Web Letters: Doing the Recovery Right

I would like to encourage Congress to increase funding for fighting global poverty. The Borgen Project has some great facts and ideas to help global poverty.

Thirty billion dollars to eliminate global poverty; $522 billion on the US defense budget.

There are 800 million people that go to sleep hungry every day; 300 million are children.

Melissa Cave
The Borgen Project

Seattle, WA

Nobody can even define "global warming" nor can they state its cause nor can they prove its a problem and they have no clue as to the cost to "fix" it.

Its all emotional nonsense.

So, to state that environmentalism is an "effective engine of economic growth" is as useful as stating that paying people to dig holes and fill them back up is also an "effective engine of economic growth."

Both sound silly.

Tim Stevens

New York, NY

We cannot help anyone by driving down the standard of living and wages of American workers. The engine of the American economy is consumer spending. The outsourcing of American industries and jobs means no one has the disposable income to support the American market. Development for any country occurs behind trade barriers. This is how America became an industrial powerhouse. If you want countries to really develop, you should encourage them to impose trade barriers behind which their infant industries or products can be protected and nourished. Foreign trade should be limited to items that cannot be produced within the country. The world's economy needs to be decentralized. With the globalized dependence on trade, when one part fails, the whole structure is in danger of collapse. When an independent national economy fails, this failure does not involve the whole world. These are simple concepts and not difficult to understand. World trade as a concept defies micromanagement and -organization.

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA

"As the Obama administration begins spending in the range of $150 billion to create jobs and fight global warming ..."

I understand how vital it is to fix the economic crisis domestically, and I agree that we put forth a big effort to do so. However, we also need to look past our own borders and realize that it is equally important to help others in need, especially those countries in poverty--the people living there suffer the most. Those who live on less than a dollar a day are greatly influenced by the high food prices and failing economies. If something is not done soon, global poverty will spiral out of control.

Learn more about this issue and what we can do to fight it at the Borgen Project website.

Yelena Sidorko
Borgen Project

Seattle, WA