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Thunk 35
If you had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, would you use it to eradicate racism or to eradicate malaria?
If you had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, would you use it to eradicate racism or to eradicate malaria?
70 comments:
Malaria, as at the moment it is a rather more pressing problem. Though if seen from the other side, racism could be a cause for the problem through a slightly less direct tract, as racially different people could be undervalued and subsequently under-payed for the jobs they do which in turn ranks them lower in global aspects, and the money they make is not enough to protect themselves and their families from disease as they cannot afford to buy themselves access to safe water and sanitation, which in a vicious cycle, slowly depreciates their ability to work as malaria strikes them, reducing the amount of income they earn.
In developing countries there seems to be a prevalence of both malaria and racism and so both issues need to be addressed, But at the moment Malaria kills and so cannot wait fro the more indirect method to establish itself and produce results.
It sounds like a billion dollars should be able to deal with both, but i think i would go with malaria.
Like Edeline already pointed out, Malaria is a matter that is out of our will and hands, and will have to be dealt skillfully whereas racial conflicts may have a less direct impact on human beings.
I would choose to invest my money and efforts in eradicating malaria. I agree with Edeline and Raya that it is a more pressing issue. Yes, people who fall victim to the horrors of racism may disagree. But, the only way to make a clear decision is to look at it from an unbiased angle, without any lenience or leaning to either side.
It is this along with the fact that I do not believe racism is something that can be eradicated (atleaset not with money). Yes, you can invest you money in public speaking to convince people to live together as brethren, but there are hundreds of people already doing just that and who have already done just that.
Racism deals greatly with human behaviour and moral values. What are you going to do, pay people not to be prejudice? Or buy more prisons to lock up everyone who is?
Even if I was given the chance or rather choice to do that then I would still pick malaria as this is what causes people to die and cause suffering all around the world whereas racism is a thing that will never be able to stop no matter how much you spend on humanity. Cures for malaria could be bought by investigating but there will never be a cure for racism; it's just the way people react to others around them.
Racism is all about dialogue and opening people up to all the failures of human thought - money can never overrule discourse. So the logical thing to do would be to spend that money on eradicating malaria.
I reckon that money is a better weapon to salvage people from the evil grips of malaria and other diseases of that sort. To extinguish racism, we would need much more than money. We need a radical change of minds-and money can't buy that.
Malaria and racism are problems that do not spring from the same stem; malaria is biological and racism is a bizarre ideology deeply embedded within the roots of many societies - even modern industrial ones. It affects many people on many complex levels and resorts to naught but discrimination and social inequality.
A billion dollars is an unfathomably large sum of money, at first glance able to solve any problem, but this is not so when properly contemplated.
Racism, as aforementioned, is an ideology - racism happens in people's heads, and goes on to influence their behaviour. I don't think there is any point spending a billion on trying to change people's personal opinions and beliefs. It's pointless - a waste of money and time. I believe alternative approaches should be taken; a radical change in the norms and values of societies is to be demanded (by both 'locals' and the ethnic minority) before any sum of money can be invested into this cause.
On the other hand, malaria is a disease. It's deadly - the numbers are terrifying. We need to find a cure, and with the exponential growth of technology, investing a billion dollars to eradicate it seems to be the most logical of the two options.
I rub a magic lamp and a genie pops out, telling me that I (unconventionally) have only one wish. I have to choose between using a billion dollars to eradicate racism or to eradicate malaria. Here, there is a subtle distinction that must be noted. If the genie tells me that my wish is guaranteed to come true, I would choose to eradicate racism. However, if the genie merely tells me that I must invest the billion dollars however I like, in order to improve the case of my chosen cause, I would choose malaria.
Racism is an ideology that has been infused in various groups for hundreds of years. Every baby-step we take to move away from racist views, from the 13th Amendment of the Constitution to Abolish Slavery in 1865 to electing the first black President of the United States in 2009, is but a mere inch closer to completely eradicating racism from our society. Why it is so ineffably difficult for humans to accept that not everyone is the same, I will never actually comprehend. However, this makes me realize that people who have racist ideologies have as strong thoughts and opinions as do I, even though they are antithetical of mine. Getting people to budge is very difficult. In fact, even a billion dollars wouldn’t do the trick. That isn’t to say that racism is an unsolvable problem; rather, the eradication of racism cannot occur any time soon.
This is why, if the genie asked if I wanted a billion dollars to spend on eradicating racism, I would say no: because even a billion dollars isn’t enough. Finding a cure for malaria, on the other hand, directly correlates with the funding available to do so. Investing the billion dollars towards malaria is investing in new equipment, better facilities, more skilled researchers, and more efficient distribution, which is likely to yield positive results. What’s more, the statistics for malaria are insanely horrific. More than 1 million people die of malaria each year, an estimated 300-600 million people suffer from malaria each year, and more than 40 percent of the world’s population lives in areas with risk of catching malaria.
However, racism is something that is much more difficult to eradicate, due to its bipartisan nature. For instance, I’m sure we can all agree that malaria is bad and it’s worth getting rid of. On the other hand, certain groups deny the fact that racism is even a problem, based on warrants like freedom of thought and speech. Thus, if the genie said that my wish to eradicate racism was guaranteed to come true, I would choose to eradicate racism. As our technology advances, we are finding ways to transcend our own human biology. Nothing is stopping us from eradicating malaria in the next couple of years. Conversely, only a genie’s magic (or a way to rewire people’s brains, which doesn’t sound very morally right) is powerful enough to eradicate racism any time soon.
Both malaria and racism have been fatal problems in our society for the past decades but if I were only able to eradicate one with my billion dollars than it would have to be racism. Racism is something billions of people have to deal with daily, and although not as many deaths as caused by it as in previous times, I think living in a world where you have to deal with not getting a certain job because of your race/skin color, or being made fun of because of the way you look or where you come from is completely unacceptable. Everybody should have the chance to reach their full potential and not be judged or even looked at differently, let alone discriminated to. Malaria does cause a lot of deaths, but living a life of constant discrimination and feeling worthless due to where you come from is much worse than developing a disease, which can happen to anyone, and can be prevented with caution.
Logically, when being granted a billion dollars, the ideal solution is to eradicate malaria as it is a terrifying disease that requires extensive research to accumulate a feasible medication for its decrease and curability. However, as previously stated in other comments, racism is an ideology that would be difficult and "useless" to abolish, as it is simply impossible to change people's minds or have even slight control on them. Therefore if a billion dollars is the solution to cure ill minds of racism, then so be it. The increasing advancement in technology makes the creation of medication and availability of healthcare rather widespread amongst the globe. Meaning that racism is far more difficult to eradicate than a disease many are beginning to find a light in the path of curing.
I would like to begin this by briefly explaining what both racism and malaria mean. Google defines racism as, “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” Whereas malaria, “is a life-threatening blood disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted to humans by the Anopheles mosquito. Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.”
Personally, I would use a billion dollars to eradicate malaria. A disease which according to the WHO, is at risk to affect 40% of the total global population. A disease which approximately was the cause of death of 660,000 people alone in 2010 globally. A disease which has gotten the morality rate down by a 25% in the past 5 years. A disease which is curable. I would invest in curing the disease.
Our biology maintains a list of priorities that are hardwired into our brains. Our physical needs always come first in this list. For example, you're not going to spend money on the latest edition of Skyrim, no matter how much you want it, if you're starving and on the streets (lets face it, you probably won't be able to afford Skyrim, but its a hypothetical, people). It makes sense, because you need to be physically alive to do all that thinking and wanting and not the other way around. Even in this thunk, the billion dollars should first be spent on making everyone physically healthy (eradicating malaria) and then going after more complex issues.
Malaria is a very common disease in many less economically developed countries, together with many cases across the globe. In some cases, malaria has even caused death. If we were able to get rid of this burden, mortality rates would be higher, more people would live longer, and at the end of the day it is benefiting the human race because we would have eliminated a probable factor that could lead to our extinction.
Racism on the other hand, although it may be one of the most prevalent issues on the planet, seems like it would be secondary to malaria (since its killing people and all that) and can be dealt with later. Personally, I feel that Racism is a behavior, and there are people who aren't willing to change. Put those two together, and even a billion dollars couldn't change that much around the world.
So in conclusion, I would put my billion dollars in favor of eradicating malaria since it leads to the betterment of the human race, because I would say that to be eradicated, racism needs something more than money.
A billion dollars to spend and use to eradicate any one of the given issues – malaria and racism. What to choose, what to choose… Let’s examine both these issues, shall we?
