of the matter is, children in this country are going without food, an education, opportunities and safety because the majority of adults in our country can not live within their means. Due to extreme amounts of credit card debt, houses are going under foreclosure and directly affecting the percent of those living under what they need to get by. How did this all happen? The government had a lot to do with it, and selfish people had the second hand in it.

Living in poverty most often puts pressure on kids to provide for themselves, families, or siblings in one way or another. Understandably children get desperate and turn to means of violence, or stealing just to put minimal food on the table. These conditions are nasty, unfair and jeopardize the futures of millions of poor kids.

I suggest instead of heath plans, or bills that will just plummet this country further into deficits, we as a country invest time and love into these communities and lives. The government money spent will have to be paid off by the very generations that are already drowning in desperation themselves. If we could give time, and donate love, energy and inspiration in the areas that need it most I believe the country would grow economically, and morally. Time spent by influential people in the community centers actually influencing the young minds of America would be a pay off on both sides.

I am actually sitting on my couch right now and ABC has a new show called “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution”. Here is a man who believes passionately about the health of the world. He has already transformed Britain’s’ food industry and he has come to help America learn. If we had more citizens in America devoted to positively influencing the poverty rates through direct action, maybe we would not be as deep in this situation as we are. Instead the majority of people in the United States sits and complains instead of doing, myself included. We all blame others for why there are poor children, and adults struggling through the day. We push the responsibility of the issue onto government and the victims themselves.

The government needs to pass a community bill. The government needs to inspire community service. The government needs to lead in direct action. The government needs to believe in the students who are struggling. The government needs to do something. The citizens need to do something. We as a community of America need to do something; put forth energy and love into the well being of those who share our home instead of worrying about foreign third world countries. We need to help our family before we can help our neighbors.

03.22.10 Poverty and Philanthropy

Poverty is one of the most important parts of the philanthropist’s worries. Philanthropy is defined as loving human and is similar to words such as donation and charity. As the poverty rate of our nation is increasing, the need for the philanthropists increases also. More and more people are loosing homes and are starving, but most of these people stared at with a look of pity or even disgust. Rather or not people believe themselves to be a philanthropist or not, people seem to have a will to help the people poorer than themselves. But when the health care bill was passed today, some people complain about how much more tax they will have to pay. So many people who has not been getting a proper medical treatment due to the highly costs can now get some treatments cheaper, but some people seem to care more about their money being spent on some other people’s medical needs. When people were giving donations to Haiti, people seemed to all pity the people involved in the terrible disaster and showed how much they cared about those people for a reason that they are human beings just like us. But the poor people are in America are treated differently; some say they do not understand why they have to pay for the people who are sitting on the streets for not try hard and ignoring their opportunity.
First of all, I believe that not all homeless people are lazy, not trying kind of people. Poverty is not caused by the person’s laziness or dumbness; some people are born into the poor situation and are not given an opportunity to even get a proper education. Why would people pity the poor people in Africa and scorn at the poor people in our neighborhood streets? Following the idea of philanthropy, I think they should treat the two different kinds of poor people as the same and show the same amount of love towards them.
Secondly, we should give at least a small amount of what we have to the people starving to death. It is not a required action, but if we think of it in their situation, a small amount from us can be their month worth of food. If we ever end up in a situation like them, if people start to learn how to give to people in need, we would feel so thankful for the generosity of people. But not many people are into the whole donating money to the poor thing, and honestly I am not either. So the health care bill should be a way of helping the people in need unnoticeably for us. A little amount from each one of the people will be helping the people in need of insurance and medical treatments.
The idea of philanthropy should spread so the people will learn how to love each other rather than treating them as a different kind of people who they are not related to in any ways.

