People are going to suffer due to the rapidly increasing price of foods and other commodities. No, not American people, and not the people of any other of the more advanced countries. The people that are going to suffer are those truly poor and downtrodden people in our world; there is true poverty out there, people that simply do not have the opportunity to make their lives better.
These people aren't able to farm their own lands to feed themselves; they have to deal with the current global commodity situation just as every one of us does. But sadly these people, millions of people, they simply cannot keep up with these rapidly increasing prices. These are people that live on the equivalent of one dollar a day, one single dollar each day.
Living on a dollar a day is known as extreme poverty. Just imagine having the spending power of one single dollar every day, you will easily be able to see why these people can barely survive, that they do in fact go hungry, often to the point of starvation. And it is only going to get worse as the price of commodities continues to rise.
When we hear the politicians and our fellow Americans complaining about the increase in prices through various forms of media, it's them complaining about petty things such as Milk increasing in price and how outrageous it is. But the fact is that us Americans are not in any danger from this increase in commodity prices; no, we are going to just fine. It is the truly poor in our world that will suffer.
All of us have heard the various reasons given for the increase in prices: From the recent popularity of bio fuels to global warming diminishing the harvests. Neither of these is the real reason for the increase in prices, no matter what the politicians and pundits tell you and want you to think.
Demand is the main reason behind the increase in commodity prices. It's as simple as that. Millions of people in both India and China, as well as several other emerging countries, are eating a much higher quality diet than they previously were. This is by no means a bad thing; we should all be very happy for these people that have brought themselves out of poverty through hard work. It is a great thing.
We can't blame anyone or single thing in fact. From the increased demand in countries such as China and India, to bio fuels and global warming; we can certainly debate which of these things have a larger affect on the prices, but that is only going to lead us to continuing the avoidance of the real issue: That is the truly poor people in the world that are suffering now, and will continue to suffer as these elements weigh on the prices of commodities in the future.
Can we do anything about this? I'm sure that we can, yes. For example, I simply consume less and waste less. There is an incredible amount of waste in advanced countries; people don't give it a second thought. I witness people wasting without care every single day of my life, it's a terrible thing.
Knowing that our waste alone could feed millions of truly needy people is a very sad thing. We've all seen the studies, some saying that half of the food in the United States is actually wasted, never ingested by a human being at all. The first time that I read that I was shocked, sure; but I knew that it would be a staggering amount of waste.
The fact is that less waste, more efficiency here in the United States would dramatically drop the demand for commodities and as such, it would in turn drop the price of food throughout the world. This would allow more and more people to eat, to eat a better diet, and be healthier in general.
So the next time you're in your local supermarket, don't complain about the increasing cost of your Eggs and Milk; instead think of the poor people that are going to go without due to you continuing your wasteful habits.
]]>2.
Those are the three main reasons as I see them. There are of course other factors behind the rising price of Oil, such as turmoil and lack of security in many Oil producing lands, to things such as the weather, which can cause rather large jumps in the price of Oil in its own right. But those three issues that I listed above are the key factors behind the current of Oil; they should be known and understood by everyone.
We all realize that Oil usage is a problem for us here in the US, and that we need to find a viable alternative, regardless of the current price of Oil. The heart of the issue is how we move from our high use of oil, to something better. Clearly the way that the US as a whole operates has to change, the whole car culture that we have built and glamourized to the rest of the world has to change. People need to realize how ridiculous it is in the first place, they have to realize that it is not sustainable in the long term, and that something has to be done about it, and the sooner something is done, the better off all humans will be.
I don't have all of the answers myself. But it is clear to me that more public funds need to go to public transportation, and other, better forms of transportation. A huge amount of money is spent rebuilding roads in the US every year so more and more cars can drive on them. This is an utter waste of public funding and in reality should not be done. That money should be spent towards better forms of transportation for all people, not just those that own cars. Sadly a majority of people want better roads, so they can drive their SUV's and other vehicles down the street.
Driving is a part of our culture and it's what most people want to do, but that in no way makes it right or good for the future progress of our country, or humans as a whole. I realize that driving has given people much more freedom than they previously had, and that is not a bad thing in any way. But it is an undeniable fact that there are and were better options to allow all people the freedom that they want and deserve, that is completely sustainable for a very long length of time. I can't blame past generations for wanting to drive and to exercise their freedom to travel around on their own will, as they didn't have the insight that we do in our current time. But now that we do have such information and understand that driving huge vehicles all over the country on expensive roads is a waste of resources and is not sustainable in the long term, then something must be done about it.
Every day that passes wherein people continue to go with the flow and majority feeling is setting back humanity as a whole. It's setting back our future generations by hurting our stability and our environment. We have to step up as a people and bring it to an end. We have to sit down and put our minds towards progress, rather than selfish deeds, for the good of our country and the world. We have to realize that suburban sprawl is not necessary and has only led to us having to rely more and more on our vehicles to get us away from and back to our homes.
There are better, more modern forms of transportation available to us right now. They are more efficient and are more sustainable in the long term, which will lead to a better life for our future generations. Anything at all will help; simply moving away from overly large vehicles that are completely unnecessary would be a huge improvement. And I do realize that we are beginning to move in the right direction, but there is undoubtedly resistance in many areas that we need to overcome. It has been too long already and it is time to help our fellow citizens along.
]]>