Poverty Money And Love Analysis

In Jessica Jackely’s TED talk titled, “ Poverty, money—and love”, she explains the origins of Kiva— a microfinance community—and discuses a new solution to the idea of poverty, one that does not just look at monetary gains. First, she explains how she first learned about the poor when she was six years old , by attending Sunday School. She discussed how from an early age she was taught to help the poor—give them foods, money, and clothes. She explains how over time her perspective poor became negative. She explained how she, like many Americans, feel guilty, and would donate to the poor to relieve her own guilt and suffering. She then was inspired by Dr. Yunus, and began to volunteer in East Africa. While in East Africa she interview entrepreneurs …show more content…
First, the narrators explain how Dr.Ehrlich, author of the The Population Bomb became a very popular figure. The narrators note how he frequently went on late night TV shows and talked to the audience about the dangers of overpopulation. During the 1970s environmental degradation were easy to see—pollution, famine, construction of landfills etc.— and environmentalist stressed that these problems were linked to the large population. It is worth noting that during this decade the baby boomers were beginning to have children. Dr. Ehrlich helped found the Zero Population Growth and the organization quickly grew. It aimed to at getting the government to create a position on population. Additionally, the video notes that President Johnsons, through his “War on Poverty” programs began to help promote family planning by subsiding birth control. Next, the video explains how overpopulation became a key issue in the 1968 presidential election. The narrator explains how President Nixon signed multiple environmental regulations into law, and he created the National Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. The speakers in the video emphasizes how originally the issue was non-partisan, and then business, industries, the religious right, and African American groups began to have doubts about the findings of the …show more content…
I have always admired President Nixon for passing environmental regulations and establishing the EPA. However, this video warns us that issues can quickly become partisan, thus any policy surrounding the issue will be controversial and tough to pass. In my opinion, it is scary that essential problems like rapid population growth is controversial, because this means it is difficult to pass laws and policy. Additionally, since this divide, population control hasn’t been addressed and nobody sees it as a environmental problem. I would argue that the divide of parties during the Nixon administration still lingers today ( for example Climate Change policy is still a very partisan issue). Overall, I would argue this video is cautionary tale of politicalizing a big issue. When ever scientific issues enters politics there seems to be two sides (or more) when in reality there probably should only be one. In short, this video warns us that when an issues becomes a partisan political issue, then it is less likely to see an policy change; therefore, it is essential that the country remain united on environmental issues, and not let political divisions stop us from helping the