Why should I care?
Extreme poverty affects your life in a number of ways, and must be eradicated for a number of reasons:
- We gave our word. The United States repeatedly pledged to provide far more financial support to the fight against extreme poverty. Our moral authority as the leader of the free world is at stake. Either we are interested in keeping our word, or we are not.
- As terrorist-recruiting hotbeds and sources of instability, communities in extreme povety pose a threat to U.S. national security. We must eliminate the poverty to eliminate the ability of terrorists to appeal to a sense of oppression or to offer compensation to easily recruit.
- It is the moral thing to do. When faced with the relatively low cost of intervention, rich nations cannot sit idle while whole generations die from curable diseases or starvation. For most religious people, helping to eliminate poverty is a duty.
- Healthy economies for these communities will mean free and open markets. Open markets will strengthen the international economy as a whole and provide new trading partners for developed and developing countries.
- Eradicting poverty could create strong alliances between the benevolent country and the recipient, strengthening partnerships at the UN and international alliances.
Learn more about how extreme poverty threatens our national security.