Skip to main content
  • SBD - Nike Air and Jordan Jumpman graphic prints Day of the Dead DC0350 - 100 Release Date - AIR JORDAN 11 RETRO Womens
  • Air Look Jordan 10 X Dark Shadow - SBD - 108 Release Date - Air Look Jordan 1 Grey Fog Stage Haze 555088
  • nike girls basketball tournament 2019 live stream , nike air max thea black grey pink blue background Latest Puma Cali In 'Rose Gold' , IetpShops
  • Pricing , SBD, Adidas Terrex reflekterande varumärke för bästa synlighetTerrex brett midjeband, Release Dates, adidas ZX 10000 Colorways
  • SBD - buy adidas nite jogger cloud white core black signal green - adidas Ultra Boost 5.0 DNA Black White GY1188 Release Date
  • saquon barkley nike air trainer iii DA5403 200 release date
  • air jordan 14 retro gg hyper pink 654969 028
  • Nike SB Dunk high premium doom sneaker talk
  • adidas yeezy boost 350 turtle dove
  • Cherry Jordan 11 Release Date
  • Home
  • Calendar
  • About Us
  • Watch/Listen
  • FOIL Docs
  • Editorial Policy
  • Log in
  • Publish Article

Upcoming Events

No upcoming calendar events.

Uncharted Territory in Anti-Poverty

Primary tabs

  • View(active tab)
  • Devel
Submitted by Brandon Davis on Thu, 2016-05-19 13:13

To suppress resource scarcity in all of society, would be to eradicate poverty. Since the inception of anti-poverty in 1964, when former President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty in his state of the union address, no organization has documented findings proven to eradicate poverty. Yet, the only answer to the question, “Can poverty be eradicated?” are, “It's always been around,” or, “It's human nature,” but never any positive analysis. In order for all of society to live with an insufficient level of scarcity to allow poverty to subsist, some invention or new technology must be produced. Could poverty eradication be a technology? Technology does come in the form of methods and systems as well as machines and gadgets. Wouldn't it be safe to say that research and development is the next step to take in order to achieve the technological breakthrough that is poverty eradication?

What must we research in order to eradicate poverty? The simple answer is economics. There are theories for poverty eradication and existing systemic barriers that can be explored by applying the scientific method. For example, the Profit Theory, which provides that one party’s profit comes at the cost of another party’s economic mobility. Another is the scarcity suppression theory which provides that poverty cant subsist if scarcity of goods and services to everyone in society is suppressed. Last but not least, the Commerce Theory, which provides that scarcity justifies the use of commercial exchange and without scarcity, commerce is irrelevant. So, why aren’t anti-poverty organizations working in this regard?

Some of us have come to believe that poverty will always exist due to religious ties like that of the Holy Bible, in the Book of Matthew, chapter 26, verse 11, in which, Jesus is quoted saying, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” Take it any way you want but Christians have interpreted this dialog as the Lord Jesus Christ prophesying poverty to be an ever existing factor of life outside of Heaven. This interpretation may seem harmless but in the case of anti-poverty, it fuels pessimism against inquiring the possibility of permanently ending poverty.

Commerce is also a reason many of us believe that poverty will always exist; being the preferred system of resource distribution and fulfillment in the American culture. Our economy, culture, and values, are shaped around the buying and selling of scarce resources. If all services and goods were abundant, buying and selling would be counterproductive, in that, commerce would introduce scarcity to an abundant situation. We would revert away from commerce which includes business, wage labor, profit, money, banks, insurance, life as we know it; raising the question, “What would people do?” So, instead of inquiring the possibility of suppressing scarcity and fine tuning cultural design thereafter, we indirectly dismiss the opportunity of progressing in the war on poverty.

My favorite belief rests on the idea that technology has some sort of foreseeable limit that prohibits the permanent suppression of scarcity in society. It’s reasonable to conclude that poverty eradication would require science-fiction like advancements but it is incorrect to assume these advancements are unobtainable. For example, as long as service is based on human labor, it will contain a level of scarcity that conflicts with the eradication. So, there needs to be some sort of invention or breakthrough to succeed human service which many believe is impossible regardless of the constant progression of automation.

Despite all the strong arguments against this path in anti-poverty, neither has the backing to render it impossible which is why this uncharted territory deserves a shot at wide scale exploration. The government has the R&D resources in their $135-billion-dollar annual budget split between defense and non-defense. This is clearly a non-defense project but considering the behavior influenced by the environmental conditions of finite resources scarce to many and abundant to a few, the defense budget should be in question of splitting resources for the eradication of poverty as well.

Related: Bookchin's Post Scarcity Anarchism | A Trickle-Up Economy | Why we're not protesting the economic collapse like the rest of the world, or What's Next? 'Inverted Totalitarianism' | American Harvest: a superficial, patronizing, and smug film

tciobackground.jpg

 

Poverty
Miscellaneous
Civil Liberties / Human Rights
Cultural Criticism
Anti-War / War + Peace
  • Facebook logo
  • Google logo
  • identi.ca logo
  • Twitter logo
  • Digg logo
  • del.icio.us logo
  • Reddit logo
  • StumbleUpon logo
  • Yahoo logo
  • Log in or register to post comments

Search form

Local News

Did District Attorney Sandra Doorley Violate Ethics Guidelines While Attending a Local Republican Fundraiser in May?
Jim Goodman - Sleeper Cell for the Revolution!
The Press as Powdered Donut with Blue Badge in the Middle
Blueprint for Engagement: Evaluating Police / Community Relations Final Report (2017)
The Police-Civilian Foot Patrol: An Evaluation of the PAC-TAC Experiemnt in Rochester, New York (June 1975)
Police Killing of Denise Hawkins (1975)
Complaint Investigation Committee Legislation (1977)
Race Rebellion of July 1964
Selections Regarding the Police Advisory Board (1963-1970)
Prelude to the Police Advisory Board
A.C. White (January 26, 1963)
Police Raid on Black Muslim Religious Service (January 6, 1963)
Rufus Fairwell (August 12, 1962)
Incarcerated Worker sheds light on Prison Labor Conditions during Pandemic
Police and Political Commentary
BWC video indicates Mark Gaskill was holding his phone as police shouted "gun"
How the NY Attorney General's defended the police who killed Daniel Prude
Hats off to Kropotkin!!
Agreement between the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Locust Club, 2016 - 2019
Facebook Posts Lead to Federal Rioting Charges for Justice for Daniel Prude Protester

Recent Comments

Any status on FOIL request?
Media's Goebbels
Related
Related
USA as NAZI criminals
oops
PS
A message of Truth from Geral
Fyi
See related data...

Syndication

  • Feature Stories
  • Local News

Account Creation Policy Change

Rochester Indymedia is now requiring editor approval for account creation.

We came to this decision after we had repeated spam posted to our website that caused difficulty with the website's functioning.  We will still have open publishing and keep our site as nonrestrictive and accessible as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.  As before, we will continue to be Rochester's grassroots news and education site.  Thank you for your continued support and remember, "Don't hate the media, be the media!"

Editorial Meeting Times / Locations

The Rochester Independent Media Center (R-IMC) is no longer meeting regularly.
We will set up meetings by necessity and appointment. Please contact us at rochesterindymedia@rocus.org.
Our home is still the Flying Squirrel Community Space at 285 Clarissa St. Occasionally, we hold meetings at RCTV located at 21 Gorham Street.

Global IMC Network

To be downloaded