There are currently 7.8 billion people in this rapidly growing world. This uncontrollable growth in population has put great stress on the global food supply.
Even developed countries like the United States has seen the effects of a limited food supply but many people in first world countries do not reach the point of starvation like those in developing countries such as Uganda or India.
This is because there are different levels of poverty– relative poverty and absolute poverty. In the United States of America, few can live off a salary of $1 a day but in developing countries, $1 can feed a family an entire meal for a week. Poverty in the United States tends to be one of relative poverty, whereas, in less fortunate countries, facing struggles over finding clean drinking water or having enough food to see the next day, they are suffering under absolute poverty.
While the issues of the impoverished in third-world countries may be more devastating than the poor in first world countries, no one can measure the struggle of another. How exactly do you measure poverty? Some people measure poverty by someone’s physical appearance, others measure it by their income, and others still measure it by their material items. People may believe that poverty is a social construct based on how a family should be — a house, a car, and a full course meal on the table every day.
While this social construct is true, it only relates to those who fall into the category of “relative poverty.” Families that live in absolute poverty do not fall under any social construct because they are deprived of their essential needs and fight to survive every day of their lives. They constantly have to worry about where to live, how to get a meal or even a crumb for the next day, and etc. Yet just because we understand that the struggles of those experiencing absolute poverty are graver than those experiencing relative poverty at home, it doesn’t make the suffering of those around us any less real. We face a proposition on who we should give our primary attention to and help, relative poverty at home or absolute poverty abroad. It is a difficult choice and one not to be made lightly, but we should, at the very least, feel blessed and grateful to have everything that we have been given and work for and remember that life is beautiful.
