Our Needs​—Can Governments Fill Them?

SUFFICIENT food to eat, pure water to drink, suitable clothing to wear and a house to live in​—these are basic necessities of life. Around the world, under every kind of economic system, people strive for these basic needs.

Do you spend most of your waking hours trying to get them? Does the government of the land you live in adequately provide the means to obtain them? What is the record, worldwide, of governments in this regard?

Food to Eat

“At least some 450 million people​—perhaps as many as a billion—​have less food than is necessary for basic survival.”​—Scientific American.

“Changes in the average U.S. diet during this century have amounted to a wave of malnutrition . . . that could damage health by being a causal factor in hypertension and chronic diseases.”​—Testimony by physicians, nutritionists and scientists to a US Senate Select Committee.

Water to Drink

“Over half the peoples of the Third World do not have safe water to drink.”​—Earthscan, as quoted in World Press Review.

“The river [Rhine, source of drinking water for 18 million Europeans] carries away the wastes of 60 million people . . . In 1973, some 55 per cent of the waste water was not treated or only partially treated before being discharged into the river.”​—World Health (magazine of the World Health Organization).

“The ground water in much of the [United States is] being threatened by widespread contamination from toxic organic chemicals.”​—The New York Times.

Clothing and Shelter

Around the world “800 million are without housing.”​—El Tiempo, Colombia.

In one relatively stable South American land “more than half [the population] . . . have no decent clothing, live in miserable homes and lack supplies of drinking water.”​—El Espectador, Colombia.

Why Do These Shortages Persist?

Governments give many reasons for these shortages. See if you think that they are valid.

1. Much malnutrition is blamed on ignorance. People just do not know the correct foods to eat.

2. Some say there is enough food in the world but that, as a news report shows, “lack of transport, and not of food, is one of the main reasons for famine and malnutrition in the Third World.”

3. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) claims that slow negotiations and protectionist policies restrict the access of developing countries to the markets of developed countries.

4. Many nations find themselves having to choose between buying armaments and providing needed food for the poor. The money spent annually on the world’s armaments “would be enough to satisfy the basic necessities of the Third World until the year 2000 . . . The smallest savings in defense costs would make it possible to supply drinking water​—an essential element for life—​to 1,200 million people. With the resources used to build and operate one modern submarine, 450,000 modest homes could be built.”​—El Tiempo.

A Basic Reason

You may agree that the above problems contribute to the difficulties in providing the necessities for mankind. But behind them lies something more basic: This system of things encourages everyone to be totally self-centered. Individuals ‘look after number one.’ Commercial interests pollute the environment in the pursuit of profit. Social groups jealously guard their privileges and are unwilling to make sacrifices to help those less fortunate. Nations fiercely defend their sovereignty and promote their own interests, no matter who else suffers.

It is evident that international cooperation of the highest quality is required if the basic necessities of all mankind are going to be supplied. In the present system of things no one but the most idealistic thinks that such cooperation will ever take place. Do you, honestly?

Is There a Solution?

Yes, there is. But it comes from a source that many do not recognize. It may even surprise you.