“The Mexican people are increasingly middle class, and Mexico has substantially become a middle-class society. This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.” PeopleClassPovertyMiddleRootsHistoricalSignificantDespiteInequalityMiddle ClassMexicoMexican Author:Alan Bersin
“Growing up in Kenya, slum life was not far away. I had family that lived in slums, so I visited them often, and so I've seen and interacted with abject poverty. But I also know that because of that, poverty is not the definition of the people that live there.” PeopleKnowsPovertyGrowing UpGrowingDefinitionsFar AwayKenyaSlums Author:Lupita Nyong'o
“I have seen a lot of men, for example, who will make a will and include their daughters whether they are married or not. And perhaps the greatest change of attitude is that today, at least in Kenya, if you don't send your child to school - unless it's a matter of poverty or religion, and it is not that there no schools - then people wonder, "why the hell don't you send your children to school?" Now that's a very big jump from when I was going to school and educating girls was an exception to the rule.” PeopleIfsMenChildrenMatterBigsTodaySchoolGirlAttitudeWonderPovertyHellExampleMarriedDaughterOur ChildrenYour ChildrenExceptionKenyaException To The Rule Author:Wangari Maathai
“Common sense, to me, is simple. And I've never understood why there aren't a lot of people trying to figure out how the United States became this special place and then try to replicate it around the world, because that's the solution to the human condition. The solution to poverty, the solution to misery, the solution to backwards living is the United States of America. Why not learn how that happened, learn why and how we happened. What is it that made it special?” PeopleWorldTryingHumansMadeStatesAmericaSimpleUnitedCommonPovertyUnited StatesHappenedSpecialConditionsFiguresSolutionsUnderstoodMiseryCommon SenseMade ItAround The WorldWhy NotHuman ConditionUnited States Of AmericaBackwardsSpecial PlacesReplicateSolutions To Poverty Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Many people today in the developed countries are so far removed from poverty and suffering and starvation that they lack empathy for the sufferings of others.” PeopleCountryTodaySufferingPovertyEmpathyStarvationDeveloped CountrySuffering Of Others Author:Mary Robinson
“The majority of people who come to America come for a better life, just like the Italians, the Jews, the Irish, and the Polish did in generations before. A lot of the Irish came here back in the turn of the 19th to the 20th century because there were no opportunities and no options at home for them. There were no jobs and there was extreme poverty. They came here to be able to send money back home.” PeopleHomeAbleJobsAmericaTurnsOpportunityPovertyGenerationsCenturyMajorityJewExtremes20th CenturyBetter LifePolishBack HomeExtreme Poverty Author:Marty Walsh
“In India, the poverty is so vast that the state cannot control it. It can beat people, but it can't prevent the poor from flooding the roads, the cities, the parks and railway station platforms.” PeopleStatesPoorCitiesPovertyBeatsIndiaParksStationsPlatformsRailwayFloodingRailway Station Author:Arundhati Roy
“The bottom quarter of the human population has only three-quarters of one percent of global household income, about one thirty-second of the average income in the world, whereas the people in the top five percent have nine times the average income. So the ratio between the averages in the top five percent and the bottom quarter is somewhere around 300 to one - a huge inequality that also gives you a sense of how easily poverty could be avoided.” PeopleWorldGivingHumansThreePovertyFiveHugePercentBottomAveragePopulationNineIncomeInequalityThirtyQuartersHouseholdAvoidedRatiosHuman Population Author:Thomas Pogge
“Poverty persists, essentially, because the people at the bottom - the bottom quarter and also the bottom half - see the gains from the rising global average income wiped out by severe declines in their relative share.” PeopleHalfPovertyShareGainsBottomAverageIncomeRisingRelativeQuartersDeclinePersistSevere Author:Thomas Pogge
“I see a violation of human rights not in the mere fact that people don't have enough to eat and that they are very vulnerable, but I see it in the fact that the economic institutional order of the world is associated with this very persistent poverty and that different institutional arrangements at the supranational level could stop and even reverse the slide towards ever-greater income disparities.” PeopleWorldHumansDifferentEnoughFactsOrderLevelsPovertyGreaterRightsEconomicMereHuman RightsIncomeVulnerableReverseArrangementsPersistentSlidesViolationDisparityViolation Of Human Rights Author:Thomas Pogge
“The collective shortfall of the 3.08 billion people (47 percent of world population) who, in 2005, lived below $2.50 per day was $507 billion per annum, which indeed comes to about two-thirds of the present US military budget. This gives us a rough sense of how much the eradication of poverty would cost.” PeopleWorldGivingTwoPovertyMilitaryCostPercentThirdsPopulationBillionsBudgetsCollectivesRoughWorld PopulationUs MilitaryMilitary Budget Author:Thomas Pogge
