Most of us, who have grown up in rich nations, are totally unaware of the severe economic challenges that people living in other countries have.  We may have a vague notion that in other parts of the world, people are poor, but it is not something that we spend a great deal of time thinking about.   When we do stop and think about it or talk to others about it, the attitudes are often not very kind.  The conscience can often be soothed, if the blame or responsibility is passed to another. “If, they would just move to a better place, get a real job, or work a little harder, then they would be OK”, is the sentiment that I have often heard.  In other words, it is their own fault.  “If they just had a little more ambition, if they weren’t quite so lazy, if they would just get an education, then they could put their poverty behind them and be like us.” 

While shifting blame may take the pressure off our responsibility to right a huge wrong, it does nothing to help the poor.  In many countries, “moving somewhere else” is not an option and “real jobs” are scarce.  The jobs that are available, actually do not pay a whole lot more then what the people would have made if they had stayed on the family farm growing vegetables.  People who have sacrificed to get a university education often find that the financial rewards for their efforts and investment are minimal.  Even if they can find a job in their career of choice they may only make $15-$20/week.  In some countries that I have visited, university professors have turned to driving taxis because they are able to support their families better as a taxi driver, then they were using their professional degree. 

In many countries jobs are so scarce that even educated people are forced to accept employment in a factory where working conditions are inhumane and the pay is just enough to survive.  What a horrific waste of human resources!  When conditions force people to accept employment that does not use their full capacities, education, or skills, it is called underemployment.  Some unscrupulous business owners and politicians seem to have no problems with this, but ultimately it is the society and the world that allows this to happen, that loses the benefits from the unutilized resource.    

Often, the only ones that make any money in many poor countries, are the owners of the factories and plantations, the politicians that allow them to continue, or the multinational corporations that flock to regions of the world where they can get their products produced at a fraction of the cost that it would be in their homelands. 

How is it possible that in 2006, with all of the moral advancements that we claim to have made, with all of the laws that we have been able to enact, with all of the pressure power that consumers are able to wage against corporations, that it is still possible for a few elite individuals to get rich off of the desperation of people trapped in poverty?  We like to think that slavery is an institution of the past, that we are more enlightened now, more civilized now.  Unfortunately, the reality is that most of the products that we purchase and use in our daily lives, show up in our stores at the price that they do, because they were manufactured in a dark factory in a country far away by people trapped in virtual slavery.  In a very real sense we have not advanced very far.  The abuses may not be as visible to us, but they are perhaps more widespread then they ever were.

I don’t want to minimize the importance of promoting and encouraging excellent educational systems.  I believe that education is the most important, legitimate step a person can make out of poverty.   It gives individuals the tools and skills to interact with others in their community and create products and services that others value.   A good education provides an individual with the tools to easily learn new skills, as new markets arise or new services are required.  A country that has a high percentage of high school and college graduates will certainly be better positioned to benefit from globalization and foreign investment, then those who have not made education a priority.

However, education alone is not enough.  If we are serious about helping people rise out of poverty, we must not only give opportunities for education, but also opportunities for employment at a reasonable wage.  Unfortunately this cannot happen in many countries without some major changes.  Fair wages require certain civil systems and moral values to be in place that some countries as well as some multinational corporations that work in them, have found difficult to establish.  It requires a rule of law and the establishment of fair laws.  It requires institutions that promote anti-corruption legislation and the will to enforce it.  It requires multinational corporations that are willing to be satisfied with less profit and more interested in making investments in people.  It requires the belief that all people are created equal and deserve our respect.  It requires that we assign the same value to people everywhere, that we would give to ourselves and our children. It requires women’s equality, and a fair, minimum wage legislation.

If these things seem out of our reach, beyond the scope of our ability to influence, they need not be.  Even small voices can have power.  Politicians who want to get re-elected listen to the demands of their constituents.  Multi-national corporations fear the bad publicity that awareness campaigns can bring in their wake. 

What can you do?

Get involved.  Learn about the issues. Read some books.  Send a letter or an email to your representative.  Insist that your government live up to their promises of foreign aid.  Research the companies that market the products that you consume and find out the conditions in the factories or farms in which they were produced.  Demand that your favorite brand demonstrate substantially that they are paying their producers a fair wage.  Find new brands if they cannot.  Purchase products that are delivered with a fair trade and fair wage certification.  You may have to pay a little more, but then you should have been paying more all along.  (Sometimes it is more about what is fair, then getting the best deal for ourselves).  Visit a developing country.  Volunteer your time.  Help build a school or a medical clinic.  Find a poor family and start a life-long partnership with them that will bring them out of poverty. Get your school to adopt a school in a poor country.  Get your church to adopt a church, get your town to adopt a village. 

One of the things that you can do to make a difference, is to support “NGO”s like ADRA that help the poor start their own small businesses by giving them skills training, education, tools, and small, low interest loans, to get them started.  The best way that people trapped in poverty can truly become self reliant is to become self-employed.   When people have their own small business, the amount of income that they make is set by their own ingenuity, ambition, and talent rather than a greedy factory owner, middleman, or multinational corporation.   

Underemployed and underpaid for fair work represents a failure of, not only the morals and values of the corporations that pay the meager wages but the western consumer who buys the cheap products at the expense of the extreme poverty of the producer.

If we are to end extreme poverty in our generation it must start with us.  If we wait for the politicians and elite business owners in poor countries to get some scruples, if we wait for  multi-national corporations and their stock holders to get some principles, if we wait for the good will of our politicians to fulfill the promises that they have made to the impoverished world, it will never get done.  You can make a difference; your voice can be heard.  Reach out a hand to the underemployed and the underpaid today!