Who is really responsible for poverty?

After reading an article in my local hometown newspaper pertaining to a poverty simulation, I was left with mixed feelings that quickly became a rage towards social injustice.   So I wrote a letter to the newspaper editor, and I’d like to share the “food for thought” that my fingers punched out as poverty is an issue that needs immediate attention. 

The body of the letter:

Denise Bachman’s article relating to poverty made me both happy and sad.  Although the simulation of poverty that was enacted seemed like an excellent way of driving home the horrors of such an economic status, I was left with the feeling that once again, the community at large is being requested to right the wrong. 

Where is our government?  Are we not taxed so that social programs can pull people out of the depths of despair?  Are we not ensured repetitively that if we work hard enough and lead a life free of crime that the “American Dream” is ours to obtain too?  Doesn’t our government see that by allowing corporatism, passing unjust budgets and conducting rampant widespread war, our elected officials have made these ideas become lies?  Our government too has asked the citizenry to pick up the tab via “faith based initiatives” and to “make sacrifices.”

Meanwhile there are over 30,000 American refugees in Canada and the country refuses to allow more into the country.  There are also tent cities springing up in America.  Even more horrific, across the globe governments are crumbling under the weight of food riots and people are literally trying to survive by eating sticks and mud.  Where is the global humanitarian effort to stop this barbaric madness? 

Could it be that our world leaders do not care about the human “collateral damage” that ensues as they violate workers’ human rights in the name of free trade and capitalism?  And is it possible that “faith based initiatives” only provide funding for fancier churches and increased lobbying power?   Perhaps the community at large is blissfully ignorant of the plight of humans who have had poverty thrust upon them by “the system” and also does not actually posses the values required to take notice and take action.  Maybe our acts of charity are woefully inadequate in the face of the new post 9/11 world’s socio-economic design. 

Something is very wrong in a world where disparity between the haves and the have-nots is causing widespread death that the haves just ignore in a narcissistic sociopath manner without guilt as the sickness of greed trickles down from the top.   Instead shouldn’t the world’s communities be demanding that our governments serve humanity instead of serving their own insider self-interests at our expense?