Making Poverty History - An Analysis, Part II

Let's talk poverty, shall we?

In Part I of our poverty series, we noticed that leftists, who generally decry religious conviction in the public square or in the shaping of public policy, nonetheless are quick to cite religion when it comes to caring for the poor. We duly noted this infatuation with religion by those progressives who make a big show of their secularism. And we were left with a serious, unanswered question: What are the secular, a-theistic reasons for caring for the poor?

With this in mind let us take a brief tour through the neighborhoods of wealth, the metaphorical gated communities, if you will. And there can be no more obvious place to look at wealth than here, in America; in the land of opportunity. Of course, what I am about to say is as evident, perhaps even more so, in places like Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan. But I will confine myself to this land, to the land of the free, where so much is not free at all.

Let us begin by listing some facts:

1. Right now, in countless malls and boutiques, there are designer shoes "living" in luxurious environs, surrounded by careful staffers intent on maintaining the proper lighting, humidity, shelter and security for shoewear. In contrast, most people living on this planet have never experienced (nor will they) this sort of luxury. And let us add to the list the following: house pets, guns, cars, horses, jewelry, tools, stamps, storage boxes, bottles, books, magazines, baseballs, golf clubs, cosmetics, newspapers, compact discs: Most of these things have better "lives" than millions, perhaps billions of people on this planet. Just take a moment and think of all the human and natural resources being used right now to house and maintain new books, or new CDs. Think of the luxury in which new skis or new lingerie exist, each in perfectly controlled environments. There are garbage bags stored in handcrafted drawers made of finer materials than most homes in dozens of countries. Horses and goats are housed in barns that are warmer, cleaner, and more weatherproof than countless human shelters.
2. Right now, Hollywood movie producers and TV directors are making sets of the finest materials only to blow them up in fireballs, or to leave them in so much empty darkness when shooting stops. There are gorgeous apartments built solely for fictitious TV characters. On Broadway, while homeless people mill about New York, there are stage managers building million dollar sets: offices, castles, courtyards, living rooms - all to be used for high-priced games of make-believe.
   
3. Right now, the Rolling Stones are touring America erecting elaborate stage displays for effect only, displays carried about in 80 or so tractor-trailer units.
4. Right now, there are people who have spent more money on leather-backed Bibles than they've spent for shoes for a homeless child. Meanwhile, countless American drivers sit on leather-covered seats in German luxury cars without once thinking about the people on this planet who have never had a piece of leather clothing, or who have not eaten a decent piece of meat.
5. Right now, some Americans are appearing on TV proud of having consumed a record number of cheeseburgers, hot dogs or meatballs at some state fair.
   
6. Right now, there are environmental activists using countless laptop computers to berate the abuse of the environment, apparently oblivious to the fact that, according to a compelling NPR story last year, the computer industry is the most environmentally toxic and energy consumptive industry on the globe.
7. Right now, there are Democrats and Republicans retiring for the evening to their suburban and urban homes, which are perhaps thousands of miles from their second and third homes, all of which sit empty for most of the calendar year.
8. Right now there are Democrats who still seethe over the fact that President George W. Bush spent 40 million (private) dollars for his inaugural parties in January 2005, wondering aloud why that "money could not have been spent on other things." Curiously these same people are silent about the production costs of TV's "The West Wing," "The Daily Show", MTV or Link TV, never wondering - not for one second - whether the money spent on these shows, or the production of ANY Michael Moore film or even the production of the New York Times might be better spent elsewhere. Surely the money spent on "Queer Eye", PBS' Frontline, and The DaVinci Code could have been spent on the homeless?
9. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of empty parking lots, paved with so much spilled oil, that are illuminated from dusk to dawn by millions of streetlights. This energy is expended solely to alleviate people's anxieties about injury, theft and liability. In other words, 99% of the ambient glow (wasted energy) seen bouncing off night clouds along the corridors of metropolis is caused by fear.
10. Right now, another self-storage complex is being erected somewhere so that people can house, not their homeless neighbors or even themselves (it is SELF storage, after all), but the stuff that can't fit into their own homes.
    

Forsooth, I could go on about yachts and vacation homes and art museums and sporting events and heated toilet seats: the list is endless. There are things, mere things, considered of infinitely more value than 100 human beings. There are poets/singers making millions of dollars (they are rare, but they exist) who lament the exploitation of the worker, or the oppression of the arts. There are people who spend more money on birdseed for their window feeders than they spend on food for dying African children. There are excesses in materials on the outside of just one Borders Books building - with its faux and empty towers reaching skyward - which could easily have been driven to the nearest Habitat For Humanity project and erected as a nice home for a few families. In fact, just look at architecture everywhere: there are excesses of design that are strictly for design; for embellishment. Surely those materials could be used in some other way?

What I am saying here is nothing partisan: I am stating a set of facts. Nor am I making a value judgment here: I have not said a thing about whether wealth is good or bad. What I've tried to show are the contradictions and blindnesses of wealth and wealth's critics.

Lastly, this is not an American thing. This is a fact in nearly every country on this planet. And you know what? It's not going to change.

(More on poverty forthcoming in Part III.)

Contratimes

©Bill Gnade 2005/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.