Will extreme poverty come to an end?

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Contrary to popular belief, inequality between all people in the world has declined consistently since 1990. And even within-country inequality has been falling in many places since 2008—for every country that saw a substantial increase in inequality during this time period, two others saw a similar decrease.
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Poverty will just be redefined, so the media and academia can keep selling discontent. In the future, you’ll be considered “poor” if your broadband bundle doesn’t include the ESPN package, and you have to watch it on anything less than a 48 inch screen.
 
I am going with Porthos! Whether monetary or in some other way, there will always be poor.
 
porthos11 said:
Christ himself didn’t think so.
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But nowhere did He say that we should, therefore, ignore them. Indeed, the Bible, including Christ Himself, states over and over that we should not neglect the needy! It’s our choice, but I strongly suggest that we examine our conscience carefully not to end up like the “rich man.”
 
Crusaderbear said:
I am going with Porthos! Whether monetary or in some other way, there will always be poor.
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I believe it not to be logical to say that the poor will be with us always, therefore nobody has the religious moral obligation to try and help them! Please quote from anywhere in the Bible a passage of scripture that suggests that we have no such moral obligation?
 
Brassring said:
Poverty will just be redefined, so the media and academia can keep selling discontent. In the future, you’ll be considered “poor” if your broadband bundle doesn’t include the ESPN package, and you have to watch it on anything less than a 48 inch screen.
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Maybe, but I still think there are many good people in our world who will eliminate extreme poverty as it’s defined today.
 
Extreme poverty will probably not end in this world, but it will be reversed in the next. See the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I’m predicting that America, regardless of who is president, along with the rest of the world, will continue to grow and thrive. Yes, there may be sacrifices to be made by all, but the overall progress will continue.

As for the great evil of extreme poverty, I personally believe it will soon be under control.
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Yes, material poverty will exist until the second coming but extreme poverty in the United States, one where children starve to death on the streets can and will be overcome. And it is. The most extreme can be mitigated yet poverty - where people cannot become independent of aid - will most certainly remain.
 
porthos11 said:
Christ himself didn’t think so.
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No, but “the poor” is a wide spectrum concept in Catholicism. St Mother Teresa branched into the developed world, despite starting in the slums of Mumbai, because she recognized a different kind of poverty in the West.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I’m predicting that America, regardless of who is president, along with the rest of the world, will continue to grow and thrive. Yes, there may be sacrifices to be made by all, but the overall progress will continue.

As for the great evil of extreme poverty, I personally believe it will soon be under control.

worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/10/02/tackling-inequality-vital-to-end-extreme-poverty-by-2030
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It depends on what you mean by progress. It is possible to be technologically set-back by quite a bit when major civilizations fall.
 
I’m not sure what you mean by that, but it’s next to impossible for technology to ever be lost once it is gained.

The infrastructure and high-level employees might be in deficit for it to be made much use of though. i.e. we might have access to efficient fission and solar plants, efficient commercial planes, monorails; but because of a lack of capital, the country stays in poverty and underdeveloped, at least for awhile.
 
SuperLuigi said:
It depends on what you mean by progress. It is possible to be technologically set-back by quite a bit when major civilizations fall.
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I personally do not see that any of the major civilizations will need to fall in order to end extreme poverty.
 
Who can dare to call themselves Christian while being unwilling to be empathic towards those living in extreme poverty?
 
Robert_Sock said:
But nowhere did He say that we should, therefore, ignore them. Indeed, the Bible, including Christ Himself, states over and over that we should not neglect the needy! It’s our choice, but I strongly suggest that we examine our conscience carefully not to end up like the “rich man.”
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I didn’t say that. Did anyone say that? Who said that? Anyone? Raise your hands if you said here or any time that we should not help the poor because the poor will always be with us. Raise your hands if you said we should ignore the poor!

Who said that? Anyone? No?

Well, Robert Sock, sorry. Looks like you’re the only one who read something that wasn’t stated or implied at all.
 
porthos11 said:
I didn’t say that. Did anyone say that? Who said that? Anyone? Raise your hands if you said here or any time that we should not help the poor because the poor will always be with us. Raise your hands if you said we should ignore the poor!

Who said that? Anyone? No?

Well, Robert Sock, sorry. Looks like you’re the only one who read something that wasn’t stated or implied at all.
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Sorry if I misunderstood anyone! I thought I was just adding to the quote that the poor will always be with us as stated by Christ. All I was getting at was that extreme poverty may never end, but we are still obligated to do all that is in our power to try and end it no matter how futile our efforts may be.

As for the last post that I posted, yes, I truly believe that there are many Christians who are unwilling to be empathic towards those living in extreme poverty.

I would be most interested why you feel that the efforts being made to end extreme poverty will fail? That there will aways be poor people includes me who lives right at the poverty level but still far ways off from those living in extreme poverty.

I was really hoping that starting this thread would open more eyes to the problem, and more empathy would be expressed. Instead, from several of the posts, people seem to think that things are hopeless based on a single quote from Christ that happens to be ambiguous in what He meant when He used the word “poor.” Do you really think that the problem of extreme poverty as it exists in the world today would cause Christ to be so pessimistic? Why? Especially read the article I linked to again and see that progress is being made.
 
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