Summary:
This is a discussion about poverty in North America, including its causes and possible solutions. One remedy suggested is hosting bi-annual musical benefit concerts.
Why does poverty exist in North America? Aren't Canada and The U.S. two of the safest, richest countries on the planet, with very high rankings in the HDI? We first need to know exactly what defines poverty in a place like North America, before we can find out how to solve it. We then need to find out what's causing this growing problem. We will then need to see what our governments are already doing to help people in poverty, and check to see whether these plans are working or not. If not, we as a country will need create and structure new plans that will eventually help North America to be free of poverty. It could be very difficult to try and create a plan to accommodate everyone, but with the efforts of us as students, our parents, and dedicated politicians, we could one day make North America "Poverty Free."
The first thing we need to find out before initiating any plans of action is define should be much safer than being alone on the cold streets, where they can be robbed of any possessions, and even assaulted, without even thinking to call the police, or anyone, for protection.
Almost fifty percent of people living in poverty are unemployed. That makes it very close to impossible to live in comfort, when the cost of living is so high and the minimum wages are low. If you don't even have a job to support yourself, then how would you be able to support your family? Most of these people don't have enough money to live on for more than a few months, and finding a new job could take a while especially if you're living in a city where hundreds of people just like you are looking for jobs.
To help decrease the amount of people living in poverty, in North America, we already have a plan, and a progress report showing how much we've improved. It's called "Campaign 2000" and the progress report is showing how we've improved or worsened in the year of 2004. According to this report, the number of people going to food banks is worsening, as well as the amount of family and children in poverty. Over 1 million children are now stuck in poverty, and the poverty rate in Canada is up to 15.6 percent, for the first time in many years! The poverty rate for female lone parents, a single woman being the parent, has risen to 50%. Now in Canada, 1 in 6 children are in poverty. To help solve this problem, we'll need more than just talking about our plans; we'll need to follow through on them.
As Canadians, we've donated millions of dollars to help problems happening in other countries, such as the Tsunami where we donating about 250 million dollars. We've spent so much time donating money to those people that we've forgotten about helping those in need on our own home soil. If we had fundraisers by schools every now and then, and endorsements and organizations, poverty should greatly decrease.
One idea is to hold concerts with celebrity endorsement and performances. People could go to watch their favourite singers perform, with all proceeds going to the government, for use in the aid of ending child poverty. If we had two shows each year in populated areas of the country, we could raise hundreds of millions of dollars. This money could be used to help create more homes and apartments for people who can't afford it on their own. It can be used to pay for their education and life essentials like clothes and hygiene products, to help get them working. Hopefully, this will help people get jobs and eventually be able to pay for their own housing and families etc. Even if we got every child in every school to donate at least one or two dollars, similar to our recent share life and Tsunami fundraisers, we would again generate millions of dollars to help create housing and other material needs.
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