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The Noble War against Poverty

Introduction

Forty nine years ago, 12 million Americans spent most of their nights without having the

opportunity to eat any food. Accordingly, the then President, Lyndon Johnson declared war on

poverty and never to rest until they had won the noble war. The efforts of this administration

paved way for the creation of the most adored poverty programs of the modern day social safety

net in America (Soderberg and Brian 279). For instance, programs such as the food stamps, head

starts, Medicaid and Medicare continue to benefit millions of Americans today. However, the

prevalence rate of poverty in the present day society shows that the subsequent administrations

have done little to continue with the war on poverty declared on the January 8, 1964. Today, over

49 million Americans, rely on government food stamps in order to escape spending a night

without food. The previous and current administrations have done little to fund the war on

poverty with the same enthusiasm that they have funded conceptual wars against terror and drugs

and real but unjust wars against Iraq. Amazingly, some administrations dismissed the war on

poverty simply because poverty programs bread criminals, slothfulness, laziness, dependency,

unproductive citizens and single parenthood among other undesired results (Patten 21). For
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instance, twenty four years after President Lyndon’s declarations, President Ronald Reagan

delivered his final state of the Union Speech in which he cynically declared that poverty had won

America’s war on poverty. His audience that comprised rich individuals who have no knowledge

about poverty rumbled idiotically in laughter because they failed to realize that the

socioeconomic policies they advanced had utterly failed the middle class and the poor citizens of

America (Milanovic 111).

However, despite the huge responsibility that the government has in fighting poverty and

alleviating the living standards of the poor, this war demands collective responsibility from

various stakeholders in the society. Similarly, the first stone or any other weapon used in the war

must be cast by the poor individual in order for the war against poverty to be won fairly and

squarely. Therefore, this essay paints the actual picture of poverty in the modern society in order

to convincingly argue that the war on poverty is the only noble war that mankind should fight

during their lifetime. Government and individuals fight contemporary wars for economic

strategies and self positioning while leaving the directly or indirectly affected casualties in dire

poverty.

Modern Poverty

Poverty can be explained as the social condition or situation whereby an individual or a

household do not have the ability to purchase the basic commodities and services that are

fundamental for their survival in life. This condition forces the poor to use substandard things,

dwell in dilapidated neighborhoods, forgo proper medical care, spend days without food, lack

proper clothing, miss the opportunity to pursue basic or higher education and even struggle to lay
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their hands on the cheapest luxuries that create boredom among the rich. In the modern day

America, more than 46.2 million people live. Accordingly, 10.9% of the males live in poverty

while women account for 14.6% of the poor Americans. The prevalence of poverty varies across

age groups, races, and geographical locations, but the poor remain the same regardless of the

social affiliations, and they need urgent measures that can help improve the quality of lives and

make the poor self sufficient and independent. There are clear cut differences between the

lifestyles of the poor and the rich or the middle class. The people who live in abject poverty

continue to suffer and miss opportunities that can enable them to rise the social ladder. If the war

against poverty is left unattended, the society continues to decay socially and morally while the

poor continue to undergo untold sufferings. Often, many people feel enraged and develop

negative emotions whenever the topic of poverty is discussed (Edwards 181).

Reason why Poverty is the only Worthy War

The war against poverty is a just cause that focuses on stopping the sufferings that the

poor experience during their daily lives. For instance, empowering the poor will provide them

with adequate resources that can enable them to eat daily meals and seek proper medical care. In

addition, the poor will be in a position to seek basic and higher education that helps in reducing

the rate of poverty prevalence in the society. Several preventable deaths will be avoided when the

poor have unlimited access to sufficient food and medical care. For instance, thousands of

children die every year due to malnutrition while poor mothers die during delivery due to lack of

access to medical services. In certain circumstances, the poor are prompted to use hard drugs

because they hope to escape from the reality of poverty. In practice, higher literacy levels are
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essential for the eradication of poverty in the society. Similarly, the poor who go to school and

graduate will be in a position to seek for employment and lead decent lives. Therefore, this

perspective shows that the fight against poverty will have positive impacts to both individuals

and society. For instance, the living standards of the poor will improve, and they will no longer

be dependent on the society to provide for their needs. On the other hand, the society will benefit

from a skilled and healthy labor force that can help in improving the economy of the country.

