I was reflecting on the comments AS made about Obama's talky-talk on poverty. How committed has Bush-Cheney really been to reducing poverty? Has the Millenial Challenge account done 'its thing'?
If you look at Greg Mankiw's blog and look around to see what he has to say on poverty, he complains about the measurements of poverty, without mentioning that the Bush Admin. could have worked to change those measures, on the advice of Mankiw himself, even. You get the sense on those pages (and from Obama?) that there are no structual poverty concerns. Mankiw even waxes about cheap goods from China, as if the rural poor in China were the 'solution' to the rural and working poor in America ... hummm.
Anyway, in my internet travels on the topic, I came across this poem, suggesting that the challenge, today, may be better conceptualized more broadly.
Latin America is a colorful place. Garish bold paint covers teetering adobe, unplumbed cinderblock, and structural poverty.
Festive colors celebrate life against a backdrop of so much unnecessary death. Structural poverty. The politician's smile peels back to reveal another face.
Yes, everything is for sale to the Gringos. Infant mortality, suicide, and illiteracy have increased since NAFTA. The President of Mexico is a former Coca Cola corporate executive.
"They're worse than the Nazis," Eduardo Galeano wrote of the politicians in a neighboring Latin American country. "At least the Nazis were nationalists."
