Blog Action Day, October 15, 2008: Poverty. How well-off are we if we let people drown in poverty when we have money?

The thing that really drives me nuts about the persistent existence of poverty is how tightly those who could help insist on clinging to their immense wealth. For some reason, in America, despite the supposedly Christian backdrop to everything, a large number of people are viciously and violently opposed to the concept of helping the poor. Jesus would be pissed!

I could understand if it was a matter of someone claiming they were poor because they couldn't get the latest digital camera, but that's not the situation I'm referring to. I'm referring to people who are so poor that they can't eat properly. They don't have access to and can't afford the basic material things necessary for survival, or the effort to secure such things is so massive that their health and family suffers.

Being raised in the American culture at the start of the Reagan years, I've endured a lot of programming on the virtues of refusing to help my fellow man. Reflexively, I cringe at the concept of taking something from someone with the excuse, "Oh you've got enough, you'll never miss it."

However, as someone's wealth increases, that cringe-factor decreases. Rich Person X has a millions of dollars in the bank, a dozen cars and several houses. Some people do not have enough to eat, but Mr. X has enough to feed thousands. Is that any reason to admire Mr. X?

The common rebuttal: "Well, it's his money, he can do with it what they want." Is that really enough of an excuse to let another person die due to lack of health care? To let them slave away at three jobs just so their children can eat? Is that really the kind of world you want to live in?

My answer is no. So what do I do about it?


Giving as much as you can stand

I give as much as I can stand to charity and the poor. But how much is enough?

The Catholic Church has more problems than it has saints, but before I hauled ass from that flawed institution, it did teach me one thing that stays with me: the guideline of the tithe. For those not raised Catholic, here's the rule: "Give 10% of your earnings." Now of course, I think the official rule is to give 10% to the church, but with the simple mod of directing your money to charity, this is a good guideline anyone can follow. If you make a million, you can give, if you make 10 bucks, you can give. It's not as easy as it sounds, so I take back some (but not much) of my righteous anger at Rich Person X.

You too can help the third-world poor at http://www.kiva.org/. For amounts of money that are minuscule in the USA (like $25) you can make a difference in someone's life, and assist in lifting them out of poverty. I've tried it and I never even notice the money is gone, but to the destitute in the developing world, that money helps them support themselves, make a profit and live with dignity.

Kiva is based on the genius principles of Dr. Muhummad Yunus, whose micro-lending techniques provide small loans to the poor. In his book, Banker to the Poor, Dr. Yunus (a Muslim! Gasp!) explains the value of credit in helping the poor work their way to independence.


Credit: The hand that helps can also form a fist

Yunus explains that credit is actually a tool that, if properly used, can assist in defeating poverty, since credit is a way of loaning something to someone who has nothing, but letting them pay for it over time. With guidance and maintenance, credit is one way to battle poverty.

Credit can also be highly dangerous when wielded by the malicious and used by the uneducated, which connects us to the current financial mess in the USA. I believe the disaster was caused this way: abuse of debt by borrowers (likely due to ignorance) and abuse of credit by lenders (likely intentional.)

A lot of bull has been spewed regarding the current mortgage crisis. The one comment I dislike hearing the most is the anti-borrower phrase: "people got themselves into debt, let them fail." It's true to a point. The borrower did voluntarily enter the terms of the loan, however, that line of thinking has the ominous ring of "blaming the victim."

First off, the loaner is the one who is an expert, who deals with credit (mortgages, loans, etc.) every day. They know how the system works. The borrower is in a completely alien environment surrounded by jargon and legal forms. It's all brand new and unfamiliar to them. So if a loan goes bad, I lean toward blaming the loaner.

Here's how I think a lot of the "sub-prime mortgages" happened: People who could not afford fixed rate loans were presented with more affordable but riskier adjustable rate mortgages and told something like "Your rate can go up or down depending on the economy, but in the past X years, it hasn't gone past point Y." The risk was almost certainly downplayed by a salesman salivating over a commission for securing the loan. The borrower, being new in these matters, was convinced the risk was a small one. The salesman got his commission and took off. The borrower later defaulted, which also caused a problem for the loaner, but there was no impact on the salesman.

What makes the whole mess laughable to me is that even Kiva warns that their loans are not guaranteed. They present the very real possibility that a person you lend to may default.

I personally didn't care about the risk. Like I said, I have a chance to help someone out with money so small to me, I'll never miss it. That is definitely a chance worth taking. In contrast to the supposed capitalist superstars in the USA, you won't see us Kiva lenders crying for a handout if the loan goes bad.


The lesson before us, waiting to be learned

So thanks to the current financial ruin, we've seen in a big way that credit problems aren't limited to the third world. We've seen that when one group goes down, we all go down. On a very practical, non-spiritual level, we the spiritual lesson is before us, waiting to be learned: we're all connected, and our fates are all connected as well.

So even if we have several houses and several cars, how well-off are we if we let people drown in poverty when we have money? Not very. If that's how you are, then you're missing a part of your soul, and there's no loan you can take out to get that.


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Larry Nocella is the award-winning author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available at Amazon and Xlibris and other fine online book stores. Where Did This Come From? is also available as an eBook. For more info, visit Larry Nocella's website at http://www.larrynocella.com/.