The government or the society will no longer have to provide freebees to the poor so that they

can channel such resources towards other activities. In addition, the rates if drug abuse and crime

will reduce when the poor have the chance to equal opportunities that can enable them to access

various necessities in life.

Secondly, every effort that is applied towards the fight against poverty will always result

in positive results. For instance, the chances of success are always guaranteed because there is no

possibility of failure. Regardless of the amount of funds dedicated towards the fight against

poverty, the recipients will always accept and appreciate the efforts of their neighbor, the society

or the government. During the process of improving the living standards of an individual, a

neighborhood or the society, there will be no casualties and efforts will result in positive changes,

in the lives of the targeted people. Unlike other wars where the probability of winning is

fifty-fifty, the war against poverty presents the people with automatic positive results. For

instance, the war against Iraq lasted for over ten years but brought undesired results to

Americans and Iraqis. This war dented the economy of America and left most people regretting

why they had supported the cause when it clearly had no meaning. On the other hand, the war led

to increased poverty in Iraq through thousands of civilian deaths, insecurity and destruction and
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disruption of economic resources and activities. All the negative results occurred after the

country had spent billions of dollars to fight the losing war. However, in the war against poverty,

there are no losers since every participant is a winner. The effects that the war bring in the lives

of the poor are positive and long term since the poor get a chance to relive their lives decently

and happily. Therefore, the guaranteed success in the war against poverty coupled with its

inexpensive nature, short life and lacks of casualties makes this war a worthy war that every

nation, society or citizen must participate in to alleviate the living standard of their citizens

(Schweickart 476).

Stopping or ignoring the war against poverty does not make its spread stagnant. When the

war against poverty is stopped, more children are born poor, and the number of poor people

continues to increase tremendously. Accordingly, most of these children will grow in abject

poverty where majority will not survive past the age of five due to malnutrition. The few

numbers of surviving children will grow having no knowledge about equal opportunities thus

engage in social vices. For instance, the failure of these young children to find adequate food will

push them into peddling drugs, organized criminal activities, and prostitution among other vices

as they try to make a living. This cycle becomes vicious and continuous in the long term since

more children born in poverty join these activities to make end meet. Therefore, the society

continues to nurture immoral citizens who increase the rates of insecurity, prevalence of drug

abuse and prevalence of diseases such as Aids. Accordingly, the lack of war against poverty is

evidently expensive than waging a war against poverty. Fighting against poverty will enable the

government and society to put up with fewer criminals, drug peddlers, prostitutes and beggars

thus have the opportunity save the funds directed towards such activities. Therefore, this benefit
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makes the war against poverty to be justifiable and worth fighting when compared to other

conventional or conceptual wars (Soderberg and Brian 277).

The war against poverty will result in equality and equitable distribution of national

resources and wealth. Today, only 1% of the elite population controls 45% of the total financial

resources in the country while the bottom 80% control a paltry 7% of the total resources

(Milanovic 116). These great disparities in the distribution of national resources should be

reconsidered so that more wealth can be availed to the poor. In the process of redistributing this

wealth, no rich person will die, become sick or have any misfortune. Instead, more people in the

economy will have reasonable wealth at their disposal so that they can use it to create more

wealth in the society. These people will be empowered to contribute to the economic and social

development of the society thus resulting in a highly competitive country where everybody has a

voice.

A successful fight against poverty will result in fewer impoverished people and several

happier citizens. In the modern world, a viable society must have a large number of vibrant and

healthy workers. Healthy people are often willing to work and drive the economy of the country

to a greater height. Healthiness increases the number of people who can help in reconstructing

the society through various activities. Therefore, eradication of poverty in any form can be

regarded as a positive step towards ensuring the overall wellbeing of all members of the

population. On the other hand, a society of when the majority of the citizens are poor, the

country will have unhealthy individuals who cannot take part in the nation building process

through various economic or social activities. Therefore, the fight against poverty can be
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regarded as a war that benefits the whole society. Accordingly, the benefits that accrue from the

war against poverty make it a course that society can wage in order to enjoy the resulting

benefits (Schweickart 489).

