10 things to know about progress in international development
January 23, 2016 5:03 PM Subscribe
10 things to know about progress in international development (.pdf) Around the world, amazing progress is being made.
More than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme
poverty since 1990, with major gains made in health
and education and in other areas that contribute to
human well-being.
Lots of problems remain of course. And you can still be very poor and not be below the $1.25 (in $2005) line. But a big deal.
Lots of problems remain of course. And you can still be very poor and not be below the $1.25 (in $2005) line. But a big deal.
Yes. This is good news on a scale that is almost unimaginable. Despite all the other issues in the world, billions of people are better educated, out of desperate poverty, and living longer. I know we will get the MeFi worries about resource usage etc, and that isn't wrong. But it has been an amazing decade for humanity in a lot of ways, despite all the bad.
posted by blahblahblah at 6:18 PM on January 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by blahblahblah at 6:18 PM on January 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
santb, that was an extremely helpful chart.
posted by sy at 6:33 PM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sy at 6:33 PM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Something like 70% of that 1 billion has been in China. I wonder why they left that part out?
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 11:25 PM on January 23, 2016
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 11:25 PM on January 23, 2016
Always good to be reminded of what's been and is still being accomplished, given how deeply the media is slanted towards negativity and fear.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:50 AM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:50 AM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I think that whenever we are driven to wring our hands about the demise of the middle class in America, we should remind ourselves of this. This is good news on an epic scale.
posted by newdaddy at 6:18 AM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by newdaddy at 6:18 AM on January 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
The real story is this: We, as a species know with a great degree of certitude how to lift people out of poverty, how to improve the health and well being of everyone in our society.
It is education. It is free access to health care. It is investment in infrastructure. It is freely giving money, resources and opportunity to people because they are poor, not because they meet some crazy threshold of "deserving" it.
It works, consistently, throughout the world in all types of cultures and societies.
It is literally the antithesis of the right wing austerity politics. (When and where has that ever been a successful policy?)
posted by Freen at 8:49 AM on January 24, 2016 [6 favorites]
It is education. It is free access to health care. It is investment in infrastructure. It is freely giving money, resources and opportunity to people because they are poor, not because they meet some crazy threshold of "deserving" it.
It works, consistently, throughout the world in all types of cultures and societies.
It is literally the antithesis of the right wing austerity politics. (When and where has that ever been a successful policy?)
posted by Freen at 8:49 AM on January 24, 2016 [6 favorites]
Seriously, from the PDF: any of the policies implemented would be anathema to Republicans, especially in this new "Trump/Cruz" era , yet those policies have been unreasonably effective.
posted by Freen at 8:59 AM on January 24, 2016
posted by Freen at 8:59 AM on January 24, 2016
« Older Breaking down David Bowie's 'Heroes' -... | She’s actually really lazy Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Horizontal axis: Global income distribution percentile.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:24 PM on January 23, 2016 [15 favorites]