The population of Europe (the EU) joins the world’s poor.

The World Bank has revised its estimate of people in poverty – those living under $ 1.25 a day.  It now estimates that there are 1.4 billion (1,400,000,000) people living in poverty up from its 2004 estimate of 985 million.  That’s an increase of over 400 million – a number not far from the population of the enlarged EU (around 500 million) and 30% more than the population of the USA.

While it may be true that positive steps are being taken to reduce poverty the overall picture is depressing.  In the context of the wealth of rich countries and rich people it is striking.   If the richest person in the world were to give all their cash to the world’s poor, it would eradicate poverty for a few years.  But of course its not the responsibility of the rich to do that – its just an interesting perspective.  Eradication of poverty requires system change brought about by changing human behaviour – less procreation, less war, more education, more sharing.

See the BBC report here.

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