We have almost won the global war against extreme poverty

The World Bank defines "extreme poverty" as living on less than $1.90/day/person. By this measure, extreme poverty has fallen from almost 40% of the world's population in 1990 to less than 10% today, according to the World Bank.




The Wall Street Journal, in its "Outlook 2016" special section on January 20, 2016, where I got this graph, wrote: "Unprecedented economic growth over the past quarter century has lifted an estimated 1.25 billion people out of poverty, in one of the greatest recent (sic) achievements in human history."

The following chart from Branko Milanovic at CUNY, recently circulated by Prof. Zonis, is the flip side of this good news. The decline in world poverty has resulted from a partial equalization of incomes with the first world middle class.




The effects of globalization on middle class incomes are well known. This data shows that Trump is more correct about the source of the problem than is Sanders, although Sanders is also correct that the results are not desirable.

I think it safe to say, however, and I believe that I speak not only for myself but for the entire world, that we are all happy that extreme poverty has been so greatly reduced.