“Expectations are usually predicated on the idea that the everyday things that happen to ordinary people shouldn't happen to you. People hold the idea of being ordinary in absolute contempt, so when they face an illness, poverty, or any kind of catastrophe, they say, "I can't believe this happened to me." And who did you think it was going to happen to - the woman across the street? It makes them think, "I must be on the wrong path." But what if something you thought was bad was the best thing that ever happened to you? What if that was part of your path?” PeopleIfsThinkingBelieveKindI CanIdeasHappensFacesPovertyPathHappenedStreetsOrdinaryExpectationsAbsolutesEverydayIllnessBest ThingsWhat IfContemptCatastropheOrdinary PeopleWrong PathEveryday Things Author:Caroline Myss
“One of the major causes of poverty is a lack of family planning. Governments and nonprofit organizations need to encourage poor people to use birth control so that they don't have unexpected babies, which will only make poorer families poorer.” PeopleNeedsUseGovernmentCausesPoorPovertyBabyBirthMajorsOrganizationPlanningUnexpectedPoor PeopleBirth ControlNonprofitsFamily PlanningCauses Of Poverty Author:Philip Kotler
“When you look at what [new generation] believe in, how they value diversity, how they believe in science, how they care about the environment, how they believe in, you know, everybody getting a fair shot, how they believe in not discriminating against people for sexual orientation and you know, their belief that we have to work with other countries to create a more peaceful world and to alleviate poverty, that's the majority an entire generation that's coming up behind us.” PeopleKnowsWorldBelieveLooksCountryCareValuesBeliefBehindsPovertyEnvironmentGenerationsDiversityShotsFairsMajorityPeacefulOther CountriesBelieve In YouOrientationNew GenerationAlleviatePeaceful World Author:Barack Obama
“The image of blacks usually is one of people who are suffering from hunger, unemployment, and poverty. The idea of them as agents and activists - as starting revolutions - does not exist in most people's minds. And I think it's very, very important that folks understand how much America was founded on the enslavement of blacks, and how the resistance of blacks to that enslavement has been the spark plug for so many important developments.” PeopleThinkingMindDoeHas BeensImportantIdeasAmericaSufferingPovertyRevolutionDevelopmentStartingHungerFolksResistanceAgentsActivistSparksUnemploymentPlugsEnslavement Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“We love to think this fundamentalism and terrorism is all about poverty, and, of course, it has a connection. You can see that these people not only are poor but they have no outlets. These governments allow no opposition. So what do people do? They go to Islam. It's the only organizational institution where they can express their feelings. But it's not about poverty. I've never seen a single demonstration in which the people have come out with signs saying, "Please give us better roads. Please give us new prenatal clinics. Please give us a new sewage system."” PeopleThinkingGivingFeelingsPoorPovertyIslamTerrorismOrganizational Author:Robert Fisk
“People would rather live in an area of poverty than in an area where there are no jobs, because if they live in poverty, they have a certain sense of hope they can get out of it. If there are no jobs, there's no hope. And bad things come from that.” PeoplePovertyNo Hope Author:John Kasich
“People think that this concept of GDP is scientific economics, partly because it has a precise number and can be quantified. But the underlying concept of "the market" makes it appear as if today's poverty is natural. It makes it appear that Goldman Sachs and Donald Trump are job creators instead of job destroyers. That is illogical, when you think about it.” PeopleThinkingNaturalPovertyIllogical Author:Michael Hudson
“The notion about education has changed and that now it’s sort of much more aligned with, “Well, schools can’t combat poverty. We can’t possibly expect schools to do the work to overcome poverty.” I think that notion which has changed over the last few decades is part, not all, but part of what is maybe leading to people feeling less of a sense of possibility.” PeopleThinkingFeelingsSchoolPovertyPossibilityChangedOvercoming Author:Michelle Rhee
“I think people have to remember where we were in 2009. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We had an unemployment rate in double digits. We had poverty rates soaring. We had kids who were food insecure. Today in 2016, we have a lot less unemployment, a lot less poverty, and a lot fewer kids who are food insecure.” PeopleThinkingKidsTodayRememberPovertyLosingRateInsecureSoar Author:Tom Vilsack
“There's really no way to break that chain - other than winning the lottery. There's no realistic way to end generational poverty other than to actually educate people so that they can get the jobs, so that people can be self-sufficient. And to be self-sufficient around careers - not just jobs, but careers.” PeopleWinningPovertyBreakRealisticEducateLottery Author:Soledad O'Brien
