Be thankful for things available; some children less fortunate

More stories from Morgan Barnes

People have to remember that everyone was not raised like they were. For those living in the United States, that can be a hard thought to process, but the commercials with the poor starving children in third world countries are real-life scenarios. Most children are not born with a refrigerator full of food in the kitchen in a house that they will call home. In fact, thp.org estimates that almost every 10 seconds, a child dies from diseases linked to hunger including various deficiencies. If you do the math, then that means that an estimated 8,640 children die each day as an effect of hunger related diseases.

The case for many, even in developed countries, is having to go miles to search for food or perhaps working all day just to get a small meal before sundown. For most, world hunger can be defined as the want or scarcity of food in a country. According to the thp.org, the world’s population is approximately 7 billion people. Now, it is shown that one in nine people in the world do not have enough to eat. Also, 98% of the world’s undernourished people live in developed countries. That means that only 2% of the world’s undernourished population lives in underdeveloped countries.

Walking down the street or even the high school hallway, one can hear grumbled complaints about how minimum wage needs to be raised or how it is similar to being paid little to nothing. The current minimum wage for Kansas is $7.25 per hour. While that may not seem like more than pocket change for some people, making that much in a day alone could be compared to winning the lottery for others in less fortunate situations. The thp.org shows that an estimated 896 million people, in developing countries live on $1.90 or less per day. Looking back, that $7.25 an hour seems like a lot more money than it did before, considering that money earned in an hour alone could last some families almost four days.

Statistics like these are something to think about when considering a day ruined after having to wait in line for 30 minutes at places like Starbucks or perhaps Chipotle. Maybe life is not so hard after all, but the aura seemingly surrounding the United States is clouding vision to what the world is really like.