Malaria is a mosquito-borne, infectious disease that is prevalent mostly in lower economically developed countries and affects many, many people. How many you ask? Over 1 million people die from malaria each year, 300 hundred – 600 hundred people are affected by it each year and more then 40% of the world’s population lives in areas with risk of catching Malaria. Investing a billion dollars towards eradicating malaria would mean better research facilities, better equipment, more-skilled researchers as well as better prevention measures for those who live in areas that are at a higher risk or catching malaria then others. Moreover Malaria is something that affects those who have it BIOLOGICALLY unlike racism.
Racism can defined as prejudice and discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples; its an ideology people have that because they’re born with a certain skin color they’re somehow better than others who don’t. I do believe that racism can be eradicated, yet not through money. If you were to invest a billion dollars in eradicating racism, there’s only so much you can do – you can have campaigns that say ‘STOP RACISM’, pay people to speak against it and convince others that we are all one but at the end of the day racism deals greatly with human behavior and moral values, and there’s only so much you can do to change someone’s values.
In conclusion, I would invest a billion dollars towards eradicating malaria just because it has the higher likelihood of yielding positive results.
As an aspiring doctor, i have to say that i would most definitely invest in curing malaria. That is however NOT my only reason. I personally feel that the society we live in today has, to an extent, vastly overcome the magnitude of racism that was prevalent just 2 decades ago. Today it is acceptable for people of different races to be neighbors, get married or share the same workplace. No, racism has not been fully eradicated from our Earth and yes it disgusts me to say that we are far from post-racism, however racism is after all the result of a mindset. It is a misconception of society that no amount of money can change. Having said that, look at the progress the human race has made in the last 2 decades alone? If we continue this - which i fail to believe would require a billion dollars- I'm sure eventually we would live in a racism free world . Till then, let us work on preserving human life so that we may live that moment.The outrageous number of people that die annually from malaria is devastating. i would without a doubt, in a heartbeat choose to spend a billion dollars on eradicating malaria from the world.
I would have to agree with most of the people who have commented before me - curing and eradicating malaria can be achieved through resources that money can buy, whereas putting an end to racism is not something that can really be calculated into monetary terms.
I know that setting up medical camps will cost me so and so dollars, that funding research for the malaria vaccine will cost me another so and so amount of dollars, and the like... But can we really say the same about changing ideologies and systemic injustice?
Of course, reinventing these systems, and creating more equitable and less discriminatory legal and social practices are always possible.
However, social conditioning and the limitations that the practice of "tradition" have placed on society as a whole will make this far more difficult, and far less socially profitable.
Money can't buy tolerance or acceptance, and therefore it certainly can't buy an end to oppression. Developing more progressive mindsets takes more than that - it takes discourse and cultural understanding.
From the outset, let's establish that the two options are mutually exclusive. The way the question is phrased implies we can use ALL of the billion dollars to solve EITHER of the two problems, not split it and solve both (it makes for a more interesting question anyway).
But even if we could use the billion to solve both problems, I would still choose to solve only one. Only one would yield fruitful results.
In order to answer this question, we must first analyse the nature of each of the target issues, and how/why we would use money to solve each.
Firstly, malaria. Like any other disease, there are two ways to eradicate it - prevention and cure. Those who are looking to cure malaria (basically everybody) can only do so if they can fund their research. A billion dollars is a reasonably large research grant, if I do say so myself. Moreover, the products of malaria research, malaria vaccines, can be better distributed to areas where the disease is prevalent. This will probably the primary catalyst in eradicating malaria - prevention. "Luxuries" like mosquito nets can be set up in areas that need them most, thus reducing the probability of malaria spreading by reducing the number of mosquito bites. Ultimately, malaria can be eradicated using money.
Secondly, racism. Money can be used to fund campaigns to establish educational programs that bridge the gap between "races", particularly instilling that philosophy in young children through schools. As for older, already "indoctrinated" people, the most money can do can bribe people to not be racist. But these are only superficial solutions. Ultimately, eradicating racism requires a paradigm shift in society. It requires people to change how they think about others. Money cannot achieve this. It requires a deeper solution.
So if I had a billion dollars, I'd invest it in eradicating malaria.
Money can fight malaria. Money can't change mindsets.
If I had the choice to eradicate either racism or malaria with a monetary medium of a billion dollars, I would choose to funnel that money towards the eradication of malaria.
Of course, this is not me stating that malaria supersedes racism in terms of importance, it is just to say that a billion dollars, or any amount of dollars for that matter, will not emerge successful in obliterating a man-made ideology like racism.
Currently, we have medical institutions set up filled with researchers that religiously work to formulate a solution that will counter malaria.
Research, however, costs money. The only reason as to why the world has not experienced the cure of a malaria remedy yet is because research has been slow and the only reason why research has been slow is because money is required. A lot of money.
By supplying researchers with a billion dollars I'm sure would increase and a fruitful outcome would be reached where victims of malaria would have access to a 100% solution.
If this money were focused towards racism, an ideology that man created, no promises could e v e r be made that it would be wiped off the face of this planet.
Human mindsets are somewhat difficult to alter. The cure to racism doesn't rely on money. It doesn't rely on medicine. It doesn't rely on medical or any institution.
The only way we can resolve racism is if we change our perspective on life.
All of us, if we could stop judging one another based on the amount of melanin that pigments our skin. If we could stop stepping on each other because black/white/beige aren't ideal skin tones. If we could stop measuring society's power dynamic in units of religion, color, ethnicity on a rusty see-saw and instead focus on creating an equilibrium with what we have, maybe then we can look forward to a day where it wouldn't matter that I'm brown and you're yellow.
Money's not going to bring that change. You can't erase one ideology with another ideology. You need willpower.
Malaria? Or racism?
Let’s start by getting to know what they are. Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by parasites that is transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitos. According to WHO, Malaria affected 189 million people in 2014, with around 584,000 deaths, but the disease is curable with the right treatment. On the other hand, racism is a belief that members of a particular race possess characteristics, abilities etc. that make them superior to members of other races. Racism has been the cause of most wars, revolutions and protests in the past, the most notable sort of racism is that held between African (Americans) and White Americans.
It's a tough choice to say the least, however I would use the billion dollars to eradicate malaria. The main incentive behind this decision is that the means and resources needed to eradicate malaria can be purchased by money which almost guarantees the eradication of malaria in a short amount of time, however to be able to eradicate racism, we need to change the way in which people think of people of different races, thus needing to change their mind set, which is something money can’t buy. Additionally, even if the billion dollars were spent on the eradication of racism, it would still take a very long time to completely change the way in people and societies look at other people from a particular race, which is why I believe that the money will be better spent on eradicating malaria, where the positive effect of the billion dollars would be evident in a very short time.
For the first time I have a clear definite answer to a thunk question. If i had a billion dollars to spend between eradicating malaria and eradicating racism, I would most definitely spend it on getting rid of malaria. Malaria is a disease. Racism is a state of mind. An outlook. To me it seems to be a no brainer to eradicate an infectious disease that claims millions of lives every year. It would undoubtedly be the most utilitarian thing to do. Racism rarely kills people. Yes we have all the police shootings but those are almost negligible compared to the death toll of malaria. Another reason you should not invest it in eradicating racism is the logistics of actually getting rid of a 'state of mind'. I think that no amount of money can change a persons prejudiced opinions. Money won't make a difference here. We can invest a billion dollars in anti-racism campaigns and education however we will never truly get rid of this issue, but will merely cover it up a bit. Malaria, not racism.
Quite frankly, I don’t think either is possible. So I’m going to cheat a little with my response, and assume that the question is asking me whether I would try to eradicate malaria or racism with a billion dollars.
So first, some perspective. A billion dollars will get you:
(I’m assuming US Dollars, because if this was Zimbabwean Dollars then there would be less gravitas to this discussion)
• 142 million packets of Chloroquine (malaria preventing tablets - and that’s from Boots pharmacy - commercial rates)
• 200 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets
• An enormously long and prolonged, high quality, anti-racism propaganda effort completed by extremely effective advertising agencies
• Or two hours worth of SuperBowl advertising time
So, since the research for those figures took a surprisingly long amount of time, and I would really rather get on to answering the question, I will conveniently assume that’s enough context.
In terms of what I think will be more effective in eradicating either problem, I would rather see a billion dollars invested in the eradication of malaria (assuming this isn’t by mass slaughter) than in the eradication of racism (again, assuming this isn’t by the targeted killing of racists).
This decision is just a reflection of how I feel money is better spent. Quantitatively, I can analyse the number of people affected by a decision to use money to eradicate malaria in death rate caused by malaria, and appreciate that more than say, how many people are involved in racially-fuelled murders, because no matter how effective an advertising/public awareness campaign, I - personally - will always view it as a short term solution.
