Random House Books for Young Readers The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities Our Time

The Christian Gospel quotes Jesus as saying that the poor will always be amongst us, which seems to make any eradication of poverty in the world hopeless. But the book "The End of Poverty" gives one hope that world poverty can, in fact, be eliminated, at least at the "extreme poverty" level. And the book gives us a wealth of factual information to make the problem more understandable...and not so hopeless. I highly recommend the book to those who seek to be better versed in knowledge of poverty in the world. Jeffrey Sachs is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. 2002 to 2006, he was the Director of the United Nations Millennium Project Millennium Development Goals. He is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post. In the book's preface, Sachs tells us that his purpose for writing the book is primarily to promote the idea that world poverty (later defined as "extreme poverty) can be eradicated in "our time." He tells us: * More than 20,000 people die each day of extreme poverty * The $450 billion per year (actually more) that the U.S. spends on its military is about 30 times more than the U.S. spends per year to help the poorest of the poor * Ending poverty is a better way to seek peace than the military solution * The $15 billion the U.S. spends per year to help the poorest of the poor is but a tiny percentage of the U.S. income And, in an early chapter, he gives us some basic statistics on poverty in the world: * About 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, living on pennies per day * About 1.5 billion live in poverty, or above mere subsistence * Another 2.5 billion or so live in the middle-income world * The remaining 1 billion people live in the high-income world * Those in extreme poverty tend to be caught in a "poverty trap" Some good news is that the number of those in extreme poverty has dropped from about 1.5 billion in 1981 to about 1.1 billion today, despite an increase in the total number of people in the world. He also tells us that most people who live in extreme poverty live in East Asia, South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa. (Surprising to me is that the percentage of those living in Latin America in extreme poverty is only about 10 percent.) But between 1981 and 2001, the numbers of those living in extreme poverty in East Asia have dropped significantly, while those in South Asia have remained about the same, with the numbers doubling in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clearly, extreme poverty in the world is being concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some valuable insight is in the history of world poverty. Per Sachs, until the early 1800's just about everyone in the world was dirt poor. Life expectancy was low, relative to today's ages, and most were living as farmers. As the world entered the modern economic growth, the population of the world rose accordingly, not really taking off much until 1800. Then, there were about 900 people in the world. Thus, says Sachs, "The gulf between the world's rich and poor countries is therefore a new phenomenon." It is here, that Sachs hopes to add insight. He would claim that economic development is not a zero-sum game. Everyone can win. The rich have NOT gotten rich because the poor have gotten poor - or because the poor have been exploited by the rich. No, technology is what is behind the long-term increases in income in the new world: the steam engine, chemical fertilizers, electricity, etc. And it was Britain that advanced the first, due to factors including its low cost of sea transportation, its relative social and political stability and its abundance of coal. As food production rises, fewer and fewer need to be farmers, and the division of labor increases. A second wave of industrialization emerges by the end of the 1900's, with Europe dominating in this first age of globalization. Says Sachs, "There is no single explanation for why certain areas of the world remain poor, there is also no single remedy." But for those caught in the "poverty trap," there is no way out without help. These people lack roads, trucks, irrigation channels and power. They have no capital, and no way to save. Over time, those caught in this poverty trap get poorer and poorer. And in Sub-Saharan Africa, they have the entrenched problem of malaria, plus a geography that makes it more difficult to escape the poverty trap. The poor also have an innovation gap for a variety of reasons, and the countries with extreme poverty get stuck with the highest fertility rates. Two countries with dramatically reduced fertility rates over the past 30 years or so are Bangladesh and Iran. In general, there is an inverse relationship between the fertility rate and the GDP per capita. Per Sachs, the most important determinant of poverty is the ability/inability to raise food. Over the past several decades, Asian countries have been able to increase food production and to participate in the "green revolution." This can be followed by higher literacy and lower fertility rates. In contrast, those trapped in rural farming communities are "caught in a spiral of rising populations and stagnant or falling food production, per person." Per Sachs, the first goal is to put an end to extreme poverty; the second is to give those still poor a "chance to climb the ladder of development." Sachs is fully supportive of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. He gives us a full chapter about the mechanics of this, before launching into five chapters on economic/poverty details involved with five countries: Bolivia, Poland, Russia, China and India. Then, there are two chapters on Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by a chapter about how the George W. Bush administration shifted its attention from world poverty to the War in Iraq. The final seven chapters of the book detail Sachs' arguments for implementing an end to extreme poverty in the world. The titles of the chapters speak for themselves: * On-the-ground solutions for ending poverty * Making the investments needed to end poverty * A global compact to end poverty * Can the rich afford to help the poor? * Myths and magic bullets * Why we should do it * Our generation's challenge Despite the depth and breadth of information contained, I found the book to be a pleasant read. Ideas and information are repeated, but in a reinforcement way. And I found the book, ultimately, to be up-lifting. I'll end this review with some quotes that may prove that point: "The poor countries must take ending poverty seriously, and will have to devote a greater share of their national resources to cutting poverty rather than to war, corruption, and political infighting....Many poor countries today pretend to reform while rich countries pretend to help them." "Boring as it may seem, we need to fix the `plumbing' of international development assistance....these pipes are clogged or simply too narrow...." "Ghana (my note: where President Obama recently visited) is one of the best governed and managed countries in Africa....Ghana took seriously the Millennium Development Goals." "...success in ending the poverty trap will be much easier than it appears." "...the Millennium Development Goals can be financed within the bounds of the official development assistance that the donor countries have already promised." "Eliminating poverty at the global scale is a global responsibility that will have global benefits....I reject the plaintive cries of the doomsayers who say that ending poverty is impossible." "The movements against slavery, colonialism, and racism share some basic features....Ultimately, with a sudden shift in public attitudes, they transformed the impossible into the inevitable. In the same way, the end of poverty will come quickly, marked by a rapid transition."

