What If We Spend The Money Spent On Military To Solve World Hunger?
When I look at the state our world is in currently, it really makes me mad and I start questioning whether we have failed our own species. Despite all our technologies and all our advancements, we still haven’t been able to solve some of the most basic problems that any civilisation can have.
If you take a look at the world, you will see a great divide. The differences in the lives of people from one part of the world to the other, is so staggeringly huge, that for once, you will start questioning how that can be possible.
And I don’t mean cultural differences. I don’t even mean lifestyle differences. What I mean is the difference in the state of fulfilment of even the basic needs. Food, clothes and shelter are the basic needs of any human and among these, food and water are the most important.
Today, 1 in 9 people in the world, is suffering from chronic undernourishment and it’s a huge failure of our civilisation, that despite having the means at our disposal, such is the reality of our world.
World Hunger - Some Facts
The total population of the world is around 7.3 billion people. Of these, there are around 795 million people, who are in a state of hunger, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.
That is a lot of hungry people. There are two reasons which are affected the most in terms of the numbers and they are Africa and Asia. Africa has 232.5 million people, or 1 in 5, that are undernourished and Asia has 511.7 million people, or about 1 in 8 people, that are hungry.
Even in the developed parts of the world, there are 14.7 million people affected by a lack of nourishment which is around 1 in 20 people. So, as you can see, the situation is pretty dire!
All this is despite the fact that the world produces enough food to feed every single one of us. Food availability has improved quite a bit from just a decades ago, inspite of the expanding world population, but the major problem is that people just don’t have sufficient income to buy that food and this is where my next point comes in.
War - A Black Hole For Funds
I came across a video on Youtube that was talking about the insane amount of money that the different countries of the world were spending on their military, and I was left disgusted.
According to a list by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the total world military expenditure for 2016, was $1.68 trillion dollars. Yes, with a capital T!!
Now, I am not saying that all of this spending is a total waste. Of course, countries would want to keep themselves safe in case of any turmoil or even for strategic advantages or influence in the geopolitical landscape.
But, if you take a look at the numbers, you just can’t help but feel that it is just too much and the world would be a much better place if even a percentage of that spending could be allocated towards solving world hunger or world poverty, which is really the root of all other problems.
There is a popular meme that goes around social media that it would take $30 billion per year, every year, to solve world hunger. Most experts believe that, that number is too low and there isn’t any ways of measuring the exact number it would take.
But, even if the number is say, double that, and it would take like $60 or even $100 billion a year, to solve the problem, or mitigate it by a considerable amount, wouldn’t that take just a little bit of reallocation of funds? I mean if the world came together on this, and instead of spending $1.68 billion on their militaries and “only” spent $1.58 billion, it would mean food for hundreds of millions of people!! The US alone could solve the entire world hunger problem by lowering its $611 billion in spending to $511 billion!!
It shocks me that the world is not already doing that and that is my major concern towards the direction we are headed as a species. Are we more interested in blowing people up for various agendas than a peaceful world where all are fed?
Yep.. money should be shared wisely. I think that military is not less important but people first, right?
Yes, that's correct. Plus I think spending it on people's welfare would really decrease the hostility in the world.
If you look at the "well fed" parts of society today in the USA, look at all the drama and nonsense going on in public.
How many "World stars" do we see who are all well fed. I think the over populated cities and the economy causes this to happen.
Well if you solve world hunger. What do we do about all the drama and "world stars" next?
A lot of hungry people who are fed will want something other than food next. What would that be?
I am not saying hunger isn't important, it really is.. But when you approach one thing at a time, it is important to look at what you might have to deal with "next" and be ready for it.
You make a good point and to that I would say that, I think we should instead attack the root cause i.e. poverty. Because if you solve poverty, then people will not only have the means to be well fed but to pursue other directions in life as well.
wouldn't help.
the reason there is 'world hunger' is because of political corruption.
there is plenty of food.
politicians are controlled by multi national who sponsor them to power to do their bidding. ending poverty and hunger is not in their agenda, it wont make them rich
ah...you believe in some hidden controlling force.
at one time it was called GAWD...but that fell out of fashion so it was called something else.
multinational or globalism is cute.
tell me...how many virgins should we sacrifice to satiate the volcano today?
You'll have to wait your turn, sir.
Agreed! Corruption is the main cause of all the problems..
Well I also do agree with you .
I totally agree to that. You know, I don't know where but I had read that if all the so called "charity organisations" used every dollar they got for the actual charity work, much of the problem would be solved already, but I'm sure the money doesn't go where it was intended to go.
I read the same thing.
Eighty to ninety percent of what they rake in goes to 'overhead'
Translation: nice houses, cars, a lavish lifestyle, and a big salary.
haha exactly!!
I hear what you are saying...it blows my mind when I see the dichotomy in the world...on one hand people with more money than they will ever spend...on the other hand...people with not enough food on the table...perhaps blockchains like Steemit will do a better job of connecting people to people...I'm not a believer in governments acting like Robin Hood to accomplish this...unfortunately it seems as long as human beings are allowed to "run" things...it becomes about power and control and personal accumulation. It is astounding to see whole countries in this day and age completely controlled by tyrants...at the complete expense of their citizens...so the only solace I have is to do what I can within my little sphere...maintain a belief there is more good than bad in the world since if it was tipped more than 50% the other way...I don't think we'd still exist as a species and we generally only hear the bad stuff...and very hyped at that...
Yeah, I hate the contrast as well, especially when it is as stark as it is right now. It is really the inability of the governments, in my honest opinion. I guess, one day AI could replace all government structure and then things could be right?
fight corruption.. the world will not hunger brother my
True that.
Thanks!
I guess the world leaders are not interested in well being of everybody, especially in the well being of the poor or else nobody can explain the hudge investments in military stuff instead of charity projects, echological actions and all these good care of everything on this planet, care that we miss so much. We first may need investments in education, to eradicate the hate from cultures that differ and people who do not agree eachother, only this way we will reach harmony and true peace!
Yes, the world leaders are not interested in that at all. Why spend the money on the poor on whom you won't make any returns right? Instead of that, they use the money to gain influence in the world. It's all just a big power play and that is sad.
611 billion dollars?? That really can solve this problem...
I know, right? It's a shame.
Yes indeed it's a shame. But not just for America it's for all of the people in the world. What if there is no border no fences all are humans. Humans who can feel the feelings of another human. Our world would become heaven :)
If only the world wasn't run by evil we would already be well past this. People need to realize there is food everywhere, and it's free! Sadly we were taught to pluck weeds from the ground and throw them away. But really, what we should be doing is letting them grow deep into the ground so the roots can absorb the much needed nutrients that we can only get from foods grown with deep underground roots. I cure peoples' cancer with this alone. No foods, no pills, no surgery needed. They are out there on all six continents for anyone to freely eat too.
Also, in your graph I feel that hunger and undernourished are two different things. My studies show that North America is the most undernourished continent, but also the most overfed.
Yeah, the world is run by evil for sure. We already have the means and it's just a matter of proper allocation which the elites have all but messed up, hoarding everything for themselves.
oddly enough..we are also living longer. (Live expectancy is almost eighty increasing every year...until Obama happened..)
We can get thousand posts and comment on this topic but what really needed is practice and real world initiatives to tackle this problem, world politics need problems to discuss on global platform and not solutions, that's where all problem lies
Yeah, totally right. And the sad part is that no matter what the public does or how much it talks about this, the governments of the world will just keep doing what they have always done.