puppetmaker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
puppetmaker) wrote2011-01-07 11:22 am
puppetmaker) wrote2011-01-07 11:22 am
LJ Idol Season 7 Week 8 First World Problems
There was a survey done a while back that I will always remember. It was at the time that cell phones were limited to the rich and the privileged few. A college did a pretty vast survey going through all demographics and income levels. The question was simple, “what do you need to survive?”
For those in the lower income brackets, the answers were rather simple. It broke down to food, shelter, and clothing. But once they got a little further up the income ladder, things started to be added like electricity and certain gadgets that made life more comfortable like tv and other forms of entertainment and their own car. By the time they got to those at the top of the ladder the basic need list got rather long including servants, cars, planes, cell phones, and all kinds of things that if taken away would not have made it impossible to survive just uncomfortable.
Poor in a first world country can be rather wealthy in other parts of the world. The poor in America can, for the most part, find potable water to drink and most have ways of getting rid of the waste that they create without harming others round them. Most the poor inner city neighborhoods have water and sewer systems. They have some form of garbage pick up. They have means to survive that would make them the envy of their neighbors if they lived in a third world country.
There are government systems in first world countries to help those who are poor. In many third world countries there are no such systems and they are lucky to have a government that works at all. The second world countries aren’t doing much better.
Being poor anywhere is no great shakes. But it does explain why so many people from third world countries break the rules to come to one of the first world countries. They see what the poor there have and it is so much better than what they have to deal with. They see a chance to better themselves and their children in a first world country with opportunities that just don’t exist where they live. They are grateful for that which other people complain about as being not enough. They see societies where class structure doesn’t exist anymore. That there is a ladder to climb and systems set up so that they won’t starve or be shot for expressing their thoughts and feelings.
The first world countries need to take a hard look at how they treat the third and second world countries, for they are creating and exacerbating the problems in these other countries by their policies. The problems in a third world nation can be problems back in a first world nation. We are more a global society than we have ever have been and as such we need to look at the world as a whole rather than as first vs. second vs. third world. When one falls, we all are poorer for it.
This has been my entry for this weeks LJ Idol. It was a tough one to crack but due to a conversation I had with one of my neighbors who will finally be able to bring her daughter and her daughter’s children from Haiti through legal means, I felt that this needed to be said.
For those in the lower income brackets, the answers were rather simple. It broke down to food, shelter, and clothing. But once they got a little further up the income ladder, things started to be added like electricity and certain gadgets that made life more comfortable like tv and other forms of entertainment and their own car. By the time they got to those at the top of the ladder the basic need list got rather long including servants, cars, planes, cell phones, and all kinds of things that if taken away would not have made it impossible to survive just uncomfortable.
Poor in a first world country can be rather wealthy in other parts of the world. The poor in America can, for the most part, find potable water to drink and most have ways of getting rid of the waste that they create without harming others round them. Most the poor inner city neighborhoods have water and sewer systems. They have some form of garbage pick up. They have means to survive that would make them the envy of their neighbors if they lived in a third world country.
There are government systems in first world countries to help those who are poor. In many third world countries there are no such systems and they are lucky to have a government that works at all. The second world countries aren’t doing much better.
Being poor anywhere is no great shakes. But it does explain why so many people from third world countries break the rules to come to one of the first world countries. They see what the poor there have and it is so much better than what they have to deal with. They see a chance to better themselves and their children in a first world country with opportunities that just don’t exist where they live. They are grateful for that which other people complain about as being not enough. They see societies where class structure doesn’t exist anymore. That there is a ladder to climb and systems set up so that they won’t starve or be shot for expressing their thoughts and feelings.
The first world countries need to take a hard look at how they treat the third and second world countries, for they are creating and exacerbating the problems in these other countries by their policies. The problems in a third world nation can be problems back in a first world nation. We are more a global society than we have ever have been and as such we need to look at the world as a whole rather than as first vs. second vs. third world. When one falls, we all are poorer for it.
This has been my entry for this weeks LJ Idol. It was a tough one to crack but due to a conversation I had with one of my neighbors who will finally be able to bring her daughter and her daughter’s children from Haiti through legal means, I felt that this needed to be said.
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I think the more that finances are on a global scale, the more we will move to a global community.
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Glad your neighbour's family made it to the USA safe.
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Now that they are cleared, she is going to Haiti next week with the rest of the paperwork to bring them back. But she is worried that something will go wrong and they will have an other problem. Bribes are expected.
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She is going down to make sure that there are no other wrinkles. She has worked so long and hard to get to this day.
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Interesting post. Well done.
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Right now I would say that America is very much in flux. What we do now will effect both us and future citizens of this country.
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She just wants to go down there and get them because she has worked so long and hard for this day.
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LJ user Basric's comment makes an interesting point about the government in other countries. It's too bad that a few bad leaders can negatively affect so many lives!
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Involvement with our global neighbors should assess what's already working for them, then support and assist when we can.
Even in a job situation, no one likes to have the new guy come in, presuming to know it all, and start changing everything.
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I agree that we need to look at the world as whole (that is the one issue I have with the "first/second/third world" designations - nowadays, we are a more global society).
I hope all goes well for your neighbor's family. *crosses fingers*
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