If I were given a million dollars to eradicate either malaria or racism, I would choose malaria. I believe that both are important issues that need to be abolished, however I feel that racism can be fought using less expensive means like social media and the news. Social media, especially, is a useful tool in combatting racism as seen in recent events such as the shooting of Michael Brown. People all over the world, from preteens to adults were part of the online uproar against the blatant racism. This, inevitably spread awareness and consequently helps to teach the future generation of adults that racism is not okay. This is a cheap, effective way to stop a societal issue. Malaria on the other hand can often be prevalent among indigenous people. A million dollars would definitely aid those people in getting vaccinated and to fund research for making vaccines against new strands of the virus.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by parasitic protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium type. It is caused by an external factor, which when removed or eradicated can cure it.
Racism, on the other hand, is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Modern variants are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. It is thus a part of a person's personality as opposed to malaria that is caused by an external factor.
Both affect a lot of people all over the world adversely, yet are very different. Thus to eradicate either of the two, the approach would have to be quite diverse.
If the billion dollar guaranteed the successful eradication of either, I would choose to eradicate racism. This is because, while I may get more chances to eradicate malaria (through slow but gradual development in medical science, etc), I can not do the same for racism. Racism is much harder to eradicate, because it is not caused by a germ or bacteria. It is a part of a person's character and can't be removed using medicines. So if I get a sure-shot method of eradicating it, I would gladly remove racism.
However, if I was only given a billion dollars to spend on working towards eradicating either malaria or racism, I would choose malaria because it has a higher chance of successful eradication based on extensive research that the billion dollars could fund. In this situation, even if I spent the money on workshops and awareness programs to reduce racism, it would never give a 100% success, considering it is an integral part of the human character, i.e., I could not really 'buy' someone a new personality. Thus instead of using my funds on working toward something that could not be eradicated completely(racism), I would rather support work towards eradicating malaria that has a much higher chance of being eradicated completely (like small pox, etc).
Ideally though, the billion dollars could most definitely be used to work towards eradication of both malaria and racism.
If you had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, would you use it to eradicate racism or to eradicate malaria?
Can I split it 50/50?
Eradicating means to destroy completely; put an end to something.
Let’s break both up.
Is it possible to eradicate?
Malaria? Sure, if you can find a cure, count up the people, cure them, invent vaccines, prevent further spreading. Done. Eradicated. Just like polio.
Racism? Not so easy. Unlike malaria, racism isn’t a disease in the body. It’s more like a disease to the brain, which no medicine can cure.
No doctors. No medicines. No amount of research. No amount of investment can cure. Only the people themselves can.
In terms of pressuring issues in the world today, these definitely have an equal amount of stress on the world’s countries and economies.
But with both of these on 2 ends of a long spectrum of problems? How can you choose which is of more importance?
Maybe doing the easier thing would be best.
Just cure malaria.
Money well spent.
One less problem in the world.
But don’t they say don’t take the easy way out?
How am I supposed to eradicate racism though?
Sure, I can bribe a few thousand to change their views.
But what about the people that say, ‘I won’t change even if someone paid me a billion dollars.’
Stubborn people are hard to deal with.
Stubborn people with malaria are easy to deal with.
Stubborn people who are racist are not so easy to deal with.
So I guess it does depend on what you want to achieve,
One more problem of the world eradicated, or a baby step to one of the world’s biggest problems being eradicated.
Maybe it would just be easier to split it 50/50.
The most logical thing to do with your billion dollars would be to invest it in research to eradicate malaria. I agree, racism is still an issue at hand, but our society has progressed a lot throughout the decades. Even though owning a slave back in the 1800's was completely normal, today state-owned slavery has almost been abolished. As a society, we have worked hard to put an end to many of the harsh things the slaves had to face back then. But, A serious issue in our hands at the moment is malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease and in 2012 there were 627,000 deaths worldwide due to the disease. Putting an end to malaria would help not only humanity but the medical society as well. We may be able to discover cures for other diseases and make remarkable medical discoveries as well, while trying to find a cure for the disease, there are endless possibilities. The other races have achieved rights and have almost put an end to discrimination, but as our society advances day by day, we can put an end to racism, not with the help of a billion dollars, but the with the help of willpower within us.
A billion dollars. Thats 1,000,000,000 dollars.
One could buy a Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the most expensive cars ever and still have enough money to buy a decent-sized island.
So that’s a huge amount of money right?
Lets take a look at Racism.
In a 2012 report from around the world, 2/3 criminals receiving life sentences were non-whites. A poll revealed 51% of the white-skinned people expressed anti-black sentiments. And if that isn't bad enough, even black pre-schoolers are far more likely to be suspended than white children.
With a growing population of 7 billion, how big does the billion dollars seem in comparison now?
Onto Malaria.
About 3.2 billion people – nearly half of the world's population – are at risk of malaria. In 2015, there were roughly 214 million malaria cases and an estimated 438 000 malaria deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden ; which makes us think - is nature racist too?
But these aren't just numbers. Each one is a person, a life.
And its not surprising that our massive amount of 1,000,000,000 dollars is now a mere nothing in comparison.
But if I had the money, I’d invest it into malaria eradication.
Because its much more fruitful and rational to use financial capital to aid the cure of an epidemic millions of individuals don't have control over than a vile sentiment thousands choose to feel and embody.
An exorbitant sum of money pressed with the eradication of either Malaria or racism. Naturally, if given the choice, one would vouch for a neutral stance on the matter, splitting the given expenses equally. However, upon weighing each humanitarian predicament on a balance of severity, the scale seems to tip more towards the effacement of a deadly disease over a timeless social imbalance.
The principal argument that proponents of 'Anti-racism' would presumably use is racism's instrumental role in the likes of crime and occupational wage. There is statistical evidence in multitudinous magnitude behind the fact that 'white' people are paid more and are less likely to be faced with criminal charges compared to other races. Nevertheless, the question stands strong: Will a billion dollars change this and how?
Perhaps the money could fund more 'racially proportional' education in schools to propagate racial equality from childhood, the extent to which may involve recoloring the faces of storybook characters. Adding some more variation in our emoji's is an other strategy, already being utilized to appeal to an older population. Top it off with a couple of emotional videos based on real-life events on social networks and surely the world will change...right? Unfortunately, not that much.
The ramifications in criminal and financial statistics, even after all these changes have already been administered, are considerably low. This may be due to the fact that our brains are wired to prefer the choices which benefit our own community. It is a natural evolutionary prejudice that cannot be corrected, even with a billion dollars.
In stark contrast, Malaria is a disease responsible for millions of deaths. Deaths which transcend the color of your skin, your religion and your nationality; but it doesn't stop there. Humans are not the only species vulnerable to malaria as it effects any mammal the virus comes in contact with. Eradication of Malaria would not only save our own species but numerous others. A billion dollars would be just enough to establish protective equipment around the globe, destroy breeding grounds, quarantine all infected areas, mass produce a cure as well as a vaccine and administer it internationally. The precious lives of billions of people and animals would be saved if such a movement could transpire.
So unless we could suddenly rewire the brains of every single (consenting)individual on the planet, eradicating Malaria is unquestionably more desirable for the human race.
My initial answer to this question was to end racism. Racism has been an underlying cause of many issues in our world and one of them happens to be poverty which is a major factor in the spread malaria.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that money can't end racism. You can't just simply convince a racist redneck that all men are equal with a banner or a poster. When this unquestionable idea of dark-skinned people being second-class citizens has been passed to him from his father, grandfather..etc. I don't think he'd be racist in the first place if he had the will and curiosity to question such inherited ideas.
Therefore, I think eradicating malaria would be much more effective and fruitful even though there'll still be a number of diseases that are as bad as malaria affecting the population.
If I had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, would I spend it on eradicating racism or malaria ?
Although both malaria and racism are an equal concern for humanity in their own respects, I would most probably spend it to eradicate malaria.
Malaria is one the most common causes of death in the world with over half of the world's population living in areas at risk of malaria transmission. According to the WHO, a child dies every minute from malaria. It is an extremely gruesome disease that has the potential to kill its victim within 24 hours of symptom onset. It is however eradicable through preventative measures and medication
Racism, on the other hand, is more like a disease of the mind that is probably incurable because I could not possibly change a person's strongly held beliefs by using money. The only way someone could possibly help tackle racism using money would be through the enforcement of rules and laws or by spreading awareness (This would have no effect on someone who strongly holds these views). This, however, would only take us so far since a billion dollars, regardless of how large of an amount it is, is not infinite and so after a while, life would go back to where it previously was. Even if I could possibly get rid of racist views and beliefs in every single person in the world, it is only a matter of time till the next generation comes along.
