5.3–“Is World Poverty Falling?” Angus Deaton

How easily can the numbers be manipulated?

Poverty in India—

Over ¼ of the world’s poor lives in India.

NAS v. NSS numbers…

A huge change or no change? Tweak with the instrument and of course you’ll find a difference…

--with the new survey, poverty numbers reduced from 32% of the population to 26%

Does measuring changes in poverty by changes in consumption raise issues?

As for inequality, it seems to be growing in recent years. While consumption rates raised for the poor, they lagged behind the average consumption rates, which indicates overall poverty improvement, but a still widening gap between those who are poor and those who are not.

5.4– “A Critical Look at Measurements of Economic Progress,” The International Forum on Globalization

The current measure of ‘success’ is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which meshes quite well with the corporate-driven perspective of global capitalism.

The GDP is defined as “the rate at which resources are converted to commodities and sold, the activities that go into that process, and all other paid services and activities in the formal economy” (347).

So long as the GDP is up, we’re doing well…right?

Not necessarily. The GDP goes up due to clear-cutting of forests, strip-mining of mountaintops, construction of toxic dumps, reconstruction after natural disasters (or man-made disasters), war, crime, and expansion of the prison and military systems.

unpaid labor (like housework, child-rearing, elder care) is not counted here

Economic growth at what costs? Is risking social and environmental collapse a reality because of this?

Cobb & Halstead state that the “GDP is the statistical distillation of the worldview of conventional economics. It basically assumes that everything produced is good by definition” (347).

The GDP does not “account for the depletion of natural capital—topsoil, minerals, forests, rivers, life in the seas, the atmosphere” (348), the destruction of which impacts future productivity and survival for those who depend on these for survival.

Increased corporate pollution and pesticide use contribute doubly to the GDP—firstly for their initial use, adding to productivity, and secondly due to the increase in medical visits and bills.

Marriages add nothing to the economy (even working as single individuals, the two people still make the same amount if they were married) while divorce (with lawyers fees and such) raise the GDP.

GDP, the Third World, and the Poor

Many economists advocate for the reduction of global poverty through economic growth, but economic growth often translates to environmental and social degradation for the poor and those in the Third World.

“GDP reveals nothing about who benefits from growth” (349)

Even though ‘growth’ may technically occur, the majority of Third World countries’ citizens never have the opportunity to benefit from this economic change—since they remain in abject poverty.

Also, the change from using the Gross National Product (GNP) to using the GDP further distorted the economic truths about the poor and Third World countries through devising a measure that favored multinational corporations. Under the GNP, the profits of corporations based in the United States would be “attributed to the nation in which the corporations were based” (351). If McDonald’s owns businesses in India, under the GDP these profits are attributed to India’s growth rather than the United States’.

Some organizations have attempted to create a measurement that includes those socially and environmentally significant changes. Redefining Progress, out of Berkeley, CA, has developed an alternative called the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) that attempts to more accurately measure the impacts of economy and globalization on societies.

So what are the implications of the current system in sociological terms?

What might the implementation of these new measurements do for our perception of globalization and global poverty?

Are there still underlying problems?

Global Health

5.5—“The Current State of Global Health,” World Health Organization, 2004

Inequalities seem to be widening, despite efforts for improvement.

Advances in biomedical sciences may actually serve to further these inequalities due to affordability of newly developed treatments.

An estimated 40,000 children die per day (15 million per year) due to malnutrition and infection.

While intervention and prevention solutions exist, and efforts could help and save the lives of millions, the lack of knowledge comes in the form of not knowing how to properly implement these solutions.

More Millennium Development Goals: reduce child mortality (rate of death), improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases (359).

The health system too often focuses on single diseases, while treatable and ‘low-priority’ health problems go undiagnosed or unaddressed, often leading to death.

5.6– “Macroeconomics of Health: No Health Available at $7.50 per Person per Year,” Jeffrey D. Sachs

Many critics claim that the problem with health care related foreign assistance is mismanagement of health systems, but how anyone effectively manage a health care system on $7.50 per person per year? India and Nigeria spend around $3 in public funds per person per year, and recall that India has ¼ of the world’s poverty stricken population.

Debt payments often require cutting into health and educational budgets

Inability to care for people is due to lack of resources, not mismanagement.

To add to the problem, qualified doctors often exit their countries in search of better paid positions, leaving the home country devoid of both skill and funds.