Dear Jomo,
If you start from the original poverty definition of $1/day (1985 dollars) that was used in writing up MDG-1 and then correct for inflation in the US in the 1985-2005 period, you arrive at an equivalent poverty line of $1.815/day (2005 dollars), much higher than what you indicate (www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm).
You can go to PovCalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm) to see what a difference this makes. If the poverty line is fixed where the World Bank now fixes it, at $1.25/day (2005)
= $38/month (2005), then the number of poor is 1908.45m in 1990 and 1214.98m in 2010 for a 36.34% reduction over twenty years -- enough to halve the proportion
of poor in the LDC population.
If the poverty line were fixed at the inflation-adjusted equivalent of where it was initially fixed, at $1.815/day
(2005) = $55.18/month (2005), then the number of poor is
2698.42m in 1990 and 2146.68m in 2010 for a mere 20.45% reduction over twenty years -- nowhere near enough to halve the proportion of poor in the LDC population.
All the best,
Thomas Pogge
Leitner
Professor of Philosophy and International
Affairs
Yale University, PO Box
208306, New Haven, CT
06520-8306
If you start from the original poverty definition of $1/day (1985 dollars) that was used in writing up MDG-1 and then correct for inflation in the