World Poverty Rate Halved since 1990.

[kandrathe]

Imagine what we might do if we really tried, and stopped fighting.

According to this Economist article, Not always with us, we are moving as a society towards less suffering.

The country that cut poverty the most was China, which in 1980 had the largest number of poor people anywhere. China saw a huge increase in income inequality—but even more growth. Between 1981 and 2010 it lifted a stunning 680m people out poverty—more than the entire current population of Latin America. This cut its poverty rate from 84% in 1980 to about 10% now. China alone accounts for around three quarters of the world’s total decline in extreme poverty over the past 30 years.

I would attribute this feat to observations made by economists Dr. Ronald Coase and Dr. Ning Wang, in their book -- How China Became Capitalist.

The Communist Party's role in bringing this to pass, the authors say, consisted mainly in getting out of the way. Coase and Wang conclude that "the gradual withdrawal of government from the economy, rather than the strength or omnipresence of the political leadership ... explains the success." The guiding principles have been pragmatism, experimentation and the Confucian injunction "to seek truth from facts"—or, as Deng Xiaoping, who pushed through many of the post-Mao reforms, put it in a famous dictum: "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth."

There are of course issues with rapid growth in China, such as ecological ramifications. A prosperous China while also lifting its neighbors, may also threaten them militarily.

India is the next big hurdle, with about 1/3 of their 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty. Again, economic liberalization has taken a hold;

"The fruits of liberalisation reached their peak in 2007, when India recorded its highest GDP growth rate of 9%. With this, India became the second fastest growing major economy in the world, next only to China. The growth rate has slowed significantly in the first half of 2012. An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report states that the average growth rate 7.5% will double the average income in a decade, and more reforms would speed up the pace." -- Wiki

And, then there is Subsaharan Africa and some parts of Central and South America. Progress is being made in Africa, but food insecurity, a lack of infrastructure, and ongoing conflicts there are slowing the pace. Africa needs investment in roads, sanitation, schools, etc. I have many friends in Kenya, and from Kenya, which is one nation struggling politically with development. Equality is in access to things that help to make you prosperous, like roads, railroad junctions, grain storage, warehouses, clean water, sanitation, health services, etc. These are the things that help lift people from poverty, and create jobs in the building and the maintaining of our societies.