A plan for a better future
By: Jessica Santiago

Poverty is a well known situation occurring worldwide. It’s when a person lives in a extreme negative economic situation where there seems to be no escape. I was given the opportunity by my professor Susan Campbell to have the power to eradicate poverty in 2020. I would start by educating myself in the current economical situation presented in the world. Later on, I will set up a plan that would allow each individual to contain a healthy way of living without receiving too much money or less money. My main goal is to balance all the social classes and create one that suits everybody. Poverty would cease to exist, does who don’t have a job will be giving an opportunity to work and to have a healthy successful life. I will create an organization that will help guide each person to a better tomorrow. Education will not be an issue, everybody will get the chance to go to school or college by law. My main goal will also be to inspire people to become a better version of themselves, to be in a world where they are given the chance to do everything. Each individual will have the correct set of tools and mind for their life.

A World without Poverty in 2020

I’ve been given the infinite power to eradicate poverty by the year 2020 by Susan Campbell. I’d like to thank her for that, by the way. On that very same day, I was invited to join a Cooperative Development Committee with the Credit Union League of CT and the guest speaker was Victor Miguel Corro, Vice President of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions International Partnerships & Training. One of the slides in his PowerPoint presentation was of about 8 men sitting in a circle in Afghanistan, in the desert, as Board of Directors for a credit union to determine if they were going to lend money to a local resident to start a new venture.

Another slide was a photo of a woman in Colombia standing next to two representatives from her local credit union. Each morning, one representative lends the lady money to sell her potatoes and at the end of the day the other representative comes to her to collect payment for the loan and 10-15% of her earnings to save money for herself. That may only be about 15 cents, but it’s a daily savings. They bring the credit union to her since she cannot afford to travel to the credit union herself. Wow, this gave me the chills when I connected the concepts of bringing funding and democracy right to the poor with the credit union movement and our mission for this course on wealth and inequality. Credit Unions alone aren’t going to eradicate poverty but changing our view of the financial system may be a big start. We know we cannot do anything about poverty without finance, so I say we start there.

Barbara Gunterman

photo courtesy of Woccu

As leader of the new world, to end poverty once and for all I propose a new worldwide system that all countries abide by. This new system will be put into place and will be forcibly followed. Poverty is not a problem of the next person. Poverty is not a problem that exist the next city over. Poverty is not caused by lazy people or for people who deserve it. Poverty is a worldwide problem and this makes it everyone’s problem as human race.

The first step of order is to restrict persons of high power and high income. The goal is to eliminate the elite class that keeps getting richer while the poor get poorer. This includes people of government, entertainers, businesses, etc. These people will have a cap on income. Anyone person or organization that makes more then $200,000 a year will have the excess money automatically transferred to a worldwide account that is governed by my personally picked committee. This money will in turn be used for global free food and housing cost.

Following this, there will be no cost of food worldwide or housing but everyone is required to work, Even persons with disability’s to an extent. From here, wealth classes will be eliminated and not used again.

Another order to be held is worldwide health care that is free. Money from the account held by people who make more then 200,000 a year that is not spent on housing will go towards this cost.

Anyone not willing to cooperate will be automatically enrolled in a new space program on mars that is also funded by the over $2000,000 account.

P Rivera