Fighting poverty increases the number of people who access basic and higher education.

Increased access to education guarantees higher levels of literacy in the society. Accordingly,

literate people are people who are well aware of their plight and can make rational decisions that

enable them to avoid steps that result into problems. For instance, literate people have formal

education about the main challenges that society and individuals face thus can help through the

elimination of these problems through right decisions (Smith 811). For instance, literate people

understand that overpopulation poses great risk to the society through competition for scarce

natural resources that leave other people or places poor. Therefore, these people will take the first

step towards family planning to help keep a check on population growth and so that

overpopulation cannot be considered as a cause of poverty. Secondly, literate people understand

that use of drugs results in poverty for their families. For example, drugs are expensive and

addictive thus individuals will spend most of their income and resources in purchasing drugs thus

forcing their families into poverty. However, when these people receive formal education and

become literate, they shun these activities and instead look into ways that can help improve the

living standards of their families. Allowing more middle income and poor people to access basic

and higher education will increase the literacy levels in the society. In return, these people will be

able to understand behaviors or factors that lead to poverty (Soderberg and Brian 278).

Accordingly, they will make rational decisions of eliminating these factors so that they can

combat poverty at individual levels. Therefore, country should make education accessible to all
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people so that these people can use their knowledge to wage war against poverty. The cost of

making education accessible is lower compared to the cost of providing food stamps that have

the potential of encouraging poverty in the future.

Poverty is a global challenge that continues to grow rapidly and to affect billions of

people around the world. For instance, current statistics estimate that over 1.4 billion people live

in poor conditions around different countries of the world. Most of these people come from the

underdeveloped and developing countries. The plight of these innocent human beings cannot be

ignored, and governments from the developed world must look into ways of helping these

nations end their poverty cycles. In practice efforts to end poverty in such countries have resulted

in dependency from these nations to countries such as the United States, Canada, United

Kingdom, Russia and China among others. The game should change; donors should stop

mitigating poverty and declare full war on the problem (Schweickart 481). Otherwise, the coffers

of the developed nations will continue to fund ineffective programs in the underdeveloped world

at the expense of their own citizens. The fight should be upgraded to incorporate methods that

fight to end poverty so that these countries can stop being dependent on other developed

countries. For instance, the United States is the biggest donor to the World Bank and the

international monetary fund. These funds are used to fight poverty in the developing countries.

However, the problem arises when the same donors are faced with challenges back at home.

Therefore, fighting the war of poverty in the developing world will mean that millions of people

get their basic needs whenever they need to satisfy their wants. Similarly, the nations from the

developed world will have an opportunity to redirect their donations and grants to other internal

programs that can help improve the lives of their citizens. Through such benefits, it is justifiable
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for any nation to fight a wining war against poverty internally and externally so that they can

channel their grants and donations to internal development programs (Dedu, Gabriel and Dan

39).

With every effort that the government and individuals put in fighting poverty, the society

becomes a better place for dwelling. For instance, the number of beggars reduces on the streets,

and everybody has a source of livelihood. Similarly, the number of sick people who cannot

access medical care reduces and the society benefits from healthy and vibrant citizens who can

make positive contributions towards societal development. In addition, dilapidated

neighborhoods cease to exist, criminals find worthy activities, prostitute find equal opportunities

in moral employment while drug dealers find better means to become rich and nobody sleeps

without food due to insufficiency. Accordingly, a spirited fight against poverty can result in an

ideal world where people have no ill intentions against each other because they have something

better and rational to keep them busy. People will have nothing to worry about since the

surroundings will be full of individuals who have sufficient resources for their personal and

household needs. Therefore, these perfect benefits make war against poverty be worthy of

fighting.