“People in the individual marketplace should have more options. The plan that we - the discussion draft that we have out, actually opens up for people who are zero percent to 100 percent of the federal poverty level, not eligible for Medicaid, would open up the opportunity for them to purchase insurance with help from the federal government.” PeopleHelpingOpportunityIndividualPovertyDiscussion Author:John Thune
“There are many cases in which gifted children have done great things without special school programs. There are also gifted kids who have been to special schools and achieved nothing that has benefited the world as a whole. Without solid evidence, I have no confidence that funding school programs for the intellectually gifted would do more good than the most cost-effective programs to help people in extreme poverty.” PeopleWorldChildrenDoneHelpingKidsSchoolPovertySpecialEvidenceProgramGreat ThingsNo Confidence Author:Peter Singer
“You talk about a hateful bunch of people. They have this hate list. Charles Murray. He has been victimized with riots on college campus because he is depicted as a profound hater on the Southern Poverty Law Center website and the left treats that place like a Bible.” PeopleHatePovertyCollegeProfoundSouthernWebsiteHatefulRiot Author:Rush Limbaugh
“In India you would find people who belong to the 10 richest people in the entire world, and you would find people whose poverty levels are sub-Saharan in fact practically: people who would probably make less than a dollar a day or would only have enough for one meal. Now, to have these kinds of contrasts coexist, is something which boggles my mind. We have a country that is making great economic progress, a country that is making his presence felt all over the world, but at the same time, it is unable to deal with some of these fundamental contradictions in our economic evolution.” PeopleWorldMindKindCountryEnoughPovertyProgressEconomicEvolutionContradictionContrastCoexist Author:Cyril Shroff
“The legacy of the embargo will be Cuba's poverty and desperation. When the island comes out of it, they'll be even more desperate than they are now about the things they think they've missed. I think one of the unintended results of the embargo is that Cuba is quite consumerist - and I'm talking about the people, not the government or the official propaganda.” PeopleThinkingPovertyLegacyPropagandaDesperateDesperation Author:Achy Obejas
“The United States, in people's perverted minds, is responsible for all the destitution and all the poverty and all the victimization around the world and it is our responsibility to let all of these people in precisely because it's our fault they exist as they do.” PeopleWorldMindResponsibilityPovertyResponsible Author:Rush Limbaugh
“There are a lot of Egyptians who live below the poverty line and are preoccupied with meeting basic needs. Therefore, we have to create tangible benefits from nature conservation. Only through economic incentives will we convince people to protect habitats, wildlife, geological formations, cultural heritage sites, etc. We need local communities to cooperate with us, not against us!” PeopleCommunityPovertyEconomicProtectMeetingsConvinceConservation Author:Mindy Baha El Din
“What's most striking is that the world as a whole has made remarkable progress against hunger, poverty and disease. I believe in God, and I see that hundreds of millions of people have escaped from poverty in places like Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Brazil and Britain. That's why, for me, it makes sense that this is God moving in our history.” PeopleWorldBelieveMovingI BelievePovertyProgressHungerMake SenseRemarkableBelieve In GodI Believe In GodEthiopia Author:David Beckmann
“African Americans are doing a lot already, but I think we have an opportunity right now to change politics in a way that will result in substantial help for people in need during the economic crisis. And then as the economy recovers, we can see dramatic progress against hunger and poverty.” PeopleThinkingHelpingOpportunityPovertyEconomyProgressEconomicCrisisHungerAfrican AmericanDramatic Author:David Beckmann
“Most people don't know what it's like to be poor, and to live in poverty. To live in a situation where everything around you - every opportunity is shut. You don't have anyone showing you how to rise above, you don't have any resources, and everyone around you is losing that battle too, then yeah, you want something that you have control over that makes you feel like you're running your brain for a minute.” PeopleRunningOpportunityPoorBrainSituationPovertyLike YouBattleLosingRise Above Author:Alan Sparhawk
