Research Paper on "Economics Class and Morality"

Research Paper 10 pages (3362 words) Sources: 9

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Economic, Class And Morality

Economics, Class, and Morality

Introduction to Hunger and Famine

The world is confronting innumerable problems since the time humans have first walked on planet Earth; however, with the passage of time, these problems are intensifying and posing a horrendous threat to the subsistence and survival of human species. A fact that makes this concern more complex is that the problems are diverse in nature that is they belong to social, political as well as economic arenas. This means that grave attention and cooperation is required from world communities to address and mitigate them otherwise the consequences would surely be catastrophic (Austin 337-345).

Since the onset of twenty first century, patterns of life and growth have experienced unprecedented changes. This relates to an exponential increase in human population and decrease in available and exploitable resources. As a result, multiple enormities such as scarcity of good quality food, poverty, hunger, famine, associated illnesses and boost in the prevalence of undernourished individuals have heightened. Appallingly, all these issues have already resulted in several mortalities all around the world affecting people of all ages. Furthermore, these issues are required to be addressed with gravity or else they will continue to spread the disastrous impacts to eliminate the human existence (Maddocks 1-15).

A look around the globe brings the attention to the fact that problems of hunger and famine loom large mainly in the third world nations. Due to underdeveloped economy, poor social status, lack of government interest and intervention of affluent nations in these countries, populations largely languish in poverty and hunger. Moreover, natural disasters, lack of sophisticated machinery for cultivation of consumer crops and overpopulation also contribute to the cause of hunger and famine (Hilliard, 2011).

Studies reveal that the amount of food produced worldwide is sufficient to be consumed by all the global inhabitants, yet, unfortunate fact remains that considerable number of individuals suffers from hunger and significant malnourishment prevails amongst them. Furthermore, due to global warming, the frequency of natural disasters such as earth quake, floods and droughts have skyrocketed and adverse impacts have further worsened, which destroys food crops and livestock causing famine in the region. Furthermore, scarcity of resources such as finance for rehabilitating the disaster affected region causes the denizens to survive serious hunger (Hilliard, 2011).

Reports depict that the cycle of hunger persists from generation to generation, as the lack of resources and economic meltdown that affects the global economy continues to prevail and specifically embrace the people of third world nations into its ever deteriorating effects. Consequently, those who are already facing numerous problems being citizens of developing nations are further forced to tolerate the brunt of famine and hunger (Onino, 2011).

Furthermore, many nations around the world still rely on traditional methods of agriculture; therefore, they could not produce a large amount of crops and livestock that they can sell to earn profits. Moreover, lack of roads and irrigation systems mostly in underdeveloped and developing countries lead to problems of transporting agricultural outputs from farmlands to markets. Additionally, in many regions that have the properly developed infrastructure, the cost of transportation of goods to the local markets as well as shipping them to other countries is very high; hence, shortage of food in the market occurs and thus hunger prevail in those areas (Onino, 2011).

Another feature that causes hunger is the absence of adequate storage places for stocking up food that can be used afterwards during the time of drought or famine. Governments of third world countries are so engrossed in stabilizing the economy that they fail to realize that investment of funds in development of storage facilities can diminish food crisis. This is because whenever the country over produces food, it can be stored properly to be used in the times of food shortages. However, lack of attention and funds are mostly conducive to decomposition of food that becomes wasted and consequently hunger crisis develop whenever drought occurs (Onino, 2011).

In this regard, the thesis statement claims "Contrary to what thinkers and theorists have argued; hunger and famine are often experienced in the United States as a significant problem apart from the third world countries."

2. Issue of Hunger in the United States

United States is considered to be one of the developed, powerful and rich countries of the world. However, looking at the gloomy side of the land of plenty, hunger and famine is one of its frightful and alarming realities. The facts and figures have brought the fact to the forefront that millions of Americans (including infants, children, adults and elderly) are suffering from the scarcity of food, which makes them struggle from hunger (World Hunger Education Service, 2012).

An aspect to consider is that issue of hunger is common in those developing and developed nations such as United States that mainly rely on imported food items. The reason behind it is that the imported commodities are expensive, as the taxes increase their sale price whereas the majority of population is not rich enough to afford them. Therefore, poor individuals of the population do not get enough eatables at reasonable prices; thus, they face hunger (Wilson 29-45).

Together with the topographical, natural and economic factors, many man-made aspects are also involved in creating hunger and famine. History illustrates that army men have employed hunger as a tool to capture lands of the opponent party. In this regard, soldiers used to destroy food resources, farmlands and water reserves to cause the inhabitants to face serious food shortages that eventually coerced the locals to abscond their land for survival (Wilson 29-45).

Nonetheless, it has been estimated that human causes of hunger have drastically escalated during past couple of decades including the rise of hunger due to wars and conflicts. Inventions of complicated arms and weapons have made wars more deadly. As a consequence, countless people have migrated from their current residence. Furthermore, many people have lost homes, as they have been destroyed in the incidences of bombing, shelling and drone attacks (Wilson 29-45).

Similarly, destroyed lands become less productive and at instances lose its fertility completely; thus, crops cannot be grown on them. As an outcome of all these conditions and incidences, severe hunger crisis have been generated all around the world, which are not only affecting the developing and underdeveloped regions but also developed nations such as United States are feeling its effects (Wilson 29-45).

Hunger and famine issue in the United States have been witnessed to an escalated level from the time the world encountered one of the most overwhelming issues of the financial and economic crisis. This means that the eruption of the financial crisis left an indelible imprint on the populace of the United States, which made them fall under hunger at a dramatic speed. Indeed, this rapid raise in the hunger still remains one of the grave issues that need serious attention and consideration (World Hunger Education Service, 2012).

From the statistical records of the recent years, it has come to notice that almost fifteen percent of the households of the U.S. have been insecure with respect to food and hunger, which is considered to be the highest in the history of the country. One of the major reasons that the populace of United States experienced hunger and famine in the recent years is the increasing poverty level, which has raised with an accelerated pace. The poverty level in the U.S. is measured as the largest in comparison to the last fifty years, according to the reports of United States Census Bureau (World Hunger Education Service, 2012).

Trade is considerably another prime reason that adds to the hunger issue within the realm of the United States. Since the developing and underdeveloped nations have ample of labor with low wages, thus the rich countries like the U.S. are shifting their production units to such poor countries in order to lower down their overall costs. This shift of jobs is making the lower income residents of the United States vulnerable to issues like hunger (World Hunger Education Service, 2012).

Moreover, the economic conditions of the kingdom have also largely contributed to the hunger problem within the nation. This is particularly due to the reason that the level of competition in the free enterprise economy has elevated, which only provides employment to the people who are most qualified. Consequently, the low income people are left unemployed, as they do not get the opportunity to obtain the high quality education. This eventually confirms that the significant amount of unemployed people fall under the category of least qualified or low-income group (World Hunger Education Service, 2012).

One cannot ignore the fact that the United States is a huge country with culturally diverse people. This cultural diversity often becomes cultural inequality that segregates the people into different races. This also signifies that people of particular races are much likely to experience lack of income, poor housing, lack of food, poor health facilities which turn out in health enormities and various… READ MORE

How to Reference "Economics Class and Morality" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Economics of Strategy Term Paper

economic crisis -- bankers to blame?

Be it resolved that bankers in developed economies are responsible for the global economic downturn and have behaved without moral integrity.

To blame bankers… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1166 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

Crisis as an Inevitable Feature of Capitalism Essay

Economics

Crisis as an Inevitable Feature of Capitalism

What were the immediate and long-term causes of the current political economic crisis?

Today's economic and financial crisis began in the rich… read more

Essay 13 pages (4733 words) Sources: 13 Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

History of Economic Thought Term Paper

History Of Economic Thought

Provide a clear summary of the main ideas of the major 18th Century French economists and show how many of their ideas foreshadowed the thinking of… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (858 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

Wto/Imf International Economic Cooperation Without a Doubt Thesis

Wto/Imf

International Economic Cooperation

Without a doubt, the most important factor in the Group of Eight nations (G8), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are… read more

Thesis 2 pages (451 words) Sources: 0 Style: Harvard Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

History of Economics the Way Science Advances Essay

History Of Economics

The Way Science Advances

The need for advancements is obvious at all of stages of life; what is however interesting at this stage refers to the processes… read more

Essay 4 pages (1229 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>