Spending Christmastime with my in-laws in Michigan really opened my eyes to the depth of the economic crisis. I heard many people talking about their fear of slowdown and layoffs in the auto industry and the surprising number of small businesses that have gone under. I spoke with the owner of a small independent bookshop that has struggled to make ends meet as people have cut back on spending.
Over the past few months I have been living in Uganda, which though somewhat isolated from the current global economic crisis, faces a whole host of political, social and economic problems. The aftermath of war, grinding poverty, and widespread HIV/AIDS stalk people on a scale one would never see in the United States. It can thus be tempting to dismiss the problems in the US as rather minor in comparison with the suffering faced by so many around the world. Indeed a diminishing 401(k) plan, while a major problem, hardly compares to the horror of being abducted and forced to be a child soldier.
Nonetheless, the reality of poverty and the potential for great suffering here in the US is still considerable. And while perspective about the immense suffering elsewhere is important, it still does not solve the very real problems at home.
I think a helpful way of thinking about this was actually provided by the founding father of economics, Adam Smith. He explained that poverty is a relative concept -- that it is related to whether a person feels that they can live a life in dignity compared to the people around them:
By necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but what ever the customs of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even the lowest order, to be without. A linen shirt, for example, is, strictly speaking, not a necessary of life. The Greeks and Romans lived, I suppose, very comfortably, though they had no linen. But in the present times, through the greater part of Europe, a creditable day-laborer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt, the want of which would be supposed to denote that disgraceful degree of poverty which, it is presumed, nobody can well fall into, without extreme bad conduct. Custom, in the same manner, has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England.
Therefore, poverty here in the United States, while not as severe as in the developing world, is still experienced as deeply psychologically disturbing by those who face it, as their deprivation relative to those around them is still considerable.
In short, while it is important to maintain a sense of perspective -- the situation here is no where near as bad as that in much of Africa, Asia and Latin America -- poverty and social exclusion are very real for many Americans and should not be ignored, discounted or diminished. For those of us lucky to have resources, we can help those struggling to make ends meet by supporting both local charities and organizations like
Outreach International that work to reduce poverty in the developing world.
-Matthew Bolton
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