If I had a billion dollars, I'd eradicate malaria so that I could save hundreds of thousands of lives every year but until then, I can only wait and hope for a philanthropist to do the same.
In my opinion, racism is the more pertinent and pressing issue, in comparison to malaria. Yes, malaria does have fatal consequences for its victims, but racism has far worse implications. Racism affects entire generations and societies, and the problems it causes make death seem sweeter, as it makes people die a thousand deaths while living life itself.
By eradicating malaria, one will be able to witness a more healthy world, but not necessarily a happier world. However, by eradicating racism, one will be able to witness a more progressive, egalitarian and a happier world. Hence solving racism may be more beneficial for humanity as a whole.
However, racism is the more complex and convoluted problem, and therein lies the caveat. Since racism is the more complex issue, it is much harder to solve racism than malaria. Therefore, malaria can be resolved to a greater extent than racism, if I were to invest a billion dollars to solve a problem. Progress can be made in eradicating malaria, with the aid of the exponentially growing strength of the forces of science and technology, which have already made wondrous impacts on humanity. Conversely, the issue of racism has more insidious powers and influences involved, and in order to solve racism, one would need to fix the human mind itself. At the very least, education policies need to be changed to incorporate more empathy and awareness, and a billion dollars would definitely not suffice. Some countries ( or at least their leaders) themselves do not believe in eradicating racism, and the byzantine world of diplomacy and politics has to be entered if these leaders are to be persuaded to change their viewpoints.
To sum up, I believe that racism is the more prevalent problem, but if I were a financially prudent investor looking to solve a world problem, I would rather invest a billion dollars in an attempt to eradicate malaria.
A billion dollars is a lot of money, and if I were given the choice eradicate two pressing problems, racism or malaria, I would immediately spend it on finishing racism, of all kinds.
Why racism? It has been stated that altering a person's beliefs and mindset is almost impossible due to various background, social, environmental, and economical factors. I beg to differ... Malaria is focused on a very specific part of the population, which is the main reason I chose to eradicate racism. Being a global problem, and effecting people of all ages, from a very young age, this problem has a huge impact on the rest of a person's life.
The way people see an individual can affect the mindset of that individual, and will affect the way they perceive themselves, and racism has been alive far longer than malaria, and has killed tens of thousands of people, both physically (slavery) and emotionally. This causes rifts between cultures, and countless misunderstandings between people, shadowing the true identity of a person.
To sum up, I believe that racism is a bigger and more important problem than malaria.
With a billion dollars, I could do many things... but when you think about it, eradicating malaria would be far more plausible than eradicating racism.
Think of it like this - how is it possible to change the mindset of every individual in the world? You can't simply use money to eradicate a discriminatory ideology of such magnitude.
However, to eradicate malaria is highly plausible. With a billion dollars, it would be possible to use expensive methods to single out causes, and work on developing successful treatments to the disease. You can't develop methods to remove incorrect thoughts from people's minds. The only way forwards from there would be through experimentation with humans, which may be unethical.
Additionally, malaria is far more lethal, killing 584,000 people in the year 2015 (according to http://www.worldmalariaday.org/about/key-facts). On the other hand, recorded deaths due to confirmed racist acts do not even touch the thousands. Moreover, the situation with malaria is improving far slower than the situation with racism. Every year, though there are advancements in medicine, malaria is not much closer to being cured. Conversely, as time is progressing, the world is becoming more prosperous – there are far less issues regarding racism. This is why I believe the world would be better off without malaria (as compared to being better off without racism).
Its a real no brainer . If with a million dollars I could end one problem which has plagued mankind for time immemorial then I would do so . By ending racism one could end a lot of conflicts and social issues prevalent today and can help foster greater progress between nations and various races . It can lead to the end of various ethnic killings and murders which take place today .I choose racism over malaria as malaria is a disease for which we can engineer a cure in the near future and one can that be treated in a specific way so as to end it . However racism is ever present and cannot go away no matter how much money one pumps into so given a choice to end it I would
There are two distinct approaches I believe I can take with this question- the hopeful and the realistic.
The hopeful route for me is to use a billion dollars to eradicate racism. Undoubtedly it is an issue that has stuck with our societies for several generations and is still a largely predominant issue amongst us now. From the shooting of Michael Brown to the violent killing of Eric Garner, it is highly evident how much racism is affecting our lives today. Therefore, to me even if there was the slightest chance to eradicate something as destructive as racism, I wouldn't think twice even to pay 10 billion dollars towards removing it entirely from our lives. However, does money (however large the quantity) have the ability to change the minds of several stubborn individuals, who have such extreme ideologies so deeply engraved into their minds?
On the other hand, I have the realistic route. Even today, nearly 3.2 billion people (almost half of the world's population) are at risk of malaria. Money, in this instance can be considered a highly valuable asset towards bringing about improvements and taking steps towards entirely eradicating the disease. Here, money can be put towards research for the manufacture vaccines and other more effective and accessible treatments, research into mechanisms to avoid the disease and mainly to spread awareness of the precautionary methods that can be taken to ensure your life is not part of the 3.2 billion statistic
Therefore to me, my final decision is using the money to eradicate Malaria because this seems like an investment where I do not have to remain hopeful but instead can be almost certain that my investment into eradicating this disease can truly help several individuals around the world.
With the recent spread of the Zika Virus mosquitos and the diseases spread by them have become an even greater concern. If a billion dollars are to be invested in eradicating malaria, then one of the approaches that will be looked at is introducing special fungi into mosquito populations to kill them off or introducing modified genes that can stop mosquitoes from reproducing. This research and technology could result in millions of lives being saved every year maybe even post malaria eradication. As a result, investing in eradication of malaria can help tackle a great number of mosquito and non mosquito related diseases.
Racism is also a pressing issue that must be tackled so why not invest in eradicating racism?
Simply because racism is a result of deep rooted beliefs and a billion dollars are not enough to change mindsets. Even if those billion dollars were invested towards anti-racism education programmes there is no way to estimate the impact they would have.
Thus it is more beneficial for humanity to invest in malaria eradication.
In the theoretical situation in which a generous benefactor was to grant you the hefty sum of one billion dollars with the allocated task of solving one major barrier which affects the modern world – one reinforces antiquated social norms whilst the other results in the body count of half a million.
To begin with the causes of racism should be examined – racism refers to patterns of discrimination that are describes patterns of discrimination that are institutionalized as “normal” throughout an entire culture. It’s based on an ideological belief that one “race” is somehow better than another “race”. The origins of racism are complex yet at the very root – all too natural. Racism is itself is an enhanced form of xenophobia which we claimed as a result of evolution, unfortunately the fear of the unknown is something that has plagued human kind since the very start of time and has a basis on biology.
This is not to say that racism in any form is acceptable, it simply acknowledges the origins of it, and therefore it is rather daft to argue that throwing money at an engrained sociocultural and biological issue will somehow repair it. Racism does not adhere to any economic theory so the shilling of materialism will not appeal to it, Martin Luther King Jr. never once threw around dollar bills in his avocation of black rights, and racism can only be solved from the joint effort of all races – something which should come from human empathy and not capitalist greed.
On the other hand malaria stands to benefit from extensive medical research, something which can only be achieved through access to resources, which requires money to be plugged into it.
Finally when the outcomes of both situations are examined, we stand to gain more from eradicating malaria as it results in less deaths which can lead to a more productive society and a better understanding of any future viruses which may occur in the future.
If I had a billion dollars to spend on eradicating malaria or racism, I would choose to eradicate malaria.
Malaria and Racism are both imperative issues that require abolishing even though they're different in comparison. Malaria is biological whereas racism is an irrational ideology planted in the mindsets of people all over the world. The effect of racism on individuals could be emotionally taxing, the levels of damage done could be severe and complex but from what I understand malaria is physically much worse and so logically as any philanthropist would- they'd choose to save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Racism has a comparatively different effect on the lives of many individuals, it stems from ignorance and can manifest itself into intolerance, hate, discrimination etc.. A series of adverse effects follow, depression due to mistreatment can cause suicide. Other effects include hate crime, for example- "African-Americans aged 12 and up are the most victimized group in America. 41.7 over 1,000 of them are victims of violent crimes, compared with whites (36.3 over 1,000). This does not include murder. "
On the other hand, malaria is a pressing current disease that can affect half the worlds current population. (3.2 billion) Which explains the urgency with which we should eliminate this issue. This wouldn't just be a humanitarian stance but an investment toward the future and the reduction in the amount of diseases and health tribulations we can avoid. Development is happening, to many it is considered inevitable. How can we consider ourselves developing if we don't work toward eventually destroying the risk at which we are presently in.
