Poverty is Unnecessary

Poverty in America is Shameful
by Charlie Leck

The following was written nearly a year ago (22 October 2006)
but read by very few of you because, at that time, I had only a
few readers visiting my blog on another site. I wanted to post
this blog here for more of you to read.

"The poor will always be with us," said Jesus (Mark 14:7).

I guess! It seems that way. Yet, Muhammad Yunus, a 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, says, "Poverty is unnecessary."

Would that it were so!

In its citation of Yunus as a prizewinner, the Nobel Committee claims that lasting peace cannot be achieved in the presence of poverty.

I have always had the lingering, lurking belief that a great deal of the unrest, civil war and terrorism in the world is rooted in poverty. Is it so difficult to believe that poverty must sometimes become so unbearable that it causes the birth of ferocious anger?

Our nation is now waging a war on terrorism. Our strategy and methods will not win the war. Oh, we may win a victory here and there – destroy a terrorist cell or an infamous terrorist leader. However, in a world of ravaging poverty in the face of astronomical wealth, there will always be anger among the poor and a hatred of the rich.

Muhammad Yunus strives "to make poverty a museum artifact." Read about him. You all know how to Google. I tend to believe he is correct. The Scandinavians claim to have eradicated poverty in their countries. Only psychological poverty remains; that is, poverty by choice. With a will to do it, America could do the same. It could also be a reality throughout North America. It would take great, wise and creative leadership, but it is a possibility and not a fantasy. My conservative friends will begin, at this point in my argument, to raise howls about socialism and communism. No, that's not where I'm going. It could happen under creative capitalism. There needs only a will to accomplish it.

We have an enormous amount of poverty in America. It is one of the most shameful characteristics of our great nation – that we would allow such a deficiency to exist.

As comfortable, wealthy folks, we are encouraged to give to charities and non-profit organizations that provide handouts to the poor. Send a few cans of soup to the food-shelf. In a great nation of remarkable economic genius and of powerful entrepreneurs, isn't there some more effective way to attack poverty – to grab it by its roots and to pull it forever from the soil of the nation?

If Muhammad Yunus can come up with the ingenious idea of a microcredit bank, can't we come up with some ideas also?

Are we serious when we say we want to fight terrorism and eliminate it? Do we mean it when we say that urban violence must end? These are fights that tanks and guns will not win. They are battles that the creative, economic mind could solve. It is a war that America could wage with great creativity and at less cost than the current war in Iraq. And, in waging such a war, America's international friends would take great notice and we would return to a place of world leadership again.

Jesus may be correct. However, we should make sure that only those who choose to be poor would remain so anywhere in our nation and in the world.