Dig new ground to uproot hunger
So much good work and sincere effort goes into trying to alleviate food insecurity and other conditions that result in living precarious lives, yet attacking the root of the problem seems lost in our unending efforts and good intentions. Food banks, food drives, community suppers, Christmas hampers, temporary shelters – these are all certainly helpful and often lifesaving for people in need. These bandaid solutions, however, will be permanent fixtures until we deal with why people are in need. For the most part, the answer is actually quite simple. It’s because people do not have enough money. And lack of access to healthy food and financial insecurity are as certain as death if we allow the very economic system that creates poverty to prevail. This is why I believe we need to target the root of the problem. And how might we do that? First, we should face the elephant in the room. The unequal distribution of wealth is a created reality not a natural one and there are, in fact, enough resources in the world for everyone. When grocery stores and restaurants are full of food, no one should be hungry. When properties are vacant, no one should be without a home or sleeping on the street. Some solutions are maddeningly evident if the will were there to implement them. Within the existing system – as imperfect as it is – would be a guaranteed income for all. Another would be to raise the minimum wage to a living one for all workers, and the third to raise Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Payments. Expanding our thinking beyond the current paradigm, including a shift of power to workers and the creation of different economic systems and relations is the only way longterm social change can happen. Dismantling for-profit corporations and halting the increasing commodification of almost every need and interaction, as well as ending the financialization of the commons would be good starting points as well. Creating worker managed and operated businesses, fostering cooperation rather than competition, focusing on providing needs-based products, free sharing of resources and exchange of services – these are all ideas that could help break the endless cycles of poverty and inequality. If we are serious about creating a better world, we can’t accept working within systems of oppressive power and inequality just because we try to do it with as much decency as possible. Those systems need to be confronted and dismantled while we build alternatives.
