“The Indian economy grew at 5.5 percent, but if you look at the last 30 years - for example, 1960 to 1985 - the progress made by East Asian countries was phenomenal. In a single generation they had been able to transform the character of their economy. They were able to get rid of chronic poverty.” IfsYearsLooksMadeCountryCharacterAbleLastsPovertyEconomyProgressGenerationsExampleGrewPercentEastIndianAsian1960sPhenomenalAsian Countries Author:Manmohan Singh
“Nearly one billion women and men, a third of the world's workforce, are either unemployed or unable to earn enough to keep themselves out of extreme poverty. There are 100 million new entrants into the labour market each year. Up to 90 percent in some regions are in the informal economy. 180 million kids are engaged in the worst forms of child labour. Put it all together and it is not only morally unacceptable, but politically dangerous” MenWorldYearsChildrenEnoughKidsTogetherFormPovertyMillionsEconomyWorstDangerousPercentMen And WomenLaborThirdsExtremesBillionsEngagedLabourRegionsUnemployedWorkforceExtreme PovertyChild LabourDecent Work Author:Juan Somavia
“A decade ago, critics suggested biotech crops would not be valuable in the developing world. Now 90 percent of farmers who benefit are resource-poor farmers in developing countries. These helped alleviate 7.7 million subsistence farmers in China, India, South Africa, the Philippines from abject poverty.” WorldCountryPoorPovertyMillionsBenefitsPercentResourcesIndiaSouthCriticsChinaValuableDecadesDevelopingFarmersSouth AfricaCropsPhilippinesAlleviateDeveloping CountriesSubsistenceBiotech Author:Clive James
“Seventy-five percent of our energy around the earth is being poured into war efforts. Are we servants of death and destruction? This 75 percent of energy could be poured into life, into the service of life-and there will be laughter, and there will be greater health, and there will be more wealth, more food. There will be no poverty. There is no need for poverty to exist at all.” NeedsWarMotivationalEarthEnergyWealthEffortPovertyFiveGreaterLaughterPercentDestructionServantSeventies Author:Rajneesh
“While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not. A study of the origins of 303 textile, railroad and steel executives of the 1870s showed that 90 percent came from middle- or upper-class families. The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control.” MenStoriesWealthClassPovertyStudyMiddlePercentMythRichesExecutivesSteelRagsRailroadsUpper ClassHoratioTextilesRags To Riches Book:A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
“Children, together with women, constitute 90 percent of all refugee populations on the planet as well as the vast majority of those living in absolute poverty: the 'feminization of poverty' means that children are poor, too, since most parenting is done by mothers.” WellsMeanChildrenDoneTogetherMotherPoorPovertyPlanetsPercentAbsolutesMajorityPopulationRefugee Book:Saturday's Child: A Memoir Source: Saturday's Child: A Memoir
“Now, you might say – “But why should we pay people for doing what they’re supposed to do?” It’s a fair question – but think of it this way: Every other anti-poverty program that’s been tried has failed to get the national poverty rate below 11 percent... Why shouldn’t we experiment with a program built around the one strategy that has proven time and again to work wonders – capitalism?” PeopleThinkingWayShouldMightPayWonderPovertyPercentCapitalismBuiltFairsProgramStrategyRateExperimentsProven Author:Michael Bloomberg
“Half of all kids in public education are below the poverty line. Two-thirds of the achievement gap comes from factors outside of school. Teachers influence about seven to ten percent of what happens in kids' lives. When you think about those statistics, you have to think about how to re-envision education so it's holistic and so we share responsibility.” ThinkingTwoHappensKidsSchoolLinesHalfResponsibilityPovertyTeacherShareInfluenceTenAchievementPercentThirdsSevenFactorsStatisticsGapsHolisticPublic EducationSchool TeachersAchievement Gap Author:Randi Weingarten
“The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it's not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It's not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It's not nearly as big a problem as the nation's stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent.” HumansChildrenProblemBigsSchoolNationsSocialBornWealthEducationPovertyMillionsCollegePercentHigh SchoolBottomFabricStagnantMobilityWedlockDisorganizedSocial Mobility Author:David Brooks
“There's tens of millions of families with single mothers who are living at 100 to 200 percent below the poverty level and these are not women that are on welfare, these are working women. How different would there life be if they're making an extra 40 to 60 cents to the dollar. We can't do this to our kids anymore.” IfsLifeDifferentKidsLife IsMotherLevelsPovertyMillionsPercentDollarsWelfareExtrasCentsSingle MotherWorking Women Author:Patricia Arquette
“Charity is to unburden you from your guilt, so you say, `I am doing something: I going to open a hospital, going to open a college. I give money to this charity fund, to that trust....` You feel a little happier. The world has lived in poverty, the world has lived in scarcity, ninety-nine percent of people have lived a poor life, almost starving and dying, and only one percent of people have lived with richness, with money - they have always felt guilty. To help them, the religions developed the idea of charity. It is to rid them of their guilt.” PeopleWorldGivingFeelsLittlesIdeasHelpingFeltPoorPovertyDyingCollegePercentGuiltCharityNineGuiltyFundHospitalsNinetyStarvingRichnessScarcityNinety NinePoor Life Author:Rajneesh
“24.9 percent of American children live in poverty, while the proportions in Germany, France and Italy are 8.6, 7.4 and 10.5 percent. And once born on the wrong side of the tracks, Americans are more likely to stay there than their counterparts in Europe. Those born to better-off families are more likely to stay better off. America is developing an aristocracy of the rich and a serfdom of the poor - the inevitable result of a twenty-year erosion of its social contract.” YearsChildrenAmericaSocialSidesBornPoorResultsPovertyRichPercentEuropeTwentiesTrackDevelopingFranceInevitableGermanyProportionContractsBetter OffAristocracyCounterpartsErosionSocial Contract Author:Will Hutton
