Great Uncle Fred, why are there poor people in the world? (Anonymous Young Person, Autumn 2009)

The world is unfair. And that`s the way we like it. I mean, if everyone was just as clever, just as lucky, just as beautiful, just as rich, just as funny, as everyone else, then we would all be bored stiff. We want everyone to be different, and in about a million different ways. The amount of money that people have is just one of those ways. Some people are richer than other people. That`s the way it is. It is probably less important or interesting a way to be different than many other ways but it can make people unhappy, to be poor. But being rich does not always make people happy. Some people are happy poor and then they become rich and that makes them unhappy; some people are happy poor until they start thinking that they want to be rich; the richer you are, the more likely you are to want more money. Unless you spend all your time thinking about it, or your health is suffering because you do not have enough of it, money does not really make a difference to what really matters. But if you are dying of hunger because you have no money, well, that just should not happen. There is enough food for everyone in the world and we just need to be better at getting the food to everyone. There are poor people in the world because everyone in the world is different and nothing is fair but if the poor people are suffering badly because they are poor, that is something that all of us, including you and me, need to be doing something about. I hope that answers your question.

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