Ergo, personally what I would choose to invest in would be the eradication of malaria. I understand the extremities of racism and hope mentalities are transformed over time.
Although racism is a very big issue in our world that we need to work on eradicating I would have to use the billion dollars on eradicating Malaria.
This decision is primary due to the nature of the two problems, since Racism is an ideology and Malaria is a disease, and although it can be said that Racism is caused by ignorance and can then be eradicated through campaign and changing the education system, it will take a lot more than that because people tend to resist change especially when it concerns their ideologies.
Malaria however is a very serious issue that effects many people all around the world, today nearly half the world's population is at risk of Malaria and in 2015 214 million cases and 438 thousands deaths were reported, even though malaria mortality has been decreased by 60 percent since 2000.
Racism also results in injustice, discrimination and violence, for example there have been many hate crimes in the worlds and a lot of social discrimination. Racism is also manifested in the wage gap between different ethnicity in the same countries, and in social and legal injustice.These inequalities are indeed a pressing issue that needs to be eradicated for sustainable human development. But Malaria is more pressing issue that needs to be examined urgently.
Ergo Malaria is a more pressing issue that can could really benefit from a billion dollars to carry out research and increase prevention and control.
If I had a million dollars, I would definitely want to split the money. But here’s the thing – even a million dollars will not be able eradicate a mindset that has plagued humanity and stood the test of time and generations. What could one possibly do to eradicate racism? Sure, I could propagate the ideas of racial equality by maybe producing movies, adverts and books that say so, but it wouldn’t do anything more than what’s happening now. I can maybe put a stop to the racism on media (which maybe restricting some one else’s right to freedom of expression, no matter how wrong the ideology or message) but there is no direct way to eradicate racism by money (unless we’re going down the unethical path that I am strongly opposed to). I’m not saying it’s a lost cause, just saying that it is very hard to operationalize where the money goes and what exactly comes out of it. We can only hope and teach the newer generations that they should see humans for what they are and not immediately try to label them on the basis of the amount of certain pigment in their skin.
Finding a cure for Malaria, on the other hand, is definitely more plausible. The money I invest, goes into production of the drugs, recruitment of personnel, testing and other research purposes. It gives a more direct cause-effect relationship, as many have stated before me.
So I conclude, that I should split the money, not 50-50 each but 75-25% with the latter for racism. It may seem myopic and short sided, but I think donating 75% of the money towards the eradication of Malaria will be a good decision. It will directly save millions of lives and families around the globe. And after all, if racism is as influenced by the media as the facts say, I have a better chance of actually becoming someone influential enough to change mindsets of at least a few people by eradicating Malaria because it will take lot more than just monetary values to eradicate a system this deep rooted in our human culture.
If I had a million dollars, I would definitely want to split the money. But here’s the thing – even a billion dollars will not be able eradicate a mindset that has plagued humanity and stood the test of time and generations. What could one possibly do to eradicate racism? Sure, I could propagate the ideas of racial equality by maybe producing movies, adverts and books that say so, but it wouldn’t do anything more than what’s happening now. I can maybe put a stop to the racism on media (which maybe restricting some one else’s right to freedom of expression, no matter how wrong the ideology or message) but there is no direct way to eradicate racism by money (unless we’re going down the unethical path that I am strongly opposed to). I’m not saying it’s a lost cause, just saying that it is very hard to operationalize where the money goes and what exactly comes out of it. We can only hope and teach the newer generations that they should see humans for what they are and not immediately try to label them on the basis of the amount of certain pigment in their skin.
Finding a cure for Malaria, on the other hand, is definitely more plausible. The money I invest, goes into production of the drugs, recruitment of personnel, testing and other research purposes. It gives a more direct cause-effect relationship, as many have stated before me.
So I conclude, that I should split the money, not 50-50 each but 75-25% with the latter for racism. It may seem myopic and short sided, but I think donating 75% of the money towards the eradication of Malaria will be a good decision. It will directly save millions of lives and families around the globe. And after all, if racism is as influenced by the media as the facts say, I have a better chance of actually becoming someone influential enough to change mindsets of at least a few people by eradicating Malaria because it will take lot more than just monetary values to eradicate a system this deep rooted in our human culture.
If it were possible to eradicate racism with a billion dollars, I would leap at that chance in a heartbeat. With a large scale of cases still present globally, the issue of racism goes beyond day to day discrimination and is deeply rooted in major global issues such as religious terrorism and ethnic conflicts.
The eradication of racism would mean the end of human atrocities based on racial differences: which could lead to major economic progress and could potentially save many more lives than the eradication of malaria would. A world where people are befuddled by the thought of identifying people as a 'race' and simply identity each and every one of us as human may seem like a fairytale, yet it's significance is critical if humans wish to expand further as a species without destroying itself.
Furthermore, to spend such a large sum on the eradication of a single disease rather than the betterment of our medicinal capability would be largely wasteful. The point where such diseases become trivial is an inevitability in this constantly evolving world.
-Harsh Gidwani
A reminder, there are eighteen hundred billionaires today, yet I've not seen any of them invest in something that can significantly meliorate human race. So let's look at our options: Malaria, an intermittent fever caused by a protozoan parasite which invades the red blood cells and is transmitted by mosquitoes. And then we've got Racism, a prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone on the basis of any kind of apartheid(race). Manifestly, eradicating a disease suchlike would avert a death toll of millions per year, forever. Although, not plausible but if we found a way to eradicate racism, we would live in a progressed society and avoid any cultural riots/wars in the future saving even more lives than the eradication of malaria. Though it's almost impossible, if we did have the resources to literally rewire every humans' brains and wipe out such differentiation for a billion dollars, seeing how only spreading awareness is not doing the job, so undoubtedly, my answer would be to spend a billion dollers to eradicate racism. However malaria also has it's effect on other mammals, if theyre in contact with its' wide-spreading contagiousness, eradication of malaria would not only save millions of humans, but also save plenty lives of other species. Thus, quite simply would have to invest in the medical industry to do the task, eradicate malaria.
Personally, I would spend my money upon the eradication of malaria, and here is why:
Eradicating malaria using money, though not easy, is an achievable task, you pay for medicines, safety precautions, pest control, education, as well as other preventative measures and slowly but surely, the no. of people suffering from the disease reduces until no more people suffer from the disease.
I am confident that I wouldn't be able eradicate a mindset that has been built through society and passed down through generations of people, most of whom have the freedom of thought and opinion, yet carry the same outdated views as their parents, friends, and siblings before them. Money can only do so much, it can help in influencing the media output that supports a change in the views of the issue at hand, but ultimately it comes down to us as a population to recognise right from wrong and make an active decision ourselves.
They say money cannot buy happiness. Well, I would like to put this statement in this context and relate it to racism. If happiness, something every human desires cannot be bought with money then can be prejudice end with money. No matter what amount of money may be spent, humans will not change their mindset or not become better individuals from within.
You may achieve your aims in the short term, but will such behavior last in the long term? It is completely futile to think that a billion dollars would suffice to revolutionize the thinking of seven billion people permanently. Training a dog to become more docile does not mean it has changed from within, rather it is branded as a well trained dog.
Have we humans become so greedy that we equate doing the right thing in terms of monetary figures. We must change from within not because of a material reward, but rather change because it is morally beneficial for the human race as a whole.
Onto malaria, which is a disease that 3.4billion people are at a risk of contracting. Now bear in mind, it is unrealistic and a waste to spend this money on buying medicines for each country, each community and each individual at risk or infected by the disease. Instead, I would use this money to fuel the research of the world's most able experts currently trying to solve the crisis so that they may develop a affordable cure that the entire world can benefit from and not a cure that corporations can charge outrageous prices for.
Now what should be observed here is that this research is global, something which is uniting the world.So, technically my endeavor would lead to different races uniting together for a common cause and this itself is a small step in uniting the world and breaking down the barriers of racism.
To conclude, I believe my investment to help eradicate malaria would be much more beneficial and have far wider gains.
Malaria and racism are both problems that plague our world but they do not spring from the same stem. Malaria is biological while racism is a strange ideology embedded deeply within the roots of many societies.
A billion dollars is a ridiculously large sum of money and at first glance, it may seem like it may be able to solve any problem but unfortunately, that is not the case.
As aforementioned, racism is an ideology. Humans, even ones part of modern industrial societies seem to find it difficult to perceive individuality and differences. And in my opinion, until this attitude changes, there isn’t much that can be done, be it we invest a million, billion or trillion dollars.
In contrast, malaria is a devastating disease the kill an outrageous number of people annually.
