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Emily Robison
ECON 2010
Reflection Paper
15 April 2016

Reducing Global Poverty

I previously had limited knowledge about global poverty, and it was not
something I really gave much thought about. My knowledge has substantially
increased throughout this macroeconomics course, and with that, so has my
knowledge about global poverty and economics in general. I have learned
about elastic and inelastic goods and their supply, product demand and
equilibrium prices, which I will discuss more below. I now find that inelastic
goods, which are necessary for standard living, need to be made affordable
to those in need.
The United Nations set a substantial goal in 2000 to reduce poverty by
half before 2015, from 30% to 15%. While this was an admirable and
important economic target, little progress was made toward the resolution.
We read about this mission, also called the Millennium Goal, in a published
Global Poverty article in the course. This objective seemed doomed to fail
from the beginning due to a lack of specific and measurable actions to make
it happen. However, there was one solid piece of information that came from
the feature, and it was the definition of poverty being less than $1 of living

per day. This was a drastic statement that called for an immediate need to
correct.
In the United States we recognize that 37 million Americans are poor,
but in contrast to the rate other countries deem as poor, the 37 million
Americans look very well off to the rest of the world. When there is not a
standard definition of poverty everyone agrees upon, there is no way to
measure progress. In the publication, the United Nations recognized a global
standard was needed, and they determined this based off someone who has
unacceptable living standards and a deprivation of basic needs.
This information is extremely difficult for me to identify with; I have
access to healthcare, education, transportation, Internet and many other
luxuries in my modern world I take for granted. Outside of an occasional
commercial or ad for donations, I do not see people living in poverty. Reading
about global poverty has substantially impacted my thinking. There are far
too many people, especially children, who are unhealthy, dirty, unclothed
and malnourished. On top of that, these people do not have access to basic
education, and many do not even have a place to call home.
I discovered an astronomical statistic stating 10% to 30% of children
living in poverty do not survive past the age of 5. Furthermore, the average
life expectancy of people living in poverty is substantially less than those
who have their basic living needs met.
These data have not only impacted my thinking, but also how I will act
in the future by having this information. It is important to bring attention to

economic indifferences, as well as identify more areas to give to those in

need around the world. It is so easy to turn away from a problem, especially
if you do not see it often or even know it exists.
Everyone deserves access and to achieve utility by having the ability
to purchase goods and services needed for survival. In order for this to
happen, more decisions should be considered with a command system
mentality. A command system has a foundation of socialism, which many
people tend to shun, however, small sacrifices from people who are well off
goes so far for those living in poverty.
By having life-essential goods and services out of reach for such a
massive amount of people in poverty, companies are benefiting from rentseeking behaviors. This means the entity is increasing their profit at the
expense of others. These companies also collect a substantial amount of
profit in regards to how much the item costs to produce.
Sometimes government regulations cause unintended consequences,
but without any intervention this problem will continue to go unsolved. There
needs to be a price ceiling for essential goods; items necessarily to sustain
life cannot sell higher than a set, standard price. Companies that gain profit
on essential goods are often guilty of price discrimination; they charge the
highest possible price they can get someone to pay. Learning about price
discrimination in this macroeconomics course gave me new insight in
regards to how much items should be sold for. Even outside the realm of
global poverty, I am much more conscious of the items I choose to buy. I do

ample research to find out what a reasonable price should be, as well as
search for competing products or vendors that meet my needs.
All in all, global poverty would be lessened if these above items were
put into place. Although the timeframe of the Millennial Goal has passed, this
is something that must continue to be worked on. Global poverty is ever
increasing, and all of mankind has a moral obligation to help alleviate the
astonishing rate.