How can you help get rid of poverty

You must first invest in the people.

What does that mean? Hmm, let’s take a look:

Let’s pretend we’ve been tasked with helping to eradicate poverty in a random area. There are numerous steps we must take to achieve our goal.

Identify the Impoverished
First you must account for the people you are trying to help. If you don’t know who to help, then how can you help them? Many poor people are lost track of and forgotten, which makes it near impossible to render them aid.

Have you ever tried getting work done when you were really hungry or always tired? It’s hard to imagine getting anything done when don’t have access to clean water, plumbing, beds, refrigerators, etc.

Take a look at Mazlov’s Hierarchy of Needs below:

Everyone first needs the basics. Once you have access to those things, then you can worry about the next level.

No, not the TV show! We’re talking about an actual legal system to keep people accountable for their actions. It’s like bullying in school. How can you be expected to learn and grow as a person if you’re constantly worried about getting mugged and having your possessions taken away from you? This applies to adults too. You need to feel safe in order to prosper, especially in the economic sense.

This will allow people to learn new skills that can not only be used to help themselves, but also be used to help those around them!

Finally, once everyone feels comfortable in their environment, and has become educated, they need an outlet to provide for themselves and others. Or in other words, they need a job.

We could talk about the other three levels of Mazlov’s pyramid, but although ideal, those three things are not required to bring people out of extreme poverty.