E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

I am often amased when the question of poverty comes up. There are a lot of people who say that we have lots of it in US. Well, that maybe, it depends on the definition. In my economics class I often pose a question if somebody in their family owns a car. After just about everyone says that they do, I proceed to tell them that they are in the wealthiest 1% of the world’s population. I than ask them how many of them have loose change anywhere in their possession. After everyone says yes, I inform them that by that fact alone, they are among top 10% of the wealthiest people in the world.

It seems we often confuse our terms when we talk about poverty. When I mean poverty, I mean the vast majority of the world’s population who has never been more than 20 miles away from the place of their birth, I mean hundreds of millions who have no roof over their head, I mean billions that are going hungry tonight and every night.

A typical poor person in America, is still wealthy by the standards of just about any other country (with the possible exception of western Europe). Yet, I would argue that to a large degree, poverty is a matter of attitude. And in that sense, even America’s middle class is starting to think in a way that has the potential to impoverish our nation. 

The secret is simple: the more you care about helping others, the greater your opportunity to prosper, the more you rely on others to take care of you, the more likely you are to become poor.

So, if we are serious about making sure that poverty is not an issue in America, we need to really help (not  give money) to the poor around the world. Anything we can do to alleviate corruption and instability, anything we can do to create new jobs and encourage business growth will not just prosper us, but will help those who have been stricken by poverty.

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