Over 3 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, live on less than $2.50 a day. Consider the cheapest fast food available and how difficult it would be to survive on that amount even by extreme rationing. Obviously, this is a huge problem around the world. http://www.globalissues.org has an entire section of its website dedicated to the causes of poverty.

“Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of poverty are often less discussed.

Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.
In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.”

Randy Palazzo is a native of Portland, Oregon. Born and raised there, he has never been at risk for the poverty of the kind that would make one homeless or unable to get food. However, as a member of his local community church, Horizon Community Church, he contributes to all sorts of organizations. Some of which attempt to combat poverty. However, it is extremely important to evaluate accurately the level and type of need the impoverished need:

“Food aid (when not for emergency relief) can be very destructive on the economy of the recipient nation and contribute to more hunger and poverty in the long term. Free, subsidized, or cheap food, below market prices undercuts local farmers, who cannot compete and are driven out of jobs and into poverty, further slanting the market share of the larger producers such as those from the US and Europe. Many poor nations are dependent on farming, and so such food aid amounts to food dumping. In the past few decades, more powerful nations have used this as a foreign policy tool for dominance rather than for real aid.”

About: Randy Palazzo discusses the issues surrounding poverty. For More Information Visit at https://www.crunchbase.com/person/randy--palazzo