Malaria, like almost any other disease can be eradicated by two ways – either prevention or cure. The only possibility to finding a cure is to fund its research. At the same time, the disease can also be prevented by providing better health services to places which are economically disadvantaged. Ultimately, malaria can be eradicated using money.
So, I believe it’d be much more rational to invest a billion dollars in eradicating malaria.
Money can change the millions of lives affected by the disease, but it can’t change irrational sentiments.
Racism and malaria are both very important issues, that affect humanity. While, malaria is deadly disease, where 1 million people die each year due to it. It mostly effects children under the age of five. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. About 3.2 million people (almost half the world) are at the risk of malaria. Malaria is now preventable and curable, which is reducing the malaria burden in many places. While, racism is a constant struggle that has to be dealt with by millions of people everyday. It is the hatred of one person by the other because on their skin colour, language as customs, these are cultural features that reveals the nature of the person. in the past it has influenced wars and slavery. both this cause are worthy of being eradicated, ideally with a billion dollars I would divide the money to help both the causes.
But, if I was only able to eradicate one of the issues I would eradicate racism this is because racism is in the brain of individuals, you can’t create a medicine to stop racism as you may be able to do with malaria. To alter the minds of millions of individuals is a task that is every difficult. This is not to say that the malaria is not just as important. Overall, I believe both of these causes are worth eradicating as they affect so many people and to be able to fix even one of them, will be a big step for the human race.
Both pressing issues, however, I think the bigger issue is definitely racism. If I had the power to eradicate it, I would do it without a second thought. Because the world has shown signs of improvement in the case of malaria. It has already been eliminated in 111 countries and 34 countries are in the process of exactly that. That is because malaria is a biological disease. Racism is a very different kind of disease to infect our world. It is a human induced one. Ironic, because it thwarts our very progression.
The idea that humans can be divided into groups and one can emerge superior. It is prejudice against a certain ethnic group. Racists believe in an ethnic hierarchy that doesn’t exist and that is completely unjustified. Racism is causing mass consequences and people are failing to see them. For example, the horrifying shootings of African-American youth caused many justified protests but these events cause many infrastructural damages that the government becomes responsible for. Racism is stopping us as humans. This kinds of thinking needs to be fixed. If I have the power to do that I would indefinitely.
But if I had to choose which parts of racism I would change there would be debate. I wouldn’t care much to spend money making bandages brown or black but I would strive to ensure that every child and teenager is provided with the same opportunities for education. I do not care too much is ‘nude’ clothes are beige but I want to ensure that all people have equal opportunities in the work place so that no race is left unable to make a home.
All of these things are problems caused by the dangerous thoughts of racists. If I can stop these thoughts, I want to. Even if it is choosing the eradication of racism over the eradication of malaria. I would rather eliminate something that causes humans to let other humans to die hungry because they have a different colour than eliminate something that kills humans but can occur by humans just working together.
According to the WHO, malaria was the cause of death of 438 000 people in 2015. While exact statistics remain elusive, it is unlikely that casualties attributed to racial prejudice even reached the hundred thousands per year in the modern day and age. Sure, the number of relative deaths may not be the sole factor that defines the relative importance of both issues; however, it does put things into perspective.
This does not mean that racism is in any way acceptable or less significant. Nevertheless, the general norms and values of humankind are constantly changing – changing in favour of equality and acceptance of people regardless of social characteristics. The convergence of cultures, miscegenation, and the increase in general interaction between people of different racial groups makes it increasingly harder to hold onto racial stereotypes that prompt negative behavior towards specific groups.
Certainly, racist mindsets are not, and most likely will not be eliminated completely; however, growing social pressure and stringent anti-discriminatory legislation make it harder for racists to act out on their beliefs without facing considerable repercussions. In any case, there is little guarantee that pouring cash into corrective measures such as awareness campaigns will successfully dismantle an established social construct.
Therefore, I believe it would be a far more effective use of money to try and eradicate malaria – given a billion dollars, I would do just that. Funding would go a long way towards interventionist measures and efforts to eliminate the parasite entirely in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (assuming that it does not pass through corrupt officials).
It is true that not all parts of the global population are equally susceptible to this deadly disease, but do we get to classify which lives are important?
Malaria hurts physically. Racism hurts mentally. Either way they are both excruciatingly painful diseases and can lead to death. Nevertheless, if I had to contribute billion dollars to any one of these diseases, it would be for Malaria. My reasons being:
First of all, how would the billion dollars I contributed help stop racism? Are we going to pay people to shut up and stop being racist? To stop judging according to stereotypes? Would that really be effective or even efficient? We humans certainly couldn’t have stooped to that level of greediness just to equalize another!
Doing that wouldn’t change the person’s mindset, we would just be bribing them to stop racism. Although it would work, there are only so many people we can bribe with that billion dollars, not the whole world… and think about it, wouldn’t you rather not have a thin wall of kindness, build solely on money, spreading around the world?
If we stop racism by bribing in this generation, the next generation would just rebuild the broken walls of racism.
The money can be used to advertise and promote, instead of bribing, as well… but do you need a BILLION DOLLARS for that? Not really… A couple of simple donations would do the trick.
Second of all, Racism is a disease that can be cured by talking to people, making them understand their mistakes and learn about the consequences, but can we talk to Malaria and ask it to stop killing more than 438 000 people in a year? No, obviously not.
To cure Malaria, we need proper medicine, lab apparatus, well-known and educated Doctors and what not? That can’t be achieved by petite donations
To round off, I would definitely use this money to eradicate Malaria, instead of Racism.
Before answering this question, I’d like to clarify that both racism and malaria can be hypothetically eliminated by a billion dollars. My answer will not have an emphasis on whether it is possible to eliminate racism or not, for example. I’m assuming that both options are possible. Therefore, I would use the billion dollars to eradicate malaria instead of racism for the following reasons:
Firstly, there seems to be much more devastation being caused by malaria, especially in countries like Africa. According to WHO, 212 million cases of malaria were reported worldwide in 2015. Spending a billion dollars and putting an end to this disease may have a much bigger impact in saving people’s lives.
Secondly, although racism is an issue that should not be ignored, it does not cause as many problems compared to malaria. Undoubtedly there are casualties, but the death toll is not as much when compared to malaria. Spending a billion dollars eliminating racism would mean saving a comparatively negligible population, instead of a larger population dying of malaria.
Racism and Malaria are two different plagues that mankind has faced for too long. That being said, if I had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, I would use it eradicate malaria rather than racism.
Money is power. But money can only influence the actions of humans up to a certain extent. I feel that the eradication of racism is not something that can be done with only money, but rather depends on the education, mindset and moral values of our population. A billion dollars towards this cause would not take us as far as we’d like from where we started.
However, with that much money, it is likely that malaria could soon be cured as scientists would then be able to carry out compelling, but previously unfunded, research. With a new treatment on the market, lives would be saved in the millions and scientists may even be able to shift their focus to other devastating illnesses that still affect the world population and possibly discover new cures or treatments for them as well.
Considering that either racism or malaria can hypothetically be eradicated with a billion dollars, I would definitely get rid of racism since malaria, along with almost every other biological disease has been experiencing profound decline and will most likely be gone soon without my help. But to keep things interesting, I would like to consider that the problem that I do not eradicate will remain uneradicated for a long time.
In which case, I would need to consider the issues caused by either problem. The first issue that comes to mind is death. Although death by racism exists in many forms, it's difficult to find reliable statistics about it. Malaria on the other hand, killed 429,000 out of the 212 million people it infected in 2015. It's amazing to think that only 0.2% of malaria cases lead to death but 429,000 is still A LOT of people.
Now if malaria or racism do not kill you, they could simply make your life much worse. So how bad can one's life get due to either problem? I believe there are quite a few people around the world who feel left out in their societies (or countries if you're a minority) if not downright horrified of what racists would do to them. But, some forms of malaria can cause permanent effects even if treated. For example, cerebral malaria can cause permanent neurological complications.
In both the cases of racism and malaria, the consequences are severe but malaria seems to be much worse. Even death-wise, I highly doubt racism has caused more than 429,000 deaths in 2015. Therefore I would eradicate malaria.
Racism and malaria are both huge problem in our life today, however only malaria is a sickness and can actually be cure and eradicated by research and medication. Racism should be eradicated too however we can only influence the action of people to a certain extent. Even with all the money in the world we could not eradicate racism.
However, hypothetically, if we could eradicate racism with a billion dollars I would still choose to eradicate malaria because I believe it causes more death. It is very hard to count the number of deaths caused by racism and although it is a very big problem in our world today, it is already getting better and without any money we could be able to eradicate it by spreading positivity around.
