Social Investment with a Plus in Latin America

Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing Back the Social

Poverty causes a person’s status to fall while it diminishes his or her

involvement in the larger community.

• In the industrialized nations, where poverty also exists, beliefs about
  poverty are frequently based on stereotypes. For instance, people may think that poor individuals are generally lazy and dangerous. Alternatively, there may be a misconception that the majority of poor people are immigrants, ethnic minorities, criminals, and mentally retarded.
  
• It has been shown that people suffer from hunger not because of a lack of availability of food, or over-population, but because they are too poor to afford the food. In many ways, politics and economic conditions have led to poverty and dependency around the world. Thus, addressing world hunger implies addressing world poverty. If food production is further increased and provided to more people while the underlying causes of poverty are not addressed, hunger will still continue because people will not be able to purchase food.
  
• Even non-emergency food aid, which seems a noble cause at face value, has shown to be destructive since it under-sells local farmers and can ultimately affect the entire economy of a poor nation. If the poorer nations are not given the sufficient means to produce their own food and other existential items, then poverty and dependency are likely to continue.
  
• Finally, leaders from rich countries are often heard telling poor countries that aid and loans will only be given when they show they are stamping out corruption. While the eradication of corruption is of primary importance and definitely must occur, the rich countries themselves are often active in the largest forms of corruptive practices in those poor countries. Indeed, many economic policies that rich countries have prescribed have exacerbated the problem. Thus, corruption must be high on the priority lists of both developing and developed countries.