Reflection #10: Dr. J.W. Smith Lecture

It was difficult for me to fully understand Dr. Smith’s lecture because I felt he was really scolding the class about poverty and who is at fault. Although I agreed with much of what he was saying it was difficult for me to follow along because I felt the he was critiscizing everything else. I understand his title says “Dr.” on it, and becoming a doctor is a difficult and tedious task but I just couldn’t fully grasp what was being said. I reviewed his lecture by visiting the website that was posted by Dr. Lim and found the information much easier to grasp. The three reasons which Dr. Smith mentioned that were the cause of poverty were great points. The reason that I thought was the most important was that we as a society are “culturally trained to unsustainable conspicuous consumption”.  Americans are very capitalist people. We want everything and at any cost. When we consume, we do not necessarily think of the consequences.

War was another point by Dr. Smith as a cause of poverty. Billions of dollars have been spent to still be part of the war. I strongly believe the money being spent is being spent in vein because we are still in the war just to save face. There is no need for the American government ot continue its part in the war. But we will not disengage because America will be critiscized and we be seen as weak to the other countries. We need to stop using so much money on the war in Iraq.