Role of the Government

In the war against poverty, the government bears the largest responsibility in ensuring

that the levels of poverty are drastically reduced in the society. Through economic growth

programs, the government can redefine the traditional methods of fighting poverty to more

effective techniques that will not encourage further growth of poverty. For instance, instead of
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dismissing the poverty programs advocated for by the previous administrations, Ronald Reagan’s

and other subsequent administrations should have formulated programs that seek to empower the

power rather than provide them with food stamps and head starts (Milanovic 108). In addition,

the government should be ready to uphold the rule of law, secure the property rights of its

citizens, ensure increased access to education, provide safety to those who cannot cater for their

own security, and to create equal opportunities for all citizens. Cases of fraud, duplication of

efforts and inefficiencies should be eliminated in order to make poverty programs effective.

More funds should be channeled to programs that seek to empower people. For instance,

increasing access to education, providing loans to SMEs, and creation of equal opportunities can

go a long way in ending poverty instead of giving food stamps to the poor. The provision of such

basic needs should be considered as short term solutions and strategies to fight poverty. The

government should seek for more long term solutions that empower the people so that they can

also empower the next generation (Edwards 153). Therefore, in its effort to create an enabling

environment, the government will be giving the poor folks an opportunity to take charge of their

future and work harder out of poverty.

Role of the Society

The negative emotions developed during discussions about poverty can be attributed to

the societal equation that equates wealth to success while equating poverty to lack of success and

the inability of an individual to take advantage of their destiny or future. The society must stop

treating poor people as people who suffer from a disease or illness and being lazy (Rose and

Frank 29). Instead, the society should exercise intolerance to factors or situations that encourage
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poverty. In practice, all poor neighborhoods are lined with stores of liquor, controlled by drug

pushers, prostitutes and pimps. The society should gang up against these facilitating factors so

that they may not encourage the poor to drift further into deep poverty. More empowerment

programs should be formulated to aid government efforts in fighting poverty. The society has

access and close relations to the people who live in poverty (Patten 23). Similarly, the society has

knowledge about the main contributors of poverty. This vital information can be used to fight a

worthy war of ending poverty. For instance, the people identified as poor can be put in programs

that empower them to take control of their future. Drug addicts can be rehabilitated and trained

in casual jobs that can enable them to earn a decent living. On the other hand, activities such as

consumption of alcohol, prostitution, and violence among others promote poverty. Therefore, the

society can campaign against such practices and encourage people to practice worthy activities

that promote independence and self sufficiency among the people in the society.

Role of Individuals

The war against poverty cannot be successful without the blessings of individuals

especially those people considered being poor. Individuals must take the initiative and the first

step towards fighting poverty. Individuals must fight for their rights aggressively by embracing

the techniques that can help the come out of poverty. For instance, individuals must use their

scarce resources to increase their earnings instead of using such resources for liquor and drugs.

Individuals must seek formal education that can enable them to secure employment opportunities

in various sectors of the economy. Therefore, sitting back and waiting for food stamps and other
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freebees does not help these people to overcome their plight. They must resort to acceptable

activities that allow them to earn income and grow economically (Patten 26).

Conclusion

With the passage of time, gap between the poor and the rich continues to widen beyond

unmanageable levels. Various stakeholders have stuck to inefficient strategies that only help in

enriching the people tasked to implement such programs while the poor continue to languish in

abject poverty. The fake and conceptual wars on drugs and wars on terror or the real wars against

Afghanistan and Iraq deny the society a chance to fight the only righteous war that has no

casualties or wastages bust success (Soderberg and Brian 275). With respect to the arguments

provided above, the government should no longer channels billions of funds and resources in

fighting other wars. Instead, a fraction of the same amounts can be effectively used to fight the

war on poverty within a short period and achieve the desired results. Waging an effective and

honest war against poverty goes a long way to bring numerous benefits to the government and

society. For instance, the government will save annual funds channeled to help the poor or to

fight challenges that thrive due to the existence of poverty. For instance, crime, prevalence of

diseases, prostitution and drug abuse will be drastically reduced thus the government will save

the funds directed towards this conceptual wars. On the other hand, the society will be a benefit

from a healthy workforce that has the necessary skills to ensure sustainable development in the

long term. Lastly, individual citizens will enjoy the natural resources and equal opportunity that

their countries can offer (Schweickart 473). Therefore, from the stand point of accruing benefits,
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it is justifiable to conclude that the fight against poverty is the only real war that human beings

and institutions can fight worthily and attain impressive results.

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