Malaria kills an alarming number of people every year and if it doesn’t kill, it can create very severe damage. I therefore would spend the billion dollars on eradicating malaria because I believe it could save thousands of life’s.
I find this to be a clear choice, I would spend the billion dollars on eradicating racism. Racism needs to be treated as a disease, but currently, there is no cure for racism nor a billion dollar campaign to fund research. However, malaria has multiple campaigns and cures are being worked on.
Racism is dehumanizing and it destroys what defines us as humans, it casts a negative shadow on the progress we as a society have made. As we have seen in current affairs, far-right populists are rising in the polls, but not because of their policies. But rather they’re gaining unprecedented strength because of their xenophobic and racist policies and speech.
In Hungary, the prime minister, Viktor Orban, has started building a wall to keep out immigrants and holding migrants in detention camps where guards have been filmed flinging food at them as if they were zoo animals.
This ‘disease’ is empowered influential individuals to allow their racist views to influence generations. It is pushing society back into a mindset that most of us think is completely unacceptable. Therefore I find that eradicating racism is of upmost importance.
I would use the 1 Billion Dollars to eradicate Racism. The thing is, if you look at the world’s past decade, century, or millennium, you would see a big number of cases where unjust actions were done by one party onto another due to racism. Slavery, dehumanisation, racial slurs and taunts; these were just a few of the products of racism. Racist mindsets are one of the reasons besides the seven deadly sins behind why humans can’t coexist in peace. While Racism could possibly be a branch of Pride, I believe it has had a colossal impact on human kind, especially in the past few centuries. Moreover, it is still evident till this day, mainly within the USA, with the controversial Racial police shootings, and furthermore, the latest President, Donald Trump. His racist propaganda, with actually building a wall around the border of US- Mexico, and the travel ban, it is evident that in this day and age where we have no shame in calling ourselves modern, we still struggle with such foolish and unfair ways of thinking. In more recent times, two Indians were shot in Kansas just a few days back, by an obviously enraged and drunk on fluids American who also happened to have access to a firearm thanks to the gun laws of America. Moreover, this was an attack caused by Racism as the enraged man believed them to be middle eastern, when In fact they weren’t even Muslim, but Hindus, and worked at Garmin’s Headquarters as engineers, the HQ for one of the biggest GPS providers on the planet, meaning they had important jobs and were a prime example of how people from all over the world, even third world countries, could have access to fruitful opportunities if humans did live in coexistence, free of racism.
To sum it up, without Racism, humans could:
Achieve global long term goals much faster as they work together.
More positive environments everywhere you go.
Equal Opportunities.
Accomplish more in every field, including Medicine, which means it could have been possible for them to eradicate Malaria, as well as other diseases and let downs.
Racist attacks, hate crimes, the feeling of rage, intimidation and anger in the presence of a certain race would be gone.
The benefits to a world with no racism are endless..
For any problem to be eradicated on this earth, a global action needs to take place. This means that everyone needs to come together as a whole, and this cannot be possible when we have petty issues like racism as an obstacle. It is extremely disappointing to be talking about an issue like racism in the 21st century, and its even worse that it still exists. As a species we have developed cures and treatments for so many diseases and problems and spent so much money and research doing so, but unfortunately an issue like racism hasn't been given that much importance.
When I first read this question it seemed obvious that I would give a billion dollars for eradicating malaria as it would be more effective, may also decrease the death rate and the money would actually be useful to the people suffering currently. How can you possibly eradicate an issue like racism with money? Well, that is what I started thinking about too.
Whenever we consider an issue like racism it seems apparent that this isn't a problem science can solve as it involves INDIVIDUALS changing their mindsets and acting different and that's way more difficult than finding a cure to any disease in my opinion. (This is because I believe getting a small group of educated experts with plentiful resources together to work towards a cure is easier compared to getting 7 billion people act more compassionate and empathetic to each other.) However, a billion dollars might be able to change that if used efficiently, if we channel the money to educational programs on a global level and support movements,like black lives matter, and work towards finding a cure for the grassroots of this problem, we might actually be able to eradicate racism for good. I'm sure I might sound like an overly optimistic teenager right now, but considering how educated and globally connected the current generation is, compared to the last, we can have hope that the majority of us will try to make a change:even if the change may begin due to some cringe-worthy memes. If the billion dollars is used to tackle the grassroots of racism, like the irrational fears, confirmation biases, stereotyping etc. we might actually be able to solve this problem once and for all.
Eradicating a disease would mean saving millions of lives but eradicating an ignorant mindset that has cost millions of and continues to cost millions of lives can definitely bring about so much growth into the world. Racism has always been around and has always affected humans whether it be socially, psychologically or physically.
It is what drives wars and hate crimes and heinous acts against humanity. It is easy to just picture a civil rights movement when we think of combating racism, but it runs much deeper. To elaborate let me present a statistic i.e. when schools decided to desegregate between the 1989-90 only 1% of Hispanic children and 3% of Black children attended schools that were racially isolated as compared to now when resegregation is on the rise and the statistics have increased to 44% and 47% which all leads to lower rates of children that graduate and go to college. The problem isn't that other races cannot attend these schools but it is that they do not want to attend these schools however attending a mixed race school automatically increase the percentage of children of minorities attending college all the while maintaining no change for the percentage of students that aren't minorities.
However due to the prejudice this does not occur, it leads to more children dropping out of school as well as increased risk of being incarcerated. Which also brings up the fact that 1 in 36 black men get incarcerated in their lives as compared to 1 in 106 white men.
It is easy to just think of racism as one issue in one country rather than it being a global issue for all of us. It is important to realize that opportunity is the only thing that divides people. It is a wastage of human labor when children aren't provided good education due to racism, the ripples caused by civil wars restrict the oppressed from reaching their full potential.
Therefore stopping ignorance and eradicating racism I believe is the first detrimental step to our growth as global citizens.
This question to me should be "would it be better to eradicate malaria or racism?", just to avoid delving too deep into the logistics of how that billion dollars would be used.
According to Unicef, 1 million people die yearly from malaria, mainly children under the age of five. Dead before they even have the chance to live. Unicef estimates 300 million-600 million people suffer each year from malaria, and 40% of the world's population lives in a malaria-risk zone. Therefore, it is fairly significant in the world today.
Racism isn't so easy to apply numbers too. It exists systematically, in all aspects of life. This is not to say people are all actively racist, but the atrocities of the past have snowballed to a point now where the majority of low-income populations in powerful nations, such as the US, are all black. This phenomenon exists outside of the US, looking at countries such as China and their behaviour towards Taiwanese people, or people from Taipei. Even in Australia and New Zealand, treatment of aboriginal and indigenous people has been atrocious and lead to lower standards of life for those people now.
Over all, both of these cases are extreme and have huge effects on humanity. In my opinion, malaria is the bigger issue. In my opinion, we should prioritise human life before standards of life. That is to say, systematic oppression does occur and is an issue, however if people can not even make it to the age of five then that is a more serious issue that needs to be taken care of immediately.
Racism and malaria are both extremely malicious diseases. The absence of these diseases would make the world a more peaceful place to live in, where resources, time, effort and energy and spent in fighting other battles. Assigning a quantitative measure of the disease's threat is not convenient, since both have their separate -- but equally damaging -- effects. However, I personally believe that racism would be a better disease to eradicate simply because while malaria's abolishment will save thousands of lives, there is no guarantee that an equally decimating disease will not pop up and spread globally. If racism truly had a way to be completely eradicated, not only will society benefit, but human development and progress can sky-rocket; it will no longer be hindered by people unwilling to cooperate because of the difference in their skin colour.
On the other hand, logically speaking, how would you abolish racism? Racism is a mindset -- a mental disease, or defect in attitude. Perhaps extensive campaigns, widespread events and or having a tête-à-tête with people can be set up utilizing the billion dollars. But to what extent will this be effective? If there was a viable and realistic way of using the billion dollars, I would definitely prefer to eliminate racism. Money can accomplish several things, but it is highly unlikely to change the mindset of a person if the person is adamant and egoistic enough.
In conclusion, although I would rather fund the eradication of racism, the lack of practicality -- at least at this point of time -- in abolishing racism is inclining me towards spending those billion dollars to eradicate malaria.
To answer this question, I will delve into some numbers and statistics about both issues. In short, if I had a billion dollars I would spend it on eradicating Malaria.
Malaria is an extremely deadly disease that could easily be prevented with the medical technology we currently own. It is curable and unfortunately not enough funds are raised to cure everybody. A billion dollars could certainly help the cause greatly. According to UNICEF, there are around 1 million deaths each year, most of whom are children. 90% of those cases occur in sub-saharan Africa, where families have difficulties to obtain healthcare and funds to treat themselves. The billion dollar could be used to send nurses directly to these families local villages and treat them, free of charge which would save countless lives.
