Two news items this week addressed the challenge of poverty.
Last Sunday’s Op-Ed by Bono in the NY Times expressed support for the Nobel committee’s selection of President Obama on the basis of “36 words” in the President’s speech to the UN last month: “We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”
This commitment, he wrote, earned Obama the Peace Prize “alongside the administration’s approach to fighting nuclear proliferation and climate change, improving relations in the Middle East and, by the way, creating jobs and providing health care at home....”
According to Bono’s opinion piece (the Times' the most emailed article for several days), Obama is turning around our ship of state and returning to our uniquely American idea: “a great idea about opportunity for all and responsibility to your fellow man.”
According to an AP story today, perhaps 1 in 6 Americans are living in poverty if “medical costs and geographic variations" are included, as they are under an alternate formula applied by the National Academy of Sciences rather than the primary formula used by the Census Bureau. The NAS formula means that over 47 million Americans live in poverty, which is 7 million more than we thought.
The connection between global and domestic poverty is chilling. Can we help the world when our own economy is so imperiled? According to Bono, that's the point. If we are "too pinched to be the world’s philanthropist," we can be even more valuable as the world’s partner. And, that will make the difference.