Poll - do you care about poverty (2 Viewers)

[_dhj_]

I don't really blame them. Isn't a countries first duty to its citizens? You could write off the French agricultural industry and much of the french countryside if you got rid of subsidies and tariffs for example.

protection is good for a country's citizens? I agree that you need some protection for occupational freedom reasons. Thought you were a bit of a libertarian who would advocate for free trade though.

 

[Raginsheep]

I don't really blame them. Isn't a countries first duty to its citizens? You could write off the French agricultural industry and much of the french countryside if you got rid of subsidies and tariffs for example.

One may argue that its citizens would ultimately benefit in the long run.

 

[Tom Ruprecht]

Raginsheep is absolutely right. French people are paying way more for an orange than they need to. If they imported oranges from cheaper producers, the French people would save lots in the long run. And they can then spend the saved money on other things.

But in relation to the general topic....

It's not a matter of "caring" about poverty - no one cares about what you care about. The real question is, what obligations do we have and why we aren't meeting those obligations.

No doubt, many of you will have already pointed out one of the major contributors of third world debt was irresponsible lending by commercial banks and western governments in the 1970s; interests rates then spiralled causing debts to spiral upward as well.

Australia at the Monterrey Consensus and at numerous other UN platforms agreed reach a target of 0.7% of GNI as official development assistance (ODA). So far it manages a measly 0.35%. Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have all reached 0.7%, and many other European countries have timetabled 0.7% by 2015.

Australia ranks 19 out of 22 OECD countries in the level of ODA it gives.

I, personally, find that highly embarrassing. Australia's foreign image really suffers as a result.

For those who aren't bleeding hearts, poverty is a pragmatic problem as well. Social unrest, unstable markets, breeding ground for terrorism (debatable) all come to mind.

If you're into business and investments, you'd be a whole lot richer if people in developing countries were wealthy too.

 

[Pieces of Me]

How could you not care?