Poverty as One of the Biggest Social Problems Today - Research Paper Example

The world is a large place with lots of resources, but as mankind has evolved it has place too much strain in its resources due to multiple factors. One of the biggest and most influential factors that have caused major social issues such as global warming has been the proliferation of our species during the last century. In 1900 the world population was 1.6 billion, in 2009 that figure has skyrocketed to 6.6 billions humans on earth (Rosengburg). As more people inhabited the earth the economic production of the over 200 nations across the world has not been sufficient, thus poverty has spread out like a virus across the world. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of social corporate responsibility and the governments of the developed nations in the fight against global poverty. Poverty is a global epidemic of tremendous proportions. A statistic that reflects the severity of the problem is that 80% of the global population lives on less than $10 a day; also half the global population faces severe poverty living on less than $2.50 a day (Shah). Since there is much poverty across globe, this means that many of the 1.1 children in this world are suffering living in horrible living conditions with poor shelter, insufficient food, and a lack of basic medicine. A factor that adds to the poor outlook for improvement in the near future is that in many of these regions education is not provided. In the world there are 121 million children that are not receiving any type of formal education (Shah). This is a tragedy since education is the key towards progressing in life due to its correlation to the labor market. The global economy has shifted towards a knowledge economy and education has become primal tool that is needed for survival. Along with the lack of educational opportunities probably the biggest crisis associated with poverty is malnutrition and lack of adequate medicine. World hunger is spreading across all nations due to the global food scarcity. According to economist German Jimenez Mounier the world food production can only feed adequately 80% of the population and the ratio will continue to decrease as we move forward into the future (Jimenez). The food scarcity problem was caused due to the excessive industrial activity across the globe which has destroyed the arable land. Poor urbanization planning substituted arable land that could have been used to feed billions of humans with concrete walls. The alarming population growth had a lot do with what occurred in the 20th century and the behavior is continuing to proliferate itself in the 21st century. The corporate world has been one of the most destructive forces the planet has ever seen. They have created a lot destruction of our natural resources by contaminating our ecosystem with toxic waste and polluting air agents. An example of industrial incident that destroyed the lives of thousands of humans and the natural resources of huge region occurred in 1984 in Bhopal India. Due to corporate negligence in part of Union Carbide a chemical gas leaked into the atmosphere and spread throughout the city killing thousands of people in what is referred too by many as the worst industrial accident in history (Long. Another example of the destructive nature of the corporate world is the global deforestation crisis. During the last 50 years one half of all tropical forests decimated, clear cut, slashed, and burned (Earlham). The corporate world in the last decade has begun to recognize its mistakes of the past and awareness about its role within the community has increased. A new business concept that combines ethics, philanthropy and giving back to the community among other things is corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is a new business trend that has helped company channel its efforts in order to create greater benefits for all stakeholder groups. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as the way companies manage business processes in order to produce an overall positive impact on society (Mallenbaker). The application of corporate social responsibility can benefit companies as well as poor communities. The poor distribution of wealth among the global population is causing a lot of the poverty worldwide. The poorest 40% of the population accounts for 5% of the income; while the richest 20% account for 75% of the global income (Shah). There is a serious problem with this equation and the governmental institution of the richest develop nations have to recognize the negative effects of the widening income gap, a factor that leads to the occurrence of poverty at higher levels across the global population. The global economic crisis has caused many nations to reconsider their policies and provide greater assistance to those in need by means of redistribution of income. The United States first created a bailout package to save the banking industry of $787 million, a move that saved tens of millions of jobs in America. According to many industry leaders the bailout package banking deal is designed to save all the jobs, pensions, and savings of common people (Stock-market, 2009). The move was a proactive measure against the possibility of poverty spreading and subsequently under the new Obama regime a stimulus package of similar economic size was created to give 1% of the gross domestic products to special economic assistance for those in greater which included the unemployed, retirees, welfare recipients, and lower middle class families. There were similar economic incentive packages signed in other developed nation such as Europe. These new economic occurrence led to an unprecedented proposal among the G20 nations of the creation a global economic incentive package to fight worldwide poverty. The sum of the proposed