“There are people in poverty who, if they have the gumption, say, "I'm leaving here. I'm gonna take three jobs and make it." There are definitely people who do that, and it shapes the rest of their life. And that's almost as unfortunate as someone who says, "Why bother? I'm not even gonna try." There are people consumed by that, and I've been affected by it. It's been a detriment for sure. It was ridiculous, and I don't want to see anyone go through that again. It makes me compassionate, and when I see it, it makes my shoulders tense up, and you remember it.” PeopleTryingRememberPovertyLeavingRidiculousBotherCompassionateUnfortunateWhy Bother Author:Alan Sparhawk
“I mean, you just go down the line, and with any of these issues, it's about rich people staying rich. And using poverty as a weapon against people. That's what we see every day. And I'm not an economist, so I can't speak to the nuances of it, but just common sense tells me the whole thing is corrupt.” PeopleMeanSpeakCommonPovertyRichCommon SenseEconomistRich People Author:Conor Oberst
“What you see around the world is that poverty is not destiny. In other countries, much more systemically, student after student, school after school, year after year, educate poor and disadvantaged young people. And, so, anyone who says that you can't overcome these battles is a huge part of the problem.” PeopleWorldCountryProblemSchoolPoorPovertyDestinyStudentsBattleOvercomingEducateAfter School Author:Arne Duncan
“I think I was meant to be a musician who speaks his mind about social justice issues. And I grew up in a lower middle class family, but a family that had enough money to buy a $50 guitar and a $50 amplifier, and had a basement to rehearse in. What I think the global human cost of this horrific poverty is how many Mozarts or curers of cancer are slaving away in the Maquiladoras along the Tijuana border, or in the Indonesian sweat shops? There are billions of people who will never become the people they could be, or the people they were meant to be, due to crushing poverty.” PeopleThinkingMindEnoughSpeakJusticePovertyMusicianSocial JusticeCancerCrushMiddle ClassMeant To BeHorrific Author:Tom Morello
“Poverty is not an accident of, sort of, an economic spreadsheet. Poverty is a crime. There are criminals involved. And those criminals walk the streets as free men. What my music is about, and what - this from the riots in the streets of Greece and Spain to the people's uprisings in Egypt and Libya and Madison is about is holding those people accountable, those who are responsible for subverting the entire global economy and causing so much misery and then laughing about it with their, you know, clinking their champagne glasses on their yachts.” PeopleMenPovertyLaughingEconomyEconomicCrimeMusic IsResponsibleMiseryGreeceRiotGlobal EconomyYacht Author:Tom Morello
“The solution for rising up kids in the income distributionlies is in creating better childhood environments for kids growing up, especially in low income families. And so what means such things like schools, the quality of neighborhoods. If you think about what's gone on in Baltimore, it's a place of tremendous concentrated poverty. People aren't really seeing a path forward and I think revitalizing places like that can have a huge impact, even in the face of globalization and changes in technology.” PeopleThinkingMeanKidsSchoolQualityPovertyTechnologyGrowing UpPathEnvironmentChildhoodSolutionsNeighborhoodGlobalization Author:Raj Chetty
“Anything would be better in the US than what you have. As a government it's really very low quality, given the fact that this country produces eminent intellectuals, has great universities, and then the people who arrive in government are very mediocre. The Latin American situation has been very different in the first place, because writers have spoken for those who have no voice. The rate of illiteracy, poverty, joblessness in Latin America has been so great throughout our history that if the writers didn't speak out for the people, nobody would.” PeopleDifferentCountrySpeakQualitySituationPovertyRateLatinMediocreLatin AmericaIlliteracy Author:Carlos Fuentes
“I'm not one of these people who thinks everyone born into privilege should wear sack cloth and ashes. But it's something I wrestle with. I know a lot of people who live below the poverty level and have for a long time and it makes them uneasy to think they'll have to interact with people from different economic levels. Everyone has some sort of load put on them, whatever the circumstances they're born into.” PeopleThinkingLongDifferentPovertyEconomicCircumstancesUneasy Author:Daniel Woodrell
“There is still an assumption among many people that to be black is to be lower class. In the last fifteen to twenty years, perhaps even further back than that, there's also been an explosion of a very wealthy black class in the United States, but those people are often treated as special cases: they're athletes, entertainers. Jay-Z. Basketball players. The country metabolizes the fact these rich black people exist, but it seems only to reinforce the idea that every other black person is limping along in poverty.” PeopleCountryBlackPovertyRichPlayerSpecialBasketballAthleteAssumptionWealthyBlack PeopleBasketball Player Author:Ayana Mathis
