Position on the conroversial subject of poverty - Essay Example

When a person lives in poverty he often does not have enough money to provide himself and his family with the basic human needs which include food, shelter, and medicine. The biggest victims of the poverty dilemma are children. Children are innocent by standards that are suffering. In a lot of countries across the world adults are exploiting children by forcing them to work. There are nearly 250 million children who are child laborers. The United States is not exempt from the war against poverty.

There are nearly 44 million children on food stamps in the United States which accounts for 21% of the children population of the nation (Snyder, 2011). The high cost of living in the United States is one of the reasons a lot children and adults are living in poverty. The continents that are suffering the most from poverty are Africa and Asia. The overpopulation in Asia is one the reasons that this ethnic group is suffering so much from poverty. The root of the poverty problem is income discrepancy.

The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income, while the richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income (Globalissues, 2013). Something has to be done in order to create a better balance of the global wealth. Another major issue associated with poverty is that the governments across the world do not have sufficient resources to help their citizens. The majority of the global wealth is in the hands of corporations. Approximately 40% of the global wealth is owned by a tightly-knit cluster of 147 entities (Doctorow, 2011).

These companies along with the other millions of businesses across the world have to become more proactive in the fight against poverty. The United Nations has to step in and impose solutions that will effectively change the course of history in order to eradicate poverty forever. A potential solution that the U.N. can implement is to create a special tax with the purpose of using that money solely to provide financial aid to poor people in need. The tax would be imposed on corporations whose annual net income surpasses $1 million per year.

Corporations that move millions of dollars can afford to pay that special tax without hurting the financial performance of the firm or adversely affecting its shareholders. The special tax to be imposed by the U.N should be 2.5% of net income. There has to be a better coordinated effort in order to fight poverty worldwide. A lot of nonprofit organizations such as Feed the Children are doing a wonderful job of fighting hunger and poverty worldwide. A group of consortiums must be establish in which the leaders of non-profit organizations in different countries meet at least once a month in order to discuss the efforts of each entity so that better coordination can be establish by these entities.

Every citizen in the world must become more actively involved in this tough battle. Donating $10 a month by people that are part of the middle class would make a huge difference in the lives of poor people. The fight against poverty is an issue that affects everyone. Any person that is working can fall on hard times if they lose their job and poverty can become a reality for them. Entrepreneurs must keep applying innovation in order to create new jobs that will help poor people get out of poverty.

The proposed special 2.5% by the U.N. is a major tactic that would have a huge impact in helping eradicate