“I can't help but react to the painful realities of the two-tiered society we live in, where the signs of poverty and inequity are everywhere. Almost twenty five percent of our children live at or below the poverty line. We expect the no-option life cycle of the poor to be interrupted by the weak social safety net and then wonder why building more jails doesn't solve the problems.” ChildrenI CanTwoHelpingProblemRealitySocialLinesPoorWonderPovertyFiveBuildingPercentWeakTwentiesOur ChildrenSafetyPainfulSolveCyclesJailTwenty FiveInterruptedSafety Net Author:Peter Yarrow
“President Lyndon Johnson's administration was known for his War on Poverty. President Obama's will become notable for his War on Prosperity. We're speaking, of course, of Obama's plans to hike income taxes on the most wealthy 2 or 3 percent of the nation. He's not just raising the top rate to 39.6 percent; he's also disallowing about one-third of top earner's deductions, whether for state and local taxes, charitable contributions or mortgage interest. This is an effective hike in their taxes by an average of about 20 percent.” WarStatesCoursesNationsPresidentInterestKnownPovertyPlansTaxesPercentThirdsRateAverageProsperityIncomeLocalsAdministrationContributionWealthyPresident ObamaJohnsonNotableMortgageIncome TaxCharitableDeductionsWar On PovertyPresident Lyndon Johnson Author:Dick Morris
“A city suffering from chronic poverty, out-of-control crime, a $76 million budget deficit and a 15 percent unemployment rate (nearly 50 percent for Oakland's youth) can hardly afford such social justice follies. But a pushover Democratic mayor and an overwhelmed police force have left what's left of gainfully employed Oakland taxpayers at the mercy of professional freeloaders and anti-capitalism saboteurs.” SufferingLeftForceSocialJusticeCitiesPovertyMillionsCrimeYouthPercentCapitalismMercyPoliceSocial JusticeDemocraticRateBudgetsFollyUnemploymentEmployedOverwhelmedDeficitTaxpayersMayorsPolice ForceOaklandBudget DeficitUnemployment RateSaboteursPushovers Author:Michelle Malkin
“The death of American liberalism as a significant moral force can be traced to the point in when President Bill Clinton signed legislation that effectively ended the main federal anti-poverty program and turned the fate of welfare recipients, 70 percent of whom were children, over to the tender mercies of the states. With a stroke of the pen, Clinton eliminated what remained of New Deal-era compassion for the poor and codified into law the "tough love" callousness that his Republican allies in the Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, had long embraced.” ChildrenLongStatesLawForcePresidentPoorDealsCompassionMoralPovertyFateRepublicanPercentToughProgramMercyBillsClintonCongressSignificantErasWelfareLiberalismPensAlliesLegislationStrokesNewtsNew DealTough LoveCallousnessPresident Bill ClintonTender MerciesWelfare Recipients Author:Robert Scheer
“I think in some ways it would make more sense to have as a poverty level a relative concept and say, the level of poverty is that level of income or that level of consumption below which 10 percent of the people now are.” PeopleThinkingWayLevelsPovertyPercentConceptsIncomeRelativeConsumption Author:Milton Friedman
“For a hundred years we have been one of the largest oil-producing countries in the world but with a 60 percent poverty rate and now we are canceling the historical debt.” WorldYearsHas BeensCountryPovertyPercentHundredHistoricalRateDebtOil Author:Hugo Chavez
“When we talk about gender pay gaps in the United States, and if you look at women without children, they earn 96 cents for every dollar that a man is earning, while for mothers it is about 76 cents. That's nearly 25 percent less. For single mothers, the situation is even worse. One third of them are living in poverty or just on the edge of poverty. This is an unacceptable situation.” IfsMenLooksChildrenStatesMotherUnitedPaySituationPovertyUnited StatesPercentThirdsDollarsEdgesGenderGapsCentsEarningSingle MotherPay Gap Author:Anne-Marie Slaughter
“Every farmer must go to the seed industry every year to buy their seed and pay an 80 percent royalty to a corporation. Over-the-fence exchanges have started to be treated as crimes. Or, if you need a biological pest control, you can no longer use the need seed in your back yard. Instead you have to depend on the Grace Corporation or some other entity. That kind of dependency basically leads to increased poverty and increased ecological destruction.” IfsNeedsYearsKindUsePayPovertyGraceCrimeDependsIndustryPercentDestructionSeedsTreatedCorporationsFarmersEntityYardsFenceRoyaltyEcologicalDependencyPestsPest Control Author:Vandana Shiva
“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
“Given the total income and wealth available in the world today, we could easily overcome poverty, which would require raising the share of the bottom half from three to roughly five percent. Unfortunately, the trend is going in the opposite direction.” WorldTodayThreeGivenWealthHalfPovertyFiveSharePercentOppositesOvercomingBottomAvailableIncomeTrendsWorld Today 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
“A few hundred years ago, perhaps 85 or even 90 percent of humanity lived below a standard of living that today only 40 or 45 percent fail to reach. But at that earlier time only part of this poverty could have been eradicated, and this at substantial cost not only to the pleasures of the affluent, but also to their well-being and to human culture. In our time, nearly all severe poverty could be eradicated at a cost to the affluent that is truly trivial.” YearsHumansWellsHas BeensTodayHumanityCulturePleasurePovertyFailingCostStandardsPercentHundredYears AgoWell BeingOur TimeSevereCould Have BeenStandards Of LivingAffluent Author:Thomas Pogge
“And sometimes people don't realize that 90 percent of the persistent poverty counties are located in rural America.” PeopleSometimesAmericaRealizingPovertyPercentPersistentCountyRural America Author:Tom Vilsack