Man has always tried to define the people around him. In the early years this came down to who had the biggest stick, but as man evolved, so did his need for distinguishing others. If you take a look at history you will discover that even the slightest difference between people has had the potential to wreak devastating consequences. We only have to think about the atrocities that were committed during the days of Nazi-occupied Europe to remind us of this. In the twenty-first century however, the labelling of people has become somewhat more subtle and it has basically fractured society into two parts: the haves and the have-nots.
A study in 2001 estimated that roughly 1.1 billion people had to get by with just $1 per day. Some experts have proclaimed that this number is likely to rise as industrialised countries keep moving forward, while the developing countries (safe for the new up-and-comers India and China) are falling further behind. Luckily, there is hope, as the World Bank has predicted that in 2030 the number of people living on $1 a day will reduce significantly to 550 million people, which comes down to less than one percent of the total world population.
The question that now comes to mind is what do the lives of those 1.1 billion people look like? If we say that they have to survive with only $1 a day, does that mean they are unhappy? If they don’t have the company car, the suburban villa with the lush green lawn or thousands of dollars in their bank account, does that mean they are less than us? Or could it be that there is some sort of other standard that measures happiness, one we have yet to discover? Maybe the fact that those people have not succumbed to consumerism or greediness has made them more happier than we could ever hope to be?
We often think that just because we have surrounded ourselves with all these trinkets and expensive goods that we are happy and that we live successful lives, but this has been proved wrong many times over. If we take a look at the classics such as Madame Bovary or The Great Gatsby we see that wealth and social standing rarely lead to happily ever after. Even modern day television shows us that living the American dream or something like it does not guarantee bliss.
Maybe we need to rethink the way we look at people who have less than us. Because in the fact that they do not have the money or prestige to fall back on, they are able to form their own personalities, free from social pressure and the need to succeed. They learn to know what is truly important in life, they even value it more than so many others. In having no two pennies to rub together, they are well aware of how valuable a single penny can be. A fact that is all too often discarded by us.
So in a way poverty opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, it rearranges our life goals so we do not feel the urge to chase after the new Mercedes-Benz CLC or the next 55inch LED television set. Being poor doesn’t necessarily mean poor in attitude or finances, it simply means that you have a better understanding of what is real and truly valuable in the world. Poverty can be a blessing and what is more, it is completely free of charge.
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