By The Rev Scott Homer
Some people wonder why we don’t take care of our own poor first. Why send money and resources half way around the world when we have poor people living in our own communities? Here is the simple answer: America does not have poverty. Compared to the poverty in Africa, Asia and South America, what we call the American poor are actually people, for the most part, enjoying a quality of life superior to the middle class in much of the rest of the world.
According to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the CIA Fact Book average per capita income differs greatly between the United States and much of the Third World. In Kenya, for example, the average person lives on $775 per year. The average American lives on $47,184 per year.
Those numbers mean that if the average American were to receive only one week’s paycheck they would already have more money than the average Kenyan receives for all 52 weeks combined. Imagine getting your first check in January with a note attached that said, “Don’t spend it all in one place. This is it until next January!” How would you survive? What would you do? Those numbers also mean that even our poor, those depending on public assistance, are living far more comfortable existences than their third world counterparts. Remember, an average of $775. Per year means half of the people are trying to survive on less than that and many are dying because they simply can’t live on much less than that.
Even the poorest Americans enjoy clean drinking water, a luxury that 80 percent of people in the world do not have. Even the poorest American receives health care, regular food assistance, education, and housing assistance if he or she seeks it. For much of the world there is virtually no health care, food is scarce even during good times, education is minimal and there is no such thing as housing assistance.
Children suffer the most. Out of a thousand live births only about 7 babies will not survive in America and all but 8 will live to celebrate their 5th birthday. In Kenya, 65 babies will die shortly after being born and 85, nearly one in ten, will not live to be 5 years old. Most of these deaths are the result of poor nutrition, contaminated drinking water, and treatable childhood diseases. That is to say that most of these children could have been saved with a little bit of care.
A little bit of care…that is where we come in.
5 comments:
I appreciate what you write, Scott, but all too often the argument you make is used to avoid confronting the reality that yes, there are indeed poor people in the United States, and though statistics can be manipulated to make all sorts of arguments and comparisons with those "worse off" than people in the US, that is no reason to avoid providing what would by any human (and divine) standard what people need to live lives of dignity and respect. We civilized Americans can rise in loud applause when a candidate for President of this country brags about the number of death warrants he signs on his watch as governor, and another Presidential candidate suggests letting a man die of cancer because he didn't make enough to get health insurance. We blame the poor for taking away money from the rich. The issue is not whether the poor in the US are less deserving than the poor elsewhere. We ought to care about poorer countries because we ought to care. That doesn't mean making invidious comparisons that suggest the desperately poor in this country ought to bow down and appreciate their elevated status because they have a higher "average" income in the US. But I guess that's where we are in the United States. Tell your elderly parishioner who can't afford necessary medications to be grateful you send money to others overseas who have a lower "average" income.
Dan, You make a valid point but you distort my argument in order to do so. The article was about a challenge to the jingoistic appeals we have been hearing for as long as I can remember that we need to solve the problem of poverty in America before we can show compassion to people elsewhere. I agree with much of your rant (except the hyperbolic junk) but it is obvious that poverty has shades and degrees. American poverty rarely and incidentally approaches the severity of African, Asian or South American poverty. You seem to think we need to ignore the facts to protect the American poor. I think the facts speak to the need to reach out to the poor wherever we find them.
My apologies, Scott. But I'm afraid the point you make clearly in your response was not made that clearly in your original post.
I'm not sure what the "hyperbolic junk" is but we can agree that we ought to care because we ought to care. The problem in our country these days is that we have learned to blame the poor for everything, from corporate thieves on Wall Street and their political allies in Washington destroying the economy to the out-of-control corruption of the health care system to the terrible burden of taxation on the rich. That's where we are - and by the way, I do try within my means to provide assistance for clean water, food, and housing for people in the third world and in our country.
Thank you Fr Scott,
As someone who has lived overseas most of my adult life (25 years as a missionary)much of what you say is very true. Thank you for being bold and saying it.
One thing we often confront is "Why go on a mission trip then? Why not just send them the money it would take us to go?" What they don't understand is the "multiplying factor" that happens when those who have gone tell others about what they have seen and experienced which raises the awareness for even more people.
The other thing that we have seen happen over and over again is that when groups go back, many of them say, "We have poor right here. What can we do for them?" and it raises their awareness of their own environment. It becomes a blessing all around.
Know that we keep Trinity in our prayers on a regular basis.
Blessings,
Susan Delgado-Park
SAMS missionary
Thanks for your comment Susan. We give thanks for your devotion to God's work among the people of Peru!
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