However, to be able to cure everybody from malaria, the World Health Organisation estimates that we would need at least 5 billion dollars annually to cure the sick and create a prevention plan to eradicate malaria. 1 billion dollars could still save more than a couple hundred thousands of lives and is still much more worthwhile than spending it on racism.
Although racism is a pressing issue of our time, we have come a long way from where we used to be a century ago, and we continue to make progress in the field everyday. I believe the money would be more well sent on malaria because there would be much more lives saved from it. Although thousands of race-related homicides happen every year but it is very difficult to measure and definitely doesn't match the death count of Malaria.
I believe that the money would be better spent on curing Malaria than eradicating racism. I feel like the it would be frankly quite useless because there is no easy way to stop discrimination based on one's skin color or ethnicity. I understand that the best method of approaching this situation would be to tally numbers between the two problems in our world and choose accordingly. However, racism isn't something physical. I don't mean it like 'there is no physical evidence that racism exists'. What I am referring to is that racism can only be resolved if all the nations in the world band together and work on moulding their environments in such a way that the young generations grow up treating all others equal. And in my opinion, a billion dollars would be pocket change for such a massive project. For Malaria however, a billion dollars would directly correlate to better equipment, facilities, researchers working to cure a disease. And once Malaria is cured, it would provide a stepping stone to the world and rally morale from many third world countries.
There’s two ways to consider this question and its conditions and, therefore, two answers. I’ll begin with the easier one: on the basis of whether a billion dollars alone can eradicate either.
The answer, for the first instance, is no to both. According to an NCBI study, the total cost to eliminate malaria and prevent its reintroduction will be in the ballpark of 8 to 9 times the allowance that this thunk allows us. Very well, let’s assume that a billion dollars was only to mean ‘a large sum of money’ and that large sum of money is now 9 billion dollars, and we can very feasibly cure malaria. Now to racism; can ‘a large sum of money’ eradicate a social issue that’s plagued mankind since the one hairless primate realized that the other was not quite the same color?
Racism is described as any of various forms of antagonism against members of another “race”, on the basis of the belief that one’s own race is superior or another’s is inferior in any given quality or qualities. It isn’t something as tangible as malaria, existing as an ideology solely in the minds of people. To eradicate racism, then, is to somehow use money alone to completely annihilate racism. An honorable goal and doubtless any considerable amount of money could significantly expedite awareness and education about racism (if that were, indeed, the modus operandi for eradicating racism; no comment on mind-wipe tech or a racist genocide) but, unfortunately, there is only so much money could do when unaccompanied by the appropriate and entirely necessary minimum amount of time it takes for generations’ worth of instilled and taught father-to-son prejudice to be eradicated. Simply put, money doesn’t do much if people don’t do much. The answer here, then, is to invest in malaria.
For a more interesting – though decidedly less practical – approach to the question, let’s assume that both can be eradicated in the simple allocation of a billion dollars. It is now left to us to compare the outcomes of eradicating one or the other. Of the two, malaria has the more obvious death toll, with a declining average of around a million lives a year and another 200 million whose lives are affected by it, give or take for both figures. The costs of racism are a lot more difficult to appraise, but it is not at all erroneous to claim that it negatively impacts the lives of not only those in first-world countries as many arguments would indicate – through workplace discrimination, police brutality and whatnot – but those in less developed nations too. Genocides and ethnic cleansings are racially-motivated atrocities too – the most notable, but barely the most recent, being the holocaust. On the whole, racism and related ideologies have caused 62 million deaths by some estimates, over the last 100 years; putting an end to racism is putting an end to any further incidence to these.
Even so, comparing previous occurrences of racism and malaria are not entirely accurate nor predictive of what we might prevent if we eradicate one or the other. Malaria-caused deaths, for one, have been declining and with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation pledging 10 billion dollars over a decade, it can safely be said that even without the thunk’s billion or so dollars, malaria can be eradicated within the first half of the century. Racism and its various issues, too, have shown upwards trends, with civil rights movements and international action. Consider this, however: nationalists, fascists and not entirely truthful polemicists are increasingly coming to power, gaining favor by playing on the people’s racial and tribal fears. To eradicate racism in a political climate like this is to cut off the pipeline; without played-up racial concerns clouding and exaggerating more prominent social and economic issues, decisions can be made more effectively and efficiently, and to tackle issues of systemic poverty that aggravate various health-related issues – among others – and may ultimately even assist in controlling and eradicating malaria. It’s two birds with one stone and a little bit more time.
On the surface, it’s easy to spot that malaria brings about more casualties and deaths; that it leaves families helpless, torn, and weeping. It is most certainly a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.
However, with racism, it’s not just about the death toll and the quality of life—though they play a huge part too—it’s about something bigger. Racism stunts human progress. It divides. It tears apart. It pulls us back and retracts from the progress we are already making.
The world has so many things that need fixing, and a billion dollars just won’t suffice. So I need to be smart, and invest my (hypothetical *sad* ) money on something that will yield greater returns—eradicating racism.
With racism eradicated, or at the very least, lessened, humanity as a whole will be able to break down other problems that come right at us. Malaria won’t be a forgotten issue, on the contrary, there will be greater concern. With racism out of the picture, people will be eager to help; volunteers, resources, and financial support, you name it!
If I had a billion dollars to spend on humanity, I would use it to eradicate malaria as it is a health related issue which would therefore save so many lives as eradicating racism – although this is a social issue, this can be solved and eradicated by the use of speeches, protests, government decisions and posters and other forms of increasing awareness on the issue of racism. However, racism is a big social issue – malaria every year affects the lives of millions of infants, children, adults, their family and friends – and the complete removal of a disease can end this suffering of humanity as this impact of malaria on one individual can affect another individual and the death caused and the suffering when have this disease malaria can really cause pain not only to the idnividual itself but those that also care for them, therefore I would use it to eradicate malaria knowing that it won’t be able to infect anyone else as it would be extinct as well as racism can be solved through other means and media.
Racism is based on the belief that one’s own race is superior or another’s is inferior in any given quality or qualities. It is a mentality, or a faulty one, rather. Regardless, it exists solely as an ideology. Malaria, on the other hand, is a deadly disease that could easily be prevented with the medical technology we currently own. It is curable and unfortunately not enough funds are raised to cure everybody.
A billion dollars is a large amount, so lets look at this on a case-by-case basis on where the greater good may be achieved. According to UNICEF, most patients suffering from malaria have difficulties to obtain healthcare and funds to treat themselves. The billion dollars could be used to send healthcare directly to these patients for treatment free of charge which would save countless lives.
However, If racism truly had a way to be completely eradicated, not only will society benefit, but human development and progress can sky-rocket; it will no longer be hindered by people unwilling to cooperate because of the difference in their skin colour. In a world where we encourage more minorities and oppressed groups to speak up, we simultaneously don’t do a lot to abolish prevalent mindsets.
On the other hand, logically speaking, how would you abolish racism? Racism is a mindset - a mental disease. Perhaps extensive campaigns or widespread events can be set up utilizing the billion dollars. But to what extent would that be effective? If there was a viable and realistic way of using the billion dollars, I would definitely prefer to eliminate racism. Money can accomplish several things, but it is highly unlikely to change the mindset of a person if the person is adamant and egoistic enough, which we have a huge issue with dealing especially today.
Over all, both of these cases are extreme and have huge effects on humanity. However, as mentioned above, we should prioritise human life before standards of life. That is to say, systematic oppression does occur and is an issue, however if people can not even make it to the age of five then that is a more serious issue that needs to be taken care of immediately.
I’d choose malaria here, partly because the number of people dying from malaria far outweighs the number of people dying due to racially motivated acts of violence or discrimination, and partly because I don’t (if you’ll pardon the pun) buy into the idea that racism can be solved with money. No doubt quite a few people could be showed the error of their ways through education, but there are several more people to whom a deep-seated hatred of a race is nigh-impossible to unlearn. Even assuming every single person on Earth alive today was rid of racist thoughts, there’s nothing to stop it from occurring again in the future. Even if racism isn’t learned from parents, hatred, envy and jealousy will always exist, and racism will simply serve as an outlet for it. That being said, I do think it is a bit reductive of me to simply compare death counts when trying to identify the bigger issue. Racism is an incredibly pervasive problem in our societies, often manifesting itself in the form of unconscious decisions. It’s not likely to go anywhere anytime in the foreseeable future, but it is very likely that malaria can go the way of polio even without our magic pile of money.
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