The Dimension of Poverty

TLDR: For example, this article argued that the two are sildes of the proverbial coin and that the experience of the one has meaning for the other, and the present troubles of the domestic "war on povetty" do not diminish the value of the comparison.

Abstract: TOWARD the end of the Administration of Lyndon Johnson it became briefly popular to talk about programs for eliminating poverty at home versus programs for mitigating poverty abroad. But it can also be argued that the two are sildes of the proverbial coin and that the experience of the one has meaning for the other. The present troubles of the domestic "war on povetty" do not diminish the value of the comparison. If anything, they enhance the need to consider the programs together. The rationale for attacking poverty is much the same at home and abroad though better recognized domestically. The simple moral argument that the rich have an obligation to help the poor ("God says so," says a senior developmenrt scholar of my acquaintance not entirely facetiously) is perhaps more compeliling than it is fashionable to admit. And the connection between poverty and insecurity for the rich has been made frequently. While the urgency of attacking domestic poverty is easier for Americans to see-after all, our cities are burningthe argument on the international plane is still obvious enough. Basically, we must simply recognize ithat we are in the business of building a community, a sense of shared purpose and shared destiny, both at home and abroad. The central values of our own civilization permit no less. "Anti-commitment," as Harlan Cleveland says, is "irrelevant."' At home we have long accepted the proposition that a community musit take responsibility for the welfare of all its members and that this will require some form of concerted action in favor of the weak and the poor. If nothing else so dictates, the familiar shrinkage of our planet requires that we apply the same reasoning to the world at large. It would be foolish to convince ourselves that the problem is simply one of economics. "This is the decade of the Negro's claim to full equality in all aspects of American life," James Tobin