End of Poverty (Part 5): The breakdown
by Catherine LaineFebruary 2nd, 2007
I’m on the Acela (I missed my train by 30 seconds. Bah! That was an expensive 30 seconds.) So have a good deal of time to sit and write about my thoughts on Jeff Sachs book “The End of Poverty” without worrying that my battery will die.
Overall, “The End of Poverty” comes off as a well thought out sensible read with the hype being well justified. I’m not going to give are review. I’ll leave that to better writers than I. The biggest thing is that Sachs isn’t talking about ending all poverty by 2025, which seems absurdly optimistic, but extreme poverty.
The definitions of extreme and moderate poverty:
Pg. 20.
Extreme poverty means that households can’t meet their basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry, unable to access health care, lack the amenities of safe drinking water and sanitation, cannot afford education for some or all of the children, and perhaps like rudimentary shelter… and basic articles of clothing such as shoes…. >$1/dayModerate poverty generally refers to conditions of life in which basic needs are met but just barely. $1-2/day
The worldwide breakdown
1 billion: Extreme poverty; subsistence living, the Grim Reaper is always hovering nearby waiting to pick off a few
1.5 billion: Moderate poverty; chronic financial hardship, lack of basic services like drinking water and sanitation
2.5 billion: Middle class; they are like the Jefferson’s: moving on up.
1 billion: High income, Europe, North America + high incomes individuals living in developing countries. Yup, compared to most of humanity, you are filthy stinking rich.
He feels and I would have to agree that it is altogether possible to get that 1 billion of the world’s population into the economic game by 2025. We just have to want it bad enough. And by want I mean willing to spend 0.7% of our national income on development assistance.
After this, I have one more post on structural adjustment, and then we’re off to the next book in the book club series Gaviotas. I don’t read/write nearly enough about appropriate technology, so it’ll be a nice change.
Related Posts
AIDG Book Club: End of Poverty (Part 1) - Jeff Sachs and Angelina Jolie
AIDG Book Club: End of Poverty (Part 2) - A question of corruption
End of Poverty (Part 3): Did you know?
End of Poverty (Part 4): A few for the highlight reel
End of Poverty (Part 5): The breakdown
So do you think we can end extreme poverty by 2025?
February 4th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
After reading Sachs, do you think that it is possible to end extreme poverty on this schedule? If the money was spent as he recommends would it be effective?
I’m curious what your reaction is to criticism of Sachs like http://armchaircapitalists.blogspot.com/2004/11/why-jeffrey-sachs-is-wrong.html or http://www.nyu.edu/fas/institute/dri/Easterly/SachsDebates.htm.
Miles