How Rich Are You?

I work part time. I consider myself to be a 'starving student'. My income still puts me in the top 11% of wage earners in the world. I am the 669,642,941 richest person on earth. There are over 6.7 BILLION people on earth.

I'm feeling a little guilty for spending $350 on software (most of which I probably won't ever *need*). There are so many better places my money could be going right now...

Ending the worlds poverty can solve so many problems. We throw our donations at organizations that attempt to get a pair of shoes on every young one who needs them, or organizations that help to give educations to girls in developing countries. We don't stopp and think that if they were not barely able to feed themselves, they would be able to afford a pair of shoes for their kids and be absolutely willing to send their kids to school. Once a higher percentage of people is educated, they can grow their own economy and solve their people's problems on their own. We're trying to fix the outward symptoms of an underlying problem.

A snippet from the Global Rich List:

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.