deal is $300 billion dollars. The economic help would provide a monetary injection to the nations in greatest need. According to the U.N. Millennium Campaign the proposed $300 billion dollar package will provide aid and debt relief to compensate the loss of gross domestic product as a result of the global financial crises (Deen). This initiative which occurred as result of new perspective in the obligation of governments in democratic nations of applying a more passionate philosophy in which the necessities of the poor became a greater priority is the type of new age thinking that is needed to make greater progress in the battle against poverty. The private enterprises are another major player that can make a significant difference in the global poverty war. The principles utilized in the governmental institution in 2008 and 2009 of creating global incentive package that provide direct monetary assistance as well as other resources could be applied by the richest corporations of the world. In Wall Street the S&P 500 represents an index of the 500 richest corporations in the world. If these corporations created a global basket that redistributed 5% of their net income for the next 10 years the amounts of money that would be collected on year basis could really make a difference. A one year injection is not sufficient to create sustainable progress in this battle. This is long term crisis that requires planning and continuous resources to start seeing some significant progress. The nations where poverty is occurring have to be more open towards outsiders coming in and instilling cultural and social changes that can bring prosperity for their population as a whole. Corporate social responsibility must take it a step further and the proposed net income redistribution plan towards fighting poverty is step towards showing the world the corporate world is not an evil empire in which unethical companies such as Enron are the norm. The acceptance of such terms by the shareholders of these companies many of which are middle class citizens is step forwards towards fostering greater donations from everyone. A mechanism that is place that allows every common citizen to become warriors in the battle against poverty are donations. Non-profit institutions such as Feed-A-Child gave networks set up that allow the organization to provide a children’s full nutritional needs for $10 a month. I have participated in these types of programs in the past in order to provide a helping hand to those in need making an insignificant contribution as a person living in a society in which the gross domestic product per capita surpasses $40,000 per capita (CountryGrams). A way to promote donations across the world is for the governmental institutions of all nations to triple its donation deduction incentives in its yearly income tax return forms. Together the middle classes and upper class citizens across the world can also provide greater assistance to fight poverty. Poverty is complex problem that requires a multitude of solution to take place simultaneously. One of the regions with the greatest amount of poverty is Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the main problems in this region is the poor infrastructure which includes a lack of drinking water and other basic infrastructure such as electric systems, adequate communication system, and poor or complete lack of roads. These problems have to be attended in these types of poor regions in order to implement a sustainable solution that will allow the citizens to work their way out of poverty. Poverty is one of the biggest social problems of the 21st century. The problem has been accumulating itself for decades. The biggest problem during the last 50 years has been the lack of adequate distribution of income across the world. The rich have become richer and poor have reached new levels of misery. There has been poor communication about the problem by the media and the public and private sector simply have not done enough to make positive strides towards attacking the problem heads on. We have reached a state in crisis of global poverty that there needs to be immediate action to battle this social deviance. The global economic crisis that caused panic across the business industry and global economies is a sign of change. Things can not stay the same and we must raise our collective conscious and start giving back to those in need. As many families have felt the economic pain of the recession we are experience a short downward cycle of suffering in relative poverty. When we realize that there people in the world that have nothing to eat and slim hopes of better tomorrow then we come to the realization that when we are working and earning a decent living we can sacrifice a bit of our pleasure and entertainment money in order to send a little help to families in needs across the world. Poverty has been destroying the world and gaining force during the last few decades, but together in 2009 we can change the tide and start a revolution that will end worldwide poverty forever. Works Cited Page CountryGrams. 2009. “Country Profile: United States.” 4 May 2009. Deen, T. 13 November 2008. “IPS: Development: U.N. Seeks Bailout Package for World’s Poorest.” 5 May 2009. Earlham.edu. “The Problem: Global Deforestation.” 9 May 2009. Globalexchange.org. 2009. “Fair Trade Coffee.” 2 May 2009 Jimenez, G. 2009. “Interview with Economist German Jimenez.” 1 May, 2009. Long, T. 3 December 2008. “Dec. 3 1984: Worst Industrial Accident in History.” 9 May 2009. Mallenbaker.net. 2009. “Corporate Social Responsibility.” 4 May 2009. Rosenberg, M. 2009. “Current World Population.” 5 May 2009. < http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm> Stock-trade.co. 2008. “Bailout Package.” 9 May 2009. Shah, A. 22 March 2009. “Poverty Facts and Stats.” 5 May 2009. Read More