How can the United States learn from other countries?
Although poverty is still severe in the United States, there have been countries that have had huge decreases in poverty numbers. In the blog, “Which countries reduced poverty rates the most?”, the authors Miyoko Asai, Daniel Mahler, Silvia Malgioglio, Ambar Narayan and Minh Cong Nguyen do a great job of talking about the countries who have decreased their extreme poverty numbers.
How other countries have found a solution:
The authors in this blog talk about how the countries that were hit hardest by extreme poverty reduced their numbers. The authors give a chart of 15 countries who have experienced the greatest decrease in extreme poverty numbers. For example, as Miyoko Asai, Daniel Mahler, Silvia Malgioglio, Ambar Narayan and Minh Cong Nguyen state, “This meant 802.1 million fewer people were living in extreme poverty in these 15 countries between 2000 and 2015. For example, between 2000 and 2011, the extreme poverty rate fell by 36.9 percentage points in Tanzania, from 86.0% to 49.1%, for an annual average rate of reduction of 3.2 percentage points, which led to a reduction of 5.3 million in the number of Tanzanians living in extreme poverty” (2019). In other words, poverty numbers have decreased tremendously in Tanzania. Tanzania has done a great job of getting the people who were affected by poverty, out of poverty. This is important because, there is a solution to reducing extreme poverty.
Are all countries decreasing their poverty numbers?
Further on in this blog, the authors compare countries that have reduced their extreme poverty to countries who haven’t. As stated by Miyoko Asai, Daniel Mahler, Silvia Malgioglio, Ambar Narayan and Minh Cong Nguyen, “In others (e.g. India), low rates of extreme poverty in 2015 still translated to millions of people living in deprivation. In some of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Burkina Faso), extreme poverty rates, even after rapid reduction, remain above 40%” (2019). In other words, although there have been countries who have reduced their extreme poverty numbers, there have been countries who have not been as fortunate. I believe that every country who has severe poverty or any type of poverty, can reduce their poverty all together.
The authors also explain that even though extreme poverty is still a huge problem in these Sub-Saharan countries, they remain optimistic because they have seen what other countries with extreme poverty can accomplish. I think that it is important for people to believe they can overcome poverty.
I believe that it is possible to eliminate the extreme poverty numbers in the United States. The United States has a lot of resources and I believe that the government along with the people can help to eliminate poverty all together.
Work Cited:
Asai, M., Mahler, D., Malgioglio, S., Narayan, A., & Cong Nguyen, M. (2019, November 13). Which countries reduced poverty rates the most?. Medium. https://medium.com/world-of-opportunity/which-countries-reduced-poverty-rates-the-most-41d2adb3330a
