The Ugley Vicar blogs about the Millennium Development Goals and asks the question, Even assuming these goals could be met, what happens next?
If we define poverty as people with an income below $2 per day, we could eradicate poverty by giving everyone $3 per day. But have we really solved anything? In Australia the Henderson Poverty Line for a family with two adults (one working) and two children is $661.45 per week. People struggle to get by because of the high cost of living. The problem is that when incomes go up, the cost of living goes up, and poverty is not solved. Jesus said, You will always have the poor among you (John 12:8).
Poverty is a subject of vital importance to followers of Jesus. We are called to serve the poor, and I think we should be pursuing that with as much passion, diligence and effectiveness as we can. However, it seems to me that Make Poverty History is simply not an achievable goal, because poverty is a concept with moving goalposts.