April 23, 2011

Over indulgence: Gym Meberships and Starbucks vs. World Hunger

Via Google
 
     Did you know that there are 925,000,000 hungry people right now? Almost 16,000 children died today just from hunger. That is 5,840,000 children dying per year, because of something so simple, and yet so necessary. Let me give you some more stats: Out of America's 308,745,538 citizens, about 45.3 million have gym memberships. The average yearly cost of a gym membership is $480. Now $480 per year is not enough to end world hunger. But if you take the $480 each of those 45.3 million people, the total amount of money is $21,600,000,000, which is enough to buy 100,000,000 50 lb. bags of rice.
It is approximately $26 for 50 lb bag of rice, and since the average person would need around 200 lbs per year, it would cost about $104 to buy one starving person’s food for a year.  That is more than enough to feed 5,840,000 children for a year. That is enough to feed 5,840,000 children for 35 years. Unbelievably, feeding all the hungry children for 35 years would only cost one year of America’s Gym memberships.
       Now am I against gym memberships? No, rather I am against indulgence. America has become such an indulgent country. It is fine if you want to spend $480 on a gym membership. However, that also means we should help starving children with just as much if not more with financial support. Another facet of this is how truly blessed America is. Did you know that the average below-poverty American citizen is more likely to have a TV, phone, air conditioner and computer than a middle-class European citizen? Also, if every single American citizen gave $5 per year to fight global hunger, ($0.41 per month) we could donate $15,372,690; enough to buy 5,837,411 50 lb bags of rice. If every American was willing to sacrifice $10 per year ($0.83 per month) We could buy over 116,474,822 50 lb bags of rice?
I believe if Americans were more willing to let go of their money, and stop selfishly hoarding (and wasting) their money, we would be able to not only end world hunger, but give starving people a new start, a way to get back up on their feet. I hopefully have gotten the point across that we as Americans, rather than focus on our wants, and ourselves should unselfishly share what we have been so graciously given and share it with others.
There are so many luxuries that America could simply cut back on, and it would end world hunger. i.e. Americans spend over 4 million dollars per DAY at Starbucks. If Every Coffee-Drinking American  gave up 1 day a month(12 days a year) of having Starbucks, and donated it to fight hunger, there would be a total of $48,000,000 dollars donated to fighting hunger. That would feed every starving child for 8 YEARS. Imagine if every Coffee Drinking American gave up coffee 1x a week.$208,000,000, enough to pay for every starving child's food for 35 years. That is only cutting out Starbucks one a week for the coffee drinking Americans. What about cutting it out altogether? That is 365 x $4,000,000 spent every day at Starbucks. That is enough to feed every starving child for, you won't believe this... 250 years. Which means, that ending world hunger is easily grasped, if we simply let a few luxuries fall first. I am not saying we can't ever buy a Starbucks, or go to a gym. Rather, I want to let people know that an end to starvation is close at hand!




1 comment:

Lucia said...

Whew. Libby, did you caculate all of this yourself?? That is so true, though..Americans are pretty spoiled. I try to set apart a certain amount of the money I earn babysitting/doing odd jobs and such, to give to missions.

~~Also, I don't really get why people need to go to gyms. I mean, you can excersise in the home or out on the street. I try to run at least five miles daily, and that is enough to keep me fit!! I guess gyms motivate people or something..ugg, *I* think treadmills are boring. :P

Anyways, thanks for this!

~Lucia Marie