Do the developed countries have a duty to eliminate poverty from developing countries?

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Do the developed countries have a duty to eliminate poverty from developing countries?
Introduction
Poverty is a state where the basic needs of people are not met. This state can be either of absolute poverty or relative poverty. Absolute poverty can be eradicated and involves a condition of destitution when individuals cannot get adequate resources to sustain the least level of physical health. It is always measured in terms of the amounts of calories that an individual can obtain. Relative poverty on the hand is a comparative approach that looks at situations where people cannot match up with the living standards of the larger population or the standards set by the government. Unlike absolute poverty, it is difficult to eradicate since it exists everywhere. Developed countries also called the north are industrialised nations including countries like Canada, France, U.K, U.S and Italy among others. Developing Countries also called the South are non-industrialised nations whose citizens rely on agriculture but who are seeking to advance both economically and socially (World Bank; World development report, 1990).
According to the World Bank, about a quarter of the world`s populace lives in poverty. People are dying worldwide each day due to poverty and related problems such as malnutrition, hunger and hunger related diseases (World Bank; World development report, 1990). The most striking fact is that, the majority of the affected populace if from South Asia, East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. For instance, the mortality rate in developing countries is about 170 deaths per a thousand while in developed countries it is less than 10. These has given rise to debates whether it is the responsibility of the world particularly the developed countries to aid developing countries in alleviating poverty.
Developed Countries have no Obligation to Aid Developing Countries.
Different scholars and ethicists have come in the open to oppose the idea of developed countries aiding developing countries for a number of reasons. They claim that poor nations have a high birth rate and that helping them would be supporting them to reproduce and increase in number, which ultimately will lead to strain in the world food supply (Gunnell, 2002). This causes more suffering other than reducing the suffering that it intended to alleviate. Therefore, according to them, developed nations should operate in ways that minimize human suffering. Developing countries should be left on their own to learn the hard way, consequently, developing policies and programmes to address poverty issues, which include among them the issues of population control (Hardin, 1974)
The second argument is the fact that most of the aid provided to developing countries, is misused or misallocated to unintended projects and so, it does not address the problem it is initially meant to tackle. The governments of such nations may choose to invest part of the aid in strengthening the military or advancing the interests of the political leaders through projects meant for self-enrichment (Hardin, 1974). In addition, providing assistance to developing countries results in laziness since, it weakens the incentive of the countries becoming dependent on their own economy through establishing sustainability programmes that may include issues like population control and programs to address poverty by empowering of the poor. Food support may affect the prices of local food thereby undermining local food production.
Those opposing this idea also advocate for some form of justice where burdens and benefits should be reasonably distributed among nations. Each nation must eat upon its sweat and enjoy the fruits of good work. Such nations develop strategies to provide a sustained food supply of the present population as well as future generations (Hardin, 1974). Having made such efforts, it is advisable that these nations must enjoy their success and not spend their well-gotten produce to support countries that have no plans for supporting their populace. Most of the developing countries have failed to adopt strategies to stimulate their levels of food production thereby affecting their population (Bollyky, 2012). For instance, back in 1986, these countries misallocated a large share of the aid they had been given to strengthen their military instead of addressing poverty issues and as such, they should carry their own crosses. Responsible states should not be expected or asked to help such uncaring nations. They further argue that developed nations have the right and freedom of handling their reserves as they wish since they have worked upon it. It is not obligatory that they should help developing countries; they should do it at their own pleasure since no one is supposed to compel them to do so.
Developed Countries have an Obligation to Aid Developing Countries.
Globally people have come up to advocate for the need to accept poverty as a global phenomenon and must be addressed with the care it needs. Most people have argued from a moral perspective (Bardy, Drew, & Kennedy 2012). They examine the various lifestyles that people in developed countries have and compare these to the levels of poverty that they would prevent if they modified these lifestyles. For instance, rich people value expensive dinners, stylish clothes and have their children attend private schools. However, if they could cut down their expenses, they would use the money to save so many lives as people perish daily form poverty related issues (Helmuth, 1972). All people have a moral obligation to help the poor in the world to prevent harm and suffering. Therefore, they hold that, developed nations have a moral duty to aid developing countries. Daily across the world, children die from malnutrition, illnesses and hunger incidences, which can be prevented (Rosset, 2005). For instance, oral dehydration salts are cheap and with a few dollars, so many lives could be saved from deaths resulting from diarrhoea disease. They further argue that in some countries so much money is spent on advertising substances such as cigarettes, which evidently are harmful. If however, this money could be used to address such issues as poverty, it would be much more binding morally (Phillips & Ilcan, 2003). It therefore requires that nations make sacrifices to save starving nations instead of ignoring such a noble task that would reduce harm to their neighbours. Some argue that, allowing a person to die from hunger when it is easily within one's means to prevent it is no different, morally speaking, from killing another human being.
Other scholars have used the justice model to argue out their case. They insist that much of the problems of developed countries were caused by the developed countries and it is fair that these nations be held responsible by being obligated to aid the poor. This acts as compensation for the harms and injustices they caused the poor countries (LaFollette, n.d). A great deal of the poverty of developing countries is the product of unjust and exploitative policies of governments and corporations in rich states. The strict trade policies of developed countries, have greatly affected export prices for the developing countries by driving them down. Accordingly, the European Economic Community compels a duty four times as high on clothing`s from developing countries compared to developed countries. This has resulted in great losses for developing countries and has led to depressed Markets. Moreover, the great debts that poor countries owe the developed countries are attributed to the strict monetary policies that were put in place that resulted in high interests on the borrowed loans (Brown, 1990).
The second argument comes from historical causes of poverty. Here three concepts are examined; Colonisation, slave trade and Indentured labour (McAfee, 1990). Most of the developing countries were at one time colonies. During these periods, most of these countries were exploited. The Great Britain built a vast kingdom and colonised over 400 million people. Other colonisers included France who covered most parts of Africa, Germany, Portugal and Netherlands. They acquired free resources and had readily available cheap labour obtained from their colonies. When exiting, the colonisers either left the countries at peace or in wrangles. In either case, they left behind poor nations on top of having laid down basis for long-lasting paucity. Colonisation is thus considered a major cause of the problems in developing countries.
Slave trade has also been attributed as a major cause of outflow of human resource from developing countries particularly Africa (McAfee, 1990). The indenture system of labour was a type of a slave trade. It was orig...