World Poverty

The problem of poverty throughout the world is tragic. Doubly so, since as Jeffrey Sachs shows, the problem could be largely solved with the help of the international community. Unfortunately, it doesn't rank high on the priorities of most Americans.

"Those are other people. They're not Americans," we tend to think.

But, perhaps we should start thinking about one of the ghastly consequences of this poverty that may come back to haunt us in the future. The poverty, squalor, and lack of sanitation that exist throughout the world provide the perfect breeding ground for potential worldwide disease pandemics such as the threat we now face from bird flu. Obviously, it's too late to prevent the bird flu from migrating to human-to-human transmission if it's going to do so, but we may well be able to reduce the risk of the next disease pandemic by taking a leadership role in solving this problem.

Let's face it, for this, as well as for many other reasons, it's in our own self-interest to solve this problem. If we can't get Americans to worry about the plight of "foreigners" at least maybe we can get them to worry about their own plight.