“I don't think losing things - in my case, the use of my legs - really damages or hurts you. What hurts people a lot is taking humiliation. A lot of the wars going on right now in the Middle East aren't about poverty and exploitation. They're about humiliation. For a long time, the British and French have been humiliating the people of the Middle East, and encouraging people like Israel to do the same. Israel started out as a socialist state, but we always encouraged them to become rather racist and look down on the local inhabitants, which they now do. It's sad that's happened.” PeopleThinkingLongWarHurtPovertyLosingRacistExploitationSocialistHumiliationHumiliating Author:Robert Wyatt
“I think there is a lot of crime caused by desperation, and it doesn't mean that people commit crime because they're poor, but certainly a lot of people who are poor commit crime and they might not if they weren't poor. You understand the difference there? That's not news, but it comes up when I hear people say poverty doesn't affect crime - that crime is still going down in America even though the economy is bad.” PeopleThinkingMeanPoorPovertyEconomyCrimeCommitDesperation Author:Peter Moskos
“It seems to me that large numbers of people are now paying attention to poverty and that large numbers now understand that blaming the poor and the insecure for being poor and insecure is as unseemly as is schoolyard bullying. In that realization lies hope for a reinvigorated discourse around poverty and inequity in modern-day America.” PeopleLyingPoorAttentionPovertyBlameRealizationPay AttentionBullyingInsecure Author:Sasha Abramsky
“Too often the media assumes that "poverty" is an African American or a Latino issue. Of course, that's nonsense. While a higher percentage of the African American and Latino population does live in poverty as compared to the white population, when overall numbers are looked at, it is clear that people of all races, ethnicities, and colors, are represented amongst America's poor.” PeoplePoorPovertyAssumingAfrican AmericanNonsenseLatino Author:Sasha Abramsky
“You can't lift people out of poverty simply by tweaking the tax system, or by raising the minimum wage by a few cents, or by reducing student debt slightly. These might be necessary components of a larger anti-poverty program, but you have to accept they are pieces of a much larger puzzle.” PeopleAcceptingPovertyStudentsTaxesProgramPuzzles Author:Sasha Abramsky
“Ironically, though our society of affluence brings safety and stability, it doesn't bring psychological health. As wealth goes up, suicide and depression rates tend to go up. I read one study that compared women in North America with women in Nigeria, and the group with the highest rates of depression was urban North American women, which is the wealthiest. Now, there are obviously huge stresses that come with poverty, but the poorer the society, the more collaborative people have to be.” PeopleWealthPovertyStudyStressSafetySuicideRatePsychologicalStabilityUrbanNigeria Author:Sebastian Junger
“As a reporter, you know the tropes of how stories on poverty work in any country. A reporter will go to an NGO and say, "Tell me about the good work that you're doing and introduce me to the poor people who represent the kind of help you give." It serves to streamline the storytelling, but it gives you a lopsided cosmos in which almost every poor person you read about is involved with a NGO helping him. Our understanding of poverty and how people escape from poverty, in any country, is quite distorted.” PeopleGivingKindCountryHelpingUnderstandingPoorPovertyStorytellingIntroducingGood WorkPoor People Author:Katherine Boo
“People do make considered choices about whether they want to fight, and how, and they do so from disparate circumstances. But I think there are two important frameworks in which those choices get made. One, their degree of immiseration. The greatest predictor of who will engage in criminal activity is poverty, which tells us that the decisions people make about how unlawful they're willing to be are decisively based in their own experience of immiseration. The second framework is that when people choose to act, they inevitably act where they are.” PeopleThinkingImportantChoicesFightingDecisionPovertyCircumstances Author:Joshua Clover
“The Democrat Party is threatened by people whose economic circumstances improve to the point that they do not need government first and foremost. That's a threat. But this happens when the U.S. economy is humming. There is a lot of upward mobility, and people leave the lower depths of poverty and start traversing a pathway through the middle class to the upper middle class, and as they leave, the Democrats have to replace them. That is what illegal immigration has been since 1965 when Ted Kennedy reintroduced the whole concept after 40 years of no immigration from 1921 to 1965.” PeoplePartyPovertyEconomyEconomicCircumstancesThreatDemocratImmigrationMiddle ClassIllegal Immigration Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.” PeopleRealImaginationPleasurePoorPovertyFantasyModelsDrawingPoor PeopleReal Things Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg