Last Chapter

Last Chapter


Thomas Pogge’s last chapter in his World Poverty and Human Rights provides the justification in why we are responsible for world poverty and offers, what I think, a solution to the problem of world poverty. On page 199, Pogge provides three ground of injustice; these are “effects of shared social institutions, the uncompensated exclusion from the use of natural resources, and the effects of a common and violent history.” The one that caught my attention was the second principle, the uncompensated exclusion from the use of natural resources. He later explains brings interesting condition, in addition to the other conditions on page 198,199, and 203, to consider: “The better-off enjoy significant advantages in the use of a single natural resource base from whose benefits the worse-off are largely, and without compensation, excluded” (202).
This makes me supports an idea, that is not new and I think common, that the rich nations of the world benefit from the poor nations, such as mining and oil operations and manufactories productions. Therefore, this makes me think two things about the second principle. One, since a rich nation is benefiting from the poor nation, while excluding them too, then makes me believe that the rich nation enjoy and furnish on the benefits and forget or disregard where or how they are getting them. And two, those born within a rich nation understand or think about the people suffering and work twice as harder to get natural resources to the rich nations.
In addition, I think the knowledge of world poverty is key factor in this issue. It reasonable to believe that if people, in a rich nation with all necessary and addition resource in their disposal, who probably never consider the fact that there would be people suffering horribly and dying for the rich nation’s benefits and resources. Again, if a person doesn’t see it, hear it, or think about world poverty, then it wouldn’t even be considered bad or good. However, even if we heard about world poverty and that we were responsible for it; then I would think that information would be discarded because it provides a unpleasant feeling towards the people of the rich nation. I think Pogge first paragraph of his conclusion is a powerful statement.
“We are familiar, through charity appeals, with the assertion that it lies in our hands to save the lives of many or, by doing nothing, to let these people die. We are less familiar with the assertion examined here of a weightier responsibility: that most of us do not merely let people starve, but participate in starving them. It is not surprising that our initial reaction to this more unpleasant assertion is indignation, even hostility – that, rather than think it through or discuss it, we want to forgot it or put it aside as plainly absurd.” (214)
---Thomas Pogge