Extreme poverty could be wiped out by 2030, World Bank estimates show

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Guardian

Extreme global poverty could be eradicated by the end of the next decade under optimistic new targets unveiled by the World Bank that have divided development experts.

The bank's president, Jim Yong Kim, claimed signs of recovery in the global economy meant there was now an "opportunity to create a world free from the stain of poverty" by 2030.

"We are at an auspicious moment in history, when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favourable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance – for the first time ever – to end extreme poverty within a generation," he said in a speech in Washington.

The World Bank's upbeat projections, defining extreme poverty as the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day, come as governments and international institutions prepare to set new targets to update the 15-year Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/02/global-poverty-wiped-out-world-bank

[bemildred]

1. Extreme poverty could be wiped out next week.

We have plenty of money.

[peacebird]

2. great, we average folk in the states will be brought down to the income levels of china by 2030...

Because we all know the world bank only cares about Mittens and his kind, not the rest of us....

[Amonester]

3. Yep. Xtreme poverty will be wiped out for sure...

All the Xtremely poor will be long dead, thanks to the WBankters' $t-Austerity.

If not, global famine will take care of it, thanks to Xtremely deregulated resource exploitation.

[struggle4progress]

4. That's a bit down the road, isn't it? If every four seconds, somebody dies of starvation,

that's 130 million dead by 2030

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. You're forgetting one thing, Mr Kim.

... the world bank is run by bankers.

[valerief]

6. the only way is to eliminate money. nt

[ronnie624]

8. Exactly right.

Economic theory needs to adhere to the Laws of Thermodynamics, and its goal needs to be the provision of the basic needs of every human on earth, instead of the enrichment of a tiny fraction of the human population through the nonsensical concept of 'capital'.

[DonCoquixote]

13. nice thought, however

do keep in mind that we are not flames,and by that, I mean that we can assign value to things that will not ever add up in terms of numbers or empirical data. Can you give a numerical value to a sonnet, or a cup of tea? I say this because the whole reason we made money is that, while barter can work for some things, there is going to be a point where, even if your partners will happily give you all the food you want, what you need is a cooking pot.

[ronnie624]

15. Humans and economies

are both thermodynamic systems that are driven by the conversion, utilization and dissipation of matter and energy. As such they are both subject to strict physical laws. You may fervently wish to extract more 'value' from a system than you put into it, but you are fooling yourself into believing in the impossible.

I understand the need for the concept of capital as a necessary tool in a sophisticated economy. I have problems with a capitalist system that enables a tiny fraction of the human population, to accumulate the vast bulk of the available material and capital resources, while billions live in poverty. This inequality is a major source of conflict among humans, and a distraction from the things we need to be doing, in order to secure our civilization's long term survival.

[DonCoquixote]

17. your quote

"You may fervently wish to extract more 'value' from a system than you put into it, but you are fooling yourself into believing in the impossible. "

I understand that the Mona Lisa,for all it's glory, is a piece of canvas. However, the fact is, we humans do value and need things that will not become numbers. Failing to accept that will result in a lot of plans that look great on paper, but sink like the Titanic once they hit the sea.

The reason I bring this out is that, if we are to beat the right wing, we have to speak to people as they are, not as we would like them to be. One of the major problems the left had it that they refused to speak to the common man on their terms, with respect. I understand that to many, art, recreation, and other things may seem like so much useless twaddle, but if we are to redesign human thought, we have to work with the material we are given. If not, then when our plans fail, the forces of stupidity will cry out the equivalent of "in Egypt there was food."

And I understand that our capitalist system,as is, is a waste; it does not even do a very good job of protecting property, or even defining capital itself. The deratives nonsense illustrates that clearly. Wall Street was unwilling, or worse, completely unable, to establish the value of so many assets. Even if every Wall Street pirate tried to have a change of heart, and undo the mess, there is a very good chance that they could not. What we have is a system that uses the idea of capital to confuse and distort.

The only reason why I say that "thermodynamics" is not as useful is because, the common man does not think of thermodynamics in any other sense than cooking or coats. To get humanity to think of themselves as atoms, and yet capable of acting and choosing, is itself a major, major leap,one that started in the renaissance, and has a long way to go, with a lot of resistance. In order to get there, we need to survive ourselves, and that will nto be done unless we boil things down to simple things that can be understood by simple people.

[caseymoz]

7. If the World Bank is making this claim

They must be worried. I'm thinking that they're actually anticipating a lot of unrest and political upheaval in the next decade and are hoping this message allays some of the discontent.

[AngryOldDem]

12. The more I read the replies here, the more I think of Malthus.

Not sure what the World Bank is thinking.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Link to Kim's speech:

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2013/04/02/world-bank-group-president-jim-yong-kims-speech-at-georgetown-university (transcript)
http://live.worldbank.org/within-our-grasp-world-free-poverty (video)

A lot about climate change in there too - and it ends invoking Martin Luther King.

[joshcryer]

10. Gapminder.

This is an unsurprising result, civilization development is one way, the question is how badly climate change is going to impact us as a species. I think we're looking at a small die off, unfortunately. A billion or so. After that we'll be OK I think.

[AngryOldDem]

11. Sounds like a reincarnation of the trickle-down theory on a global scale to me.

Signs of recovery in the global economy will still mean grinding poverty for most of the world, as the 1% keeps the profit from that recovery all to itself.

While the story is optimistic, color me very skeptical.

[Quantess]

14. Does anyone think it'll actually happen? I don't!

Unless someone starts farming the lower classes for meat, there will be hungry masses of poor people.

[Sunlei]

16. so the 1.50 a day paycheck corps will pay all the workers will max profits

workers on the mexican border must be thrilled with their 7.00 a day