Title: 1' Jeffrey D' Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, London: Penguin Books,
1 1. Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty
Economic Possibilities for Our Time, London
Penguin Books, 2005.2. An excerpt from 1 can be
found in Time, March, 2005.3. Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Can Extreme Poverty Be Eliminated? Scientific
American, September, 2005.4. Pranab Bardhan,
Does Globalization Help or Hurt the Worlds
Poor? Scientific American, April, 2006.5. The
Earth Institutehttp//www.earth.columbia.edu/6
. United Nations Millennium Project
http//www.unmillenniumproject.org/
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3Almost all of us were once extremely poor. The
industrial revolution ushered in ways to conquer
famine, disease, and ignorance.
4Today more than one billion people live in
extreme poverty. They struggle to provide the
fundamentals adequate nutrition, clean drinking
water, safe shelter, basic sanitation and health
care. Every day more than 20,000 people die as a
result of extreme poverty.
- If economic development is a ladder with higher
rungs representing steps up the path to economic
well-being, there are roughly one billion people
around the world, one sixth of humanity,
whoaretoo hungry, ill or destitute even to get
a foot on the first rung of the development
ladder. 1,18 - A few rungs up the development ladder is the
upper end of the low-income world, where roughly
another 1.5 billion people face problems like
chronic financial hardship and a lack of basic
amenities such as safe drinking water and
functioning latrines. All told, the extreme poor
and the poor make up around 40 of humanity.
1,19 - The goal is to end extreme poverty, not to end
all poverty, and still less to equalize world
incomes or to close the gap between the rich and
the poor. This may eventually happen, but if so,
the poor will have to get rich on their own
effort. 1,289
5Political corruption is not the cause of poverty
poverty is the cause of political corruption.
- Affluent nations have repeatedly plundered and
exploited poor countries through slavery,
colonial rule and unfair trade practices. Yet it
is perhaps more accurate to say that exploitation
is the result of poverty rather than the cause of
it. Poverty is generally the result of low
productivity per worker, which reflects poor
health, lack of job-market skills, patchiness of
infrastructure roads, power plants, utility
lines, shipping ports), chronic malnutrition, and
the like. Exploitation has played a role in
producing some of these conditions, but deeper
factors geographic isolation, endemic disease,
ecological destruction, challenging conditions
for food production) have tended to be more
important and difficult to overcome without
external help. 3, 60
6Asian Poverty
- China The Republican Revolution, The Communist
Revolution, the Japanese Invasion, Geographical
Inaccessibility, Lack of Infrastructure the
sick man of Asia. Today, China has the fastest
growing economy in the world. - Bangladesh condemned to extreme poverty.
--Henry Kissinger, 1971. Today, her burgeoning
garment industry (GAP, Polo, Yves Saint Laurent,
Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny, etc.) has enabled her to
begin ascent on the ladder of economic
development these factories offer not only
opportunities for personal freedom, but also the
first rung on the ladder of rising skills and
income for themselves and, within a few years,
for their children. Virtually every poor
country that has developed successfully has gone
through these first stages of industrialization.
1.12 - The jobs for women in the cities and in rural
off-farm micro-enterprises a new spirit of
womens rights and independence and empowerment
dramatically reduced rates of child mortality
rising literacy of girls and young women and
crucially, the availability of family planning
and contraception have made all the difference
for these women. 1,14
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8The end of absolute poverty is possible if a
concerted global effort is undertaken, as the
nations of the world promised when they adopted
the Millennium development Goals at the United
Nations Millennium Summit in 2000.
- We the Peoples The Role of the United Nations
in the 21st Century. - The Millennium Declaration.
- The Millennium Development Goals.
- 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- 2) Achieve universal primary education
- 3) Promote gender equality empower women
- 4) Reduce Child mortality
- 5) Improve maternal health
- 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases. - 7) Ensure Environmental sustainability
- 8) Develop a global partnership for
development
9Clinical Economics The Health of the Human Body
is Analogous to the Health of the World Economy
- The body and the economy are both complex
systems. - Treatment for the ills of complex systems
requires differential diagnoses followed up by
targeted interventions. - Clinical economics utilizes the skills of
development practitioners trained to diagnose
and treat the causes of economic distress in
impoverished regions. - Optimal treatment strategies are holistic,
requiring a thorough understanding of the
history, culture, politics, and economics of
developing areas. - Periodic monitoring and evaluation are essential.
10 The Big Five Development Interventions
- Investments in Agriculture improved fertilizers,
fallows, cover crops, seeds, grain storage, and
so on. - Investments in Basic Health clinics with
essential services from doctors nurses,
region-specific fundamentals for example
anti-malarial nets and medicines, oral
re-hydration therapies, and HIV/AIDS treatment. - Investments in Education Meals for primary
students in impoverished areas, vocational
training in skills related to agriculture, heath,
and infrastructure maintenance and improvement. - Investments in Power, Transportation, and
Communications Off-grid diesel electric
generators can be efficiently utilized to power
hospitals, factories, villages.. - Safe Drinking Water Sanitation Stream
protection, well drilling and utilization,
rainwater collecting technologies, etc.
11A large-scale and targeted public investment
effort could eliminate extreme poverty by 2025
- International poverty assistance from affluent
nations needs to be doubled to about 160 billion
per year. - Taking into account related factors spending on
major infrastructure projects, climate change
mitigation, post conflict reconstruction, and so
on, rich donor nations need to target .007 of
their respective gross national products to the
mission of ending extreme poverty. - This goal was set and agreed to by all 147nations
of the developed world at the UN Millennium
Conference.
12If we can, should we do it?
- There is no good reason not to do it.
- We agreed to the MDG.
- It would serve our rational self-interest.
- It would assuage personal and moral guilt.
13Humanity Informed Compassion
- The ancient Chinese philosopher, Mencius
recognized the existence of a virtue that he
called ? humanity. Mencius said, Suddenly
seeing a baby about to fall into a well, anyone
would be heart stricken with pity, neither
because they want to curry favor with the babys
parents, nor because they want praise from
neighbors and friends, nor because they hate the
babys cries. This is why I say that everyone
has a heart that cannot bear to see others
suffer. The Book of Mencius, IIA6 - David Hume thought we could learn to feel
approval and disapproval of things from a non-ego
centric point of view. In the Enquiry he says
that seeing human happiness or misery excites in
our breast a sympathetic movement of pleasure or
uneasiness. He calls the sentiment we feel from
an egoless point of view humanity, and
describes it as a spark of friendship for
humankind some particle of the dove kneaded into
our frame, along with the elements of the wolf
and the serpent. -
From Garner, Beyond
Morality