Date: 2025-04-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021440
POVERTY
PROGRESS IN REDUCING POVERTY
Distribution of per-capita income ... 1800, 1975 and 2015
PROGRESS IN REDUCING POVERTY
Distribution of per-capita income ... 1800, 1975 and 2015
Burgess COMMENTARY
The current state of the world is not good, but a lot more people have had the benefit of progress and have a decent quality of life than 200 years ago. Because of population growth, there are more people living on the equivalent of less than $2.00 a day in 2015 than in 1800.
There has been an impressive improvement in productivity in this time, and a more equitable distribution of the benefit of this progress would make it possible for everyone to have a modestly decent standard of living. As things are, far too many people have far less than they need to live.
Peter Burgess