Inspiring read, great story teller

From a well-known academic, this book is a must-read for student and practitioners alike. It's a classic in socio-economic discussions.

MARAVILHOSO!!!

J'ai un ami voyageur qui a fait un tour du monde de 5 ans pour mieux découvrir le monde et les enjeux de développement. Lorsqu'il m'a dit que ce livre (qui parle des enjeux de développement économique) était un de meilleurs qu'il n'a jamais lu, j'ai acheté ce livre, bien m'en a fait. Parlons de l'auteur d'abord. Classé à deux reprises comme étant l'un des 100 hommes les plus influents du monde par le célèbre magazine Times, Jeffrey Sachs a entre autres conseillé la Bolivie durant les années 1980 sur la stratégie à mettre en place pour lutter contre l'hyper inflation. Au début des années 1990, il a également conseillé le gouvernement Polonais sur la stratégie à mettre en œuvre pour assurer la transition du système communiste vers un système de livre échange. Voila pour le personnage. Parlons du livre maintenant. Enormément de gens ont des idées reçues sur le développement dans le monde. Beaucoup de gens pensent que si certains pays sont pauvres, c'est que leurs habitants sont paresseux ou corrompus. Beaucoup d'autres pensent qu'il y a trop de pauvres pour être tous aidés. C'est pourtant une grosse erreur. Dans son livre, Jeffrey D Sachs fait tomber un énorme nombre de mythes. J'ai notamment découvert que: - Si 1 milliard d'humains vivent avec moins de 1$, c'est car ils sont victimes de qu'il appelle la trappe à pauvreté. Lorsque les gens sont tellement pauvres qu'ils parviennent à peine à se nourrir, ils ne peuvent pas épargner le moindre centime pour l'avenir. A la moindre pénurie sévère de nourriture, ces personnes tomberont rapidement malade - voire pire - ne pourront avoir accès aux soins et seront encore moins productifs au champ, accentuant encore un peu plus la trappe à pauvreté. Sortir de la trappe à pauvreté est impossible par soi même, mais il suffit de très peu d'aide extérieure pour aider ces personnes à en sortir. Dans un village de 1000 habitants très pauvre d'Afrique (Kenya de mémoire), Sachs estime à 70 dollars pendant 5 ans les sommes nécessaires à investir dans les équipements de base (construction d'un puits, pompe à eau, construction d'un dispensaire, recrutement d'un médecin et d'une infirmière et médicaments de base, 1 véhicule motorisé pour le village, accès aux télécommunications et au microcrédit) pour sortir le village de la trappe à pauvreté. Bref, il suffit de 350 000 dollars (environ 250 000 euros) seulement pour sortir durablement un village de la pauvreté et enclencher le cercle vertueux du développement. Si les gens sont plus riches, ils peuvent épargner un peu d'argent, acheter des engrais, produire plus de nourriture, épargner encore plus, payer les frais d'école de leurs enfants et ainsi de suite... Utopique? Fournir 70 dollars par an (durant 5 ans) pour aider la totalité des 1 milliards d'humains vivant en situation d'extreme pauvreté à sortir de ce cercle vicieux couterait aux pays riches 70 milliards de dollars seulement. C'est 10 fois moins que le seul budget militaire des Etats-Unis... Partant de ce constat (oui la fin de la pauvreté est possible pour un coût extrêmement modique), Jeffrey Sachs explique dans son livre quelles sont les nombreuses causes du sous-développement (causes géographiques, climatiques, politiques...) et donne une méthode et une stratégie concrète sur comment mettre fin à l'extrême pauvreté dans le monde Pragmatique, concret, optimiste, ce livre est un excellent ouvrage (la preuve: Bono a accepté de le préfacer). Loin des clichés sur les pays en développement véhiculé par les médias de masse, ce livre vous aidera à mieux comprendre le monde contemporain et les grands enjeux de développement dans le monde. Bref, c'est un excellent ouvrage passionnant que je vous recommande