philanthropy and poverty

There is a problem with poverty in America today. According to povertyinamerica.edu, a website that is designed to study the statistics about poverty in America, household debt has risen to 132 percent, mainly because Americans are abusing the credit card and piling on the mortgage debt. In the year 2006, the national personal savings rate for the nation fell below zero for the first time since the depression. Today the economy is slowly recovering from almost collapsing into another depression; however it is still not where it needs to be. The American economy needs to be brought out of the depths of the ocean and become above sea level again. Poverty is not just about an economy but it is also about the poor conditions that people have to live through. There are homeless people in America right now that roam the streets every day of their lives begging for food, water and shelter. Poverty in my opinion is living below what is considered a lower class population. It is not having shelter or not being able to pay your own rent. Also living in poverty means that you can no longer support yourself or your family. This semi-depression that has hit America over the past couple of years has made America experience more poverty. More and more people are jobless and cannot pay the mortgage or their house. Americans and economists need to develop a plan that will not only get America out of their debt, but find a way to prevent inflation in doing so.
Philanthropy, according to the Webster’s Dictionary is the effort or inclination to increase the well being of human kind, as by charitable aid or donations. When someone is seen as increasing the well being of human kind, they are called a philanthropist. Many philanthropist have come and gone throughout history, however one of the most important philanthropists of all time; also one of the best known philanthropists in America, was Benjamin Franklin. He invented many things for the betterment of human time such as the lightening rod, the bifocal glasses, the glass armonica, and the Franklin Stove. These inventions are still used in some sort of form today and greatly helped in the advancement in technology for humanity at the time. It opened the gateway for other inventions to be made. I think that the next big thing in philanthropy to occur in hopefully the near future is a cure for cancer. That would be probably the most important thing invented in the history of mankind. Electricity might be in the same category however a cure for cancer would be truly remarkable. It would extend the lives of many people in this world and humans would not have to worry about dying from a certain disease any more. The medical profession and government jobs are mostly associated with philanthropy. If u think about it, almost every government job has to do with the betterment of human kind. Whether it be a police officer, a teacher, a senator or the president, government jobs and medical jobs are related to philanthropy because they support the well being of human kind.

A Universal Issue

As needed I researched, to an extent, what philanthropy and poverty are so that I could write about them for the this blog. In my research I asked my aunt Bec what she thinks about the two issues and she said, “If you’re asking me if people with surplus funds should help those in need, then I think they should if that’s their calling. If it’s a part of their nature to want to help others.”

Rebecca is my second mother and a truly extraordinary women. As an extremely influential person in the pearl trade she has traveled around the world to various countries and as part of her adventures she takes with her quilts she has sewn and gives them to people in need. The pictures she has of these poverty stricken people with her quilts are beautiful and heart breaking. These people look utterly grateful for the gift she has given them, yet their eyes betray their look of happiness with a kind of sadness I can’t even comprehend.

When it comes to philanthropy and poverty I think that those people in the world that want to help the less fortunate should. It takes a special person to give something to someone else and be satisfied with knowing the only thing they’ll receive is love. The receiver won’t return a physical gift but the love that passes between the two, the mutual respect, is far greater than any material thing. That sentiment, essentially, is what is understood by those who have a philanthropic nature: for anyone else the process isn't nearly so satisfying.

However I do believe that helping the poor has it’s limits. I personally think that we create our own lives, that we live the life we choose to because there is a lesson to be learned from the events that happen. If a charity were to just give money to the poor I think that defeats the purpose of learning life lessons. The point of the souls journey, at least in my mind, is to experience and learn the lessons it needs to so it can evolve. Giving to the poor the essential things like love, warmth, and food is what the philanthropic types should do because it aids the person on their journey; it gives them to tools to live so that they can learn. Those who don’t have that kind of nature or calling should stay far away from any kind endeavor to help the poor.

Those who don’t have the calling or the intense desire to help those in poverty will only worsen the situation. The universe works off a series of vibrations and any vibration that doesn’t ring on a high level will only attract other low vibrations. Low vibrations manifest into physical things with low vibrational energy and the cycle will only continue. The giving of funds to those that desire and wish to give to those in need is fine since any of the low vibration will be transferred elsewhere while the high vibration takes over because a higher vibration is stronger than a low one. The products that are made will result in high good vibrations which will attract more of the same thing. Everything goes in a cycle responding to what is put forth. So those who just give uncaringly won’t be helping those in need on a grand level. Maybe physically it helps but the internal part of this process will suffer. It’s the insides of these things that count the most. Giving should be an act of willingness not something someone should feel forced or expected to do. Philanthropy in respect to poverty is something that should be done, the philanthropic types will not only physically help the poor but universally help them as well.