A more intelligent topic might be conducted on the basis that "Violation of Human rights causes Poverty".

With Ethiopian farmers facing tax rates of 89%, then theft is institutionalised and poverty assured. With land confiscation destroying the economy and human well being in Zimbabwe what starker reminder do we need of the poverty that is created when the statists trample the rights of individuals?

Free people rarely suffer from poverty. It requires a mindless philosphy of statist excess to really rub peoples face in the dirt.

It is strange that people want to globalise a system that has caused such misery, especially when they proclaim it as some kind of cure

Just as the violation of economic rights is structurally institutionalised in world trade agreements, and domestic political regimes, the solution to this problem requires sustained institutional reform, at the local and international level.

Therefore while private poverty reduction programmes via the NGO community will have a substantial and growing effect on world poverty, there is a real need to create enforceable economic rights at international law, such that the stakeholders in the international economic community are held accountable for culpable failure to provide guaranteed minimum living standards, on a global scale.

There needs to be a realisation of genuine social security at the international level, as failure to act in this area constitutes a real crime against humanity.

If we look at the "centres of poverty" around the world we will see alot similarities, just as we see alot of similarities in the "rich nations".

The excesses of dictators and despots need to be not just curbed but terminated.

Tribal nepotism needs to be eradicated

Democratic institutions need to be respected and supported.

Respect for individuals needs to be paramount.

If you want to do anything you have to have the authority to act.

Simply blaming rich countries for the shortcomings of poor countries is a pseudo-socialist guilt trip mixed up with paternalistic twaddle.

The real problem is, nowadays, "re-colonialisation" would be frowned upon.

The socialist mindset recommends a form of policy poison as a cure. Global social security would be a disaster, not progress.

The most sacred form of property is the individuals ownership of their own labour. This should be a most obvious and basic right that we defend. So long as excessive taxes continue to aggresively confiscate the fruits of individuals labour then nations will remain on a slow or zero growth path.

The key to having a high wage and prospereous nation is an abundance of capital in all its forms. When the capital to labour ratio is high then so are wages. So taxing capital is another foolish endeavour.

Prosperity is built when governments are honest and lean. Unfortunately the third world suffers from fat and dishonest government.

Yes, there was no mention of poor countries taking some responsibility themselves.Govt corruption, aid used for war, and making no attempt at birth control.No aid should be given unless these issues are addressed.

The bleeding hearts have just made the problem worse.

The following article comes close to the real truth about African poverty.

http://www.wanniski.com/PrintPage.asp?TextID=4544

EXTRACT:-

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~ 15 children die of starvation every day in Niger, that of every 1000 children born there, 262 fail to reach their fifth birthday, and that $300 million in the world’s annual aid to the 12 million people of Niger goes mainly to “debt relief,”

~ I went to my sources to check on Niger’s tax system. I found that ... the top rate of 52% is encountered at about $600 per year!! Capital gains is taxed at ordinary rates, which means that virtually any investment in the country that produces a gain means more than half goes to the government. Of course there is no investment under those conditions, and I will assure you that the government gets no revenue from the capital gains tax… and that it pays its tax collectors more to collect the income-tax than they receive in revenue.

~

What really blew my mind, though, was finding that Niger’s Value-Added Tax, which until April was 17% ON TOP of the confiscatory rates on income, was increased to 19% in April in the midst of the famine and starvation!! There were so many riots across Niger, twice the size of Texas, that within a week the government decided to exempt a few items from the tax. But there is zero chance the people of Niger can climb out of the deep pit the IMF and World Bank has dug for it unless YOU make it happen.
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In Australia you have to earn about A$1800 per week before they tax you at 50 cents in the dollar. In Niger it happens as soon as you earn more than A$16 per week.

And their GST is nearly double ours.

Their kids are starving to death on our TVs and their government wants to take half their income!! What an awful situation.

Terje and Arjay rightly stress that many poor countries are very badly governed. I discuss this fact myself, arguing that — contrary to what Terje and Arjay seem to think — it does not relieve us in the affluent countries of responsibility for persisting world poverty (see third to last paragraph in text).

It does not relieve us of responsibility because global institutional arrangements we uphold encourage, stabilize, and aggravate tyrannical rule in many poor countries: Under the existing global rules, any person or group possessing effective power in a country is internationally recognized as entitled to sell the country’s natural resources and to borrow abroad, all in the name of the country’s people. These privileges are granted even to clearly illegitimate regimes — such as the military junta in Myanmar — who came to power by force and continue to rule by force against the clearly expressed will of the overwhelming majority of the population. By being given the privilege to sell the country’s natural resources and to borrow in its name, such rulers can acquire the money they need to pay for weapons and soldiers that help them stay in power. The people under their reign are harmed three times over: The natural resources of their country are lost, a national debt is accumulated, and the power of their oppressive rulers is increased. By what right do we enable tyrants to do this?

A complementary story could be told about how our banks, eagerly and legally, help third-world officials in exporting and hiding funds they embezzle (see Raymond Baker: Capitalism's Achilles Heel, for an insider's account).

You say that poor countries need to take some responsibility themselves. What does this mean? Is it the people's fault that they cannot get rid of their tyrants who buy soldiers and weapons (mostly from the West) with funds we lend them or pay them for the country's resources?

Only if we stop facilitating tyrannical and exploitative rulers will the people in the poor countries have a chance to govern themselves democratically. And then they should indeed take responsibility for their fate.