The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

“The greatest tragedy of our time is that one sixth of humanity is not even on the development ladder.” 

This quotation establishes the metaphorical expression of the problem Sachs seeks to tackle. It expresses his view that the poor will raise themselves through development once on the “ladder,” but they cannot access the ability to do so without assistance.

“Our generation’s challenge is to help the poorest of the poor to escape the misery of extreme poverty so that they may begin their own ascent up the ladder of economic development.” 

This quotation builds on the first and expresses Sachs’s view—and a major basis of his main argument—that people in rich countries should feel a sense of obligation born of history to address the miserable circumstances of those in extreme poverty. Further, it asserts that the obligation is not merely to temporarily alleviate suffering but to allow the continued growth that will expand the benefits of modern economic development overall.

“[T]he real story of modern economic growth has been the ability of some regions to achieve unprecedented long-term increases in total production to levels never seen before in the world, while other regions stagnated, at least by comparison. Technology has been the main force behind the long-term increases in income in the rich world, not exploitation of the poor. That news is very good indeed because it suggests that all the world, including today’s laggard regions, has a reasonable hope of reaping the benefits of technological advance. Economic development is not a zero-sum game in which the winnings of some are inevitably mirrored by the losses of others. This game is one that everybody can win.” 

This quote expresses several of Sachs’s key points. First, it is not the extremely poor’s fault that they are in that condition, and blaming them is not only cruel but also useless. Second, it is not necessarily the rich’s fault that extreme poverty still exists because it reflects upon growth in some regions rather than decline from exploitation in others. That said, the third point is that we should not view the matter as one of competition because we do not gain from the persistence of extreme poverty.