You must have seen those posts on social media which claim to teach you how to become a millionaire.
There are hundreds of books which have titles such as ‘The quick ladder to become a Millionaire’, ‘The Millionaire Fastlane’, ‘How to become wealthy’, etc.
Of course, those books or posts on social media excites us, kicks our dopamine and we strive to become that moneyed person.
Nothing wrong with that. We all should strive to earn more money to make a comfortable living. If you want to contribute to the world for a good cause, having money helps to achieve that.
But there is an opposite scenario also present in our world. There are people who can’t even afford even two meals in a day properly. Yes, you might have not heard about them (especially if you are a from a wealthy country or you are too busy in your small world) but they do exist in our world. And their number is not small, among 7 billion people on earth almost 734 million (1 in every 10 people) people still live under extreme poverty.
You might think, what I have to do with all these? Why should I care?
The most important reason is that we are humans. We have compassion, empathy, love within us. We can feel the pain of other humans to some extent. So it should our morality to help needy people to uplift.
Again, if inequality continuously rises in the world, sooner or later we will see more violence, crime, and barbarity. This planet is home for all of us. If we have to make it more beautiful and sustainable for living we must show compassion to each other.
It’s not only that poor person whom poverty hurts. Poverty hurts the whole world. Poverty means wasted lives—lives of people who could have grown to their full potential. Imagine how many great scientists, doctors, writers, engineers who could have contributed for the well being of the world are we losing just because of poverty. An article I read in this regard might be informative for you.
When we are saying ‘extreme poverty’, whom are we talking about? Is there any way to define them?
World Bank says anyone with earning of less than 2 dollars per day fall under the category of ‘extreme poverty’.
2 dollar(143 INR) per day! It sounds unreal, isn’t it? I mean in many parts of the world you won’t even get a coke with 2 dollars. And almost 734 million people on earth earn less than 2 dollars per day.
How people live with earning of 2 dollars per day?
I know you are thinking about this. It’s even unimaginable for most of us think about their life. Having fancy clothes to wear, nutritious food to eat and a home for shelter, we can’t imagine how it is to struggle everyday for mere survival.
And just like you, I can’t express their story here properly. It would be better if you can hear their story from them. Thanks to Bill Gates and team who have recorded the stories of these people. I am attaching here few of them. Please, here their story.
I don’t know what you are feeling after watching these. But when I saw this, first thing I thought was writing about them.
We all talk about financial freedom and becoming millionaires. Most of us are not even happy with our financial situation. But just for a moment imagine if you have to live with 2 dollars per day. It’s scary right.
We must be thankful to our family, country, and to this world for providing us the food, shelter, and clothes. We must aim to make our life more comfortable, enriched life but at the same time we should also be grateful for wherever we are today. You are reading this article, that itself is a luxury for many people. You have access to the internet. Only 3.2 billion people in the world have internet access.
So, express some gratitude to the world and then aim to improve your life.
What we can do help such people?
First and foremost don’t exclude them. They as much human as we all are. Thus giving them a special category itself is an insult.
Remember when you help a person to get out of ‘extreme poverty’, you are not only helping that single person but contributing in making the earth more beautiful.
I have huge respect for Bill Gates who is trying to make aware people of such paramount topics which are never highlighted in the mainstream media. You can check out his website.
And people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and many others have donated a huge amount of money for eradicating ‘extreme poverty’. But that’s not enough. Few people cannot solve this problem.
Individual country, society, people have to become responsible. China is great example of this. In the 1980s more than 80 million people in China lived under ‘extreme poverty’ but today there are less than 2 million people people live under ‘extreme poverty’. It’s remarkable.
How did China achieve this?
The government became responsible. They build the required infrastructure all over the country so that people can have ease to move from one place to other, so that people can do business more easily, so that people from other parts of the world invest in China. India is also not far behind China in this
However, the situation in Sub Saharan Africa is still worse. At one side the population is continuously booming but the number of people living in ‘extreme poverty’ are not decreasing to that extent. Probably a lot of African countries need to learn from China. Anyway, things are not as easy for Africa as we might think. But if people from all over the world show some concern over global poverty and lend a helping hand, the world can be free of ‘extreme poverty’.
I am no one to advise you what should you do or how should you react to all these. My aim of writing this article is not to suggest anything. All I want is to become aware of this. The mainstream media is never going to show such news on television, as it will not kick our dopamine or excite us.
But this is a reality in our world that more than 734 million people live on an earning of less than 2 dollars per day. Every one in ten people in the world lives under ‘extreme poverty’. How can we call our world beautiful when such a large number of people do not have access to basic necessities.
Next time if you meet such a person, don’t hate him/her. See it as an opportunity to make a contribution to the world, to make the world more beautiful.
Have an amazing week. Until next time
Joy
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Thank you so much