Is the United Nations' goal to end poverty by 2015 realistic?

I lol’d.

Though I support them in their efforts. End as much poverty as you can. But end all of it in 5 years? Highly unlikely. You should see how many African countries are doing today. That’s a lot of poverty to end.

Now, I love seeing countries improve. Take Angola for example. A poor African country that just got over a decades-long civil war. Well, Angola now has the fastest growing economy in the world. They went from the 167th most developed country in the world to 143rd in one year. The biggest jump I’ve ever seen a country make in one year. They paved over 3000 miles of highways, they’re building tons of new apartment buildings in the capital city to move people out of slums. It’s amazing. But it takes time.

@DominicX Good point. I’m not aware of a lot countries eager to hand out billions in foreign aid willingly at the moment.

Definitely not. It’s an admirable goal but it’s ridiculous to think it will be achieved in 5 years.

Ridiculous. They would have to take over the government of every country on the planet to reroute resources and to make sure the resources are used properly and even then the 5 year timetable is next to impossible to fulfill.
And besides, the UN is basically a US institution, as they can veto any decision they don’t like due to their large share of votes. Capitalism in the west is dependent on poverty in other countries. There is a reason why they shift jobs into poor countries, and that reason is that they can pay people there less, make them work more with less restrictions and regulations. Eliminating poverty globally would eradicate that advantage for the corporations, increase costs dramatically and kill profits. And since the US is a corporate oligarchy, they will block such attempts.

The UN is so corrupt as to be ludicrous.

If they said the sky is blue, I would not believe them.

Even if they were not lying through their teeth, that lofty goal is impossible.

The true is that very few countries are motivated to end poverty ever.

The multinational corporations that have a powerful influence in so many countries can see no profit for them in ending poverty.

The theocracies who run other countries have no greater commitment to ending poverty in their countries.

No, cause the world is gonna ‘asplode, remember?
~

Was Hitler just a nice guy and everyone just misunderstood him?

You answer that and you answer your question too.

No…

There you go.

Congratulations @Dan_DeColumna, you win the Godwin’s Law trophy.

If I’m not mistaken this is a topic that has been questioned many times, even by the UN themselves. And If I’m not mistaken on this either, the UN realized it wasn’t going to happen before 2015, but didn’t want to move the deadline either because that would send the wrong signal. Because no one ever finishes their work until they can see the deadline.

Not even close. It would take that long just to get into the legal and bureaucratic sides of the thing. Building infrastructure in third-world countries would take more than five years, and redistribution has its own problems (like sovereignty, and the fact that a person will give generously but will not appreciate what amounts to a foreign power taking money from him). And the bigger an entity, the more money it takes to do anything. Even if the UN were to scalp the more prosperous nations of the world, most of that would get sucked into administrative costs.

If poverty ended, our whole global economic structure – which relies on exploiting people – would collapse.

Nope.

Did the Star Ship Enterprise land? Beam me up Scotty! This is going to be a bumpy ride.
It has as much chance of happening as me going up in a shuttle. :(

Nah, poverty has increased since they agreed on that goal. I think they need Batman for that to happen, and he is nowhere to be found.

No. Because people by nature are greedy and self indulgent. Until we find a way to truly let go of our selfish ways we will always have this rift between the have’s and the have nots. Also the idea of currency will always keep us from truly achieving this goal.

50 years.

Can I have some of whatever it is that they are smoking?

@hiphiphopflipflapflop hahahahahaha