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VIOLENCE IS . . .

Economic: when access to money and resources are used to control and deny others their rights and needs.

Three billion poor people around the world earn less than $2 a day and another 3 billion people are likely to be added to the population of developing countries by 2050.

The average income in the richest 20 countries is now 37 times that in the poorest 20. This ratio has doubled in the past 40 years, mainly because of lack of growth in the poorest countries.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — http://www.usccb.org/index.shtml

Economic Violence: Some Things You Should Know

We are living in tough economic times. Jobs are harder to come by and wages here and many places abroad are not keeping up with escalating costs and rising inflation. In many places around the world people are living on less than a dollar a day, as a consequence there is poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair. To complicate matters even more, we are witnessing one  of the most profound global financial collapses since the Great Depression.

How did we reach this distressing state of affairs? How do we account for such wealth here and in other westernn nations and so much poverty, struggle and inequality elsewhere? And how do we begin to change this equation and provide real economic opportunity and access to the rest of the world? The answers to these and other tough questions elude us still but one thing is now more certain than ever- we live in a new global economy and decisions that are made in one sector of the economy can and do have profound consequences for the whole. In other words, we must find a way to resolve the inequities so that a greater share of the world's people can make a living, feed, clothe and educate their children, have access to adequate healthcare and have work and wages that allow them to be self sufficient.

In a 2000 report, Oxfam issued the following summary statement. “Inequality is not just bad for social justice, it is also bad for economic efficiency.” If we just look around us we can see that every day this statement grows truer and the wisdom it conveys is more insistent that we do something — now.

Six million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of hunger.

Seventy pecent of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty around the world are female.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — http://www.usccb.org/index.shtml

SEE RED NOW in Action — Click Here.

You Can Make A Difference.

If you would like to help prevent violence please contact us.

A Few Things You Can Do About Economic Violence

  • Educate yourself about economic justice issues locally, nationally and globally.
  • Support legislation that seeks to provide a living wage and raises the standard of income for working people.
  • Since hunger and poverty go hand in hand, educate yourself about steps you can take to break this link by supporting organizations that work to bring food to the hungry and sustainable work to those in poverty.
  • So many of the hungry and the poor are children and women, educate yourself about organizations that are providing real income producing opportunities for women who support their families.
  • Buy fair trade products and goods that are made, marketed and sold by the actual producers, artisans and farmers whose labor should be fairly compensated.
  • Learn where your goods are made, don't buy goods from companies that don't support their workers, that don't maintain safe working conditions, that use child labor, that profit from conflict and war and that ruin the environment.
  • Join us at the first annual SeeRedNow Community Conference to be held on the University of Louisville Campus. For more information and to be added to the mailing list contact us here.