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Extreme Poverty Quotes

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Extreme Poverty Quotes

“Extreme poverty isn’t just an African issue or an Asian issue or a South American issue. It is a global issue. Before flying overseas to help relieve poverty abroad, consider the poverty in your own backyard. Every country on every continent has people impacted by poverty—whether it is relative or absolute. Bringing extreme poverty down to zero will take more trial and error, more methods, more innovation, and more communication. Most importantly, it will take more trust—the trust that people are aware of their problems and are creative enough to solve them when given the right resources. People need opportunities, connections, and education to learn more about life’s possibilities, not handouts, performative sympathy, and empty promises.”

PovertyTrustResourcesOpportunitiesExtreme PovertyCommunity DevelopmentPoverty AlleviationInternational DevelopmentCommunity Engagement
Book:Uplift and Empower: A Guide To Understanding Extreme Poverty and Poverty Alleviation
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“The country you live in impacts nearly every aspect of your life. From the factors I have observed, this impact can be broadly categorized into opportunities and trust. In Richland, individuals’ lives are replete with opportunity and there is little reason not to trust the institutions in their lives, yet not everything is as perfect as it seems on a mental, emotional, and cultural level. In Poorland, the daily fight for survival takes precedence over most other elements of life and trust levels are low. Even the ground a person lives on can be taken away at a moment’s notice with little opportunity or basis for defense.”

CountryPovertyHistoryTrustEconomicsProperty RightsExtreme PovertyPoverty AlleviationPoverty ReductionComparative Politics
Book:Uplift and Empower: A Guide To Understanding Extreme Poverty and Poverty Alleviation
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“Working closely with recipients and understanding the needs of others requires a level of trust, credibility, and closeness that community leaders are best positioned to develop. Community leaders can serve as mentors, communicators, and friends who represent the values and priorities most important to the populations they support. At this level of giving, customizing aid to the specific needs of individuals becomes a natural byproduct of the types of relationships formed.”

PovertyTrustResourcesOpportunitiesExtreme PovertyCommunity DevelopmentPoverty AlleviationInternational DevelopmentCommunity Engagement
Book:Uplift and Empower: A Guide To Understanding Extreme Poverty and Poverty Alleviation
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“Extreme poverty isn’t just an African issue or an Asian issue or a South American issue. It is a global issue. Before flying overseas to help relieve poverty abroad, consider the poverty in your own backyard. Every country on every continent has people impacted by poverty—whether it is relative or absolute. Bringing extreme poverty down to zero will take more trial and error, more methods, more innovation, and more communication. Most importantly, it will take more trust—the trust that people are aware of their problems and are creative enough to solve them when given the right resources.”

PovertyTrustResourcesOpportunitiesExtreme PovertyCommunity DevelopmentPoverty AlleviationInternational DevelopmentCommunity Engagement
Book:Uplift and Empower: A Guide To Understanding Extreme Poverty and Poverty Alleviation
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“At least ten times as many people died from preventable, poverty-related diseases on September 11, 2011, as died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on that black day. The terrorist attacks led to trillions of dollars being spent on the ‘war on terrorism’ and on security measures that have inconvenienced every air traveller since then. The deaths caused by poverty were ignored. So whereas very few people have died from terrorism since September 11, 2001, approximately 30,000 people died from poverty-related causes on September 12, 2001, and on every day between then and now, and will die tomorrow. Even when we consider larger events like the Asian tsunami of 2004, which killed approximately 230,000 people, or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed up to 200,000, we are still talking about numbers that represent just one week’s toll for preventable, poverty-related deaths — and that happens fifty-two weeks in every year.”

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Book:Practical Ethics
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“One additional unit of income can do a hundred times as much to the benefit the extreme poor as it can to benefit you or I [earning the typical US wage of $28,000 or ‎£18,000 per year]. [I]t's not often you have two options, one of which is a hundred times better than the other. Imagine a happy hour where you could either buy yourself a beet for $5 or buy someone else a beer for 5¢. If that were the case, we'd probably be pretty generous – next round's on me! But that's effectively the situation we're in all the time. It's like a 99% off sale, or buy one, get ninety-nine free. It might be the most amazing deal you'll see in your life.”

PovertyCharityExtreme PovertyGlobal PovertyPoverty ReductionEffective AltruismMarginal UtilityMarginal Value
Book:Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference
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“One of my greatest fears, and what might be one of the greatest obstacles to ending or putting a massive dent in extreme poverty alleviation, is this: when everyday, normal people feel as if they can't help. Let me repeat: this is a tragedy. In fact, I would say it is the ordinary people who will determine how much impact is done in the world. It's the ordinary folks who have a great responsibility. If individuals like you and me decide in our hearts to be deliberate and care for the poor, there is no doubt we can truly see the majority of extreme poverty vanish into thin air.”

CompassionOrdinary PeopleExtreme PovertyDoing Good Is Simple
Book:Doing Good Is Simple: Making a Difference Right Where You Are
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“When most folks think about the problems of growing up in the hood, they think about what it must feel like to be poor, or hungry, or to have your lights cut off. The struggle nobody talk about is what it feel like to be invisible, or to know in your heart the nobody cares. Mama didn’t want to be famous, she wanted to be seen.”

PoorStruggleUnlovedExtreme PovertyInvisible PeopleThe Hood
Book:Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat
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“Nearly one billion women and men, a third of the world's workforce, are either unemployed or unable to earn enough to keep themselves out of extreme poverty. There are 100 million new entrants into the labour market each year. Up to 90 percent in some regions are in the informal economy. 180 million kids are engaged in the worst forms of child labour. Put it all together and it is not only morally unacceptable, but politically dangerous”

MenWorldYearsChildrenEnoughKidsTogetherFormPovertyMillionsEconomyWorstDangerousPercentMen And WomenLaborThirdsExtremesBillionsEngagedLabourRegionsUnemployedWorkforceExtreme PovertyChild LabourDecent Work
Author:Juan Somavia
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“If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed; extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare.”

IfsMeanWould BeWealthNumbersPovertyRichGreaterGrowingCitizensFortuneFinancialPrivilegeExtremesGrantedDividedExclusiveFinancial SystemExtreme Poverty
Author:Denis Diderot
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“One of the glaring failures of capitalism is the continuing widespread existence of poverty - often extreme poverty. Even in the advanced economies, many millions of people endure terrible economic and social deprivation, despite the incredible wealth all around them.”

PeopleSocialWealthExistencePovertyMillionsEconomyEconomicTerribleCapitalismEndureIncrediblesExtremesDespiteContinuingDeprivationExtreme Poverty
Book:Economics for everyone: a short guide to the economics of capitalism
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“In a world where millions of human beings live in extreme poverty, die of malnutrition and lack medical care, where pandemics continue to kill, it is imperative to pursue good faith disarmament negotiations and to shift budgets away from weapons production, war-mongering, surveillance of private persons and devote available resources to address global challenges including humanitarian relief, environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation, prevention of pandemics, and the development of a green economy.”

WorldHumansPersonsWarCareDiesChallengesHuman BeingsPovertyMillionsEconomyDevelopmentWeaponsResourcesGreenClimateEnvironmentalClimate ChangeIncludingProductionsAvailableExtremesProtectionHumanitarianMedicalPursueBudgetsReliefAddressesGet AwayNegotiationAdaptationImperativesSurveillanceDisarmamentPreventionEnvironmental ProtectionMalnutritionMedical CareGood FaithPandemicsExtreme PovertyGreen Economy
Author:Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
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“Development is a fundamental part of our national security. It is extreme poverty - the realities of access to water and food - which creates the long-term drivers of our insecurity. Most wars are fought over scarce resources, and that is going to accelerate in the future.”

LongWarRealityTermWaterPovertySecurityDevelopmentResourcesFundamentalsExtremesAccessLong TermInsecurityDriversNational SecurityScarceAccelerateExtreme PovertyScarce ResourcesAccess To Water
Author:Rajiv Shah
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“Let us hear the dangers of thralldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God-that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness-and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and goodwill to man!”

MenPoliticalHeavenPeaceInterestLibertyPovertyDangerIgnoranceHonorConscienceDignitySightSlaveryExtremesNobleMapsAlmightyOffensiveDependenceGoodwillBreachExtreme PovertyDerogatorySacrilegiousBreach Of Trust
Author:John Adams
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“Chile has done a lot to rid itself of poverty, especially extreme poverty, since the return to democracy. But we still have a ways to go toward greater equity. This country does not have a neoliberal economic model anymore. We have put in place a lot of policies that will ensure that economic growth goes hand in hand with social justice.”

WayDoeStillsCountryDoneHandsSocialGrowthJusticePovertyDemocracyGreaterEconomicPolicyReturnModelsSocial JusticeExtremesEquityEconomic GrowthHand In HandChileExtreme PovertyEconomic Models
Author:Michelle Bachelet
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“The service of India means the service of those teeming millions steeped in poverty, ignorance and disease. To see that in my lifetime we can soften these harsh edges of extreme poverty and unleash a new economic and social revolution which will bring out the latent creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of our people, I think that's what I feel, I think.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsMeanSpiritSocialPovertyCreativityMillionsEconomicIgnoranceRevolutionDiseaseIndiaLifetimeEdgesExtremesHarshEntrepreneurialLatentSocial RevolutionExtreme PovertyEntrepreneurial Spirit
Author:Manmohan Singh
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“One of the things is that I've been very comfortable in every situation starting ministry in the inner city and ministering in places - Washington, D.C., feeding the homeless, the hurting, going to broken boys and girls. So culturally I understood all different aspects of life - from extremely wealthy to extreme poverty, socioeconomic differences, ethnic differences.”

DifferentGirlDifferencesHurtCitiesSituationBoysPovertyBrokenComfortableUnderstoodAspectStartingExtremesWealthyMinistryHomelessFeedingBoy And GirlAspects Of LifeInner CityExtreme Poverty
Author:Paula White
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“It was shameful that, after Haiti, Colombia was the second most unequal country in Latin America. But we've achieved some things; the inequality is coming down, and coming down fast. The growing economy has provided us with the funds to finance a very progressive social policy that has reduced extreme poverty. We have the lowest inflation rate of all Latin-America countries and the highest growth rate.”

CountryAmericaSocialGrowthPovertyEconomyGrowingPolicyHighestDown AndRateExtremesFinanceInequalityFundLatinProgressiveLowestInflationShamefulLatin AmericaHaitiColombiaExtreme PovertySocial PolicyGrowing Economy
Author:Juan Manuel Santos
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“The majority of people who come to America come for a better life, just like the Italians, the Jews, the Irish, and the Polish did in generations before. A lot of the Irish came here back in the turn of the 19th to the 20th century because there were no opportunities and no options at home for them. There were no jobs and there was extreme poverty. They came here to be able to send money back home.”

PeopleHomeAbleJobsAmericaTurnsOpportunityPovertyGenerationsCenturyMajorityJewExtremes20th CenturyBetter LifePolishBack HomeExtreme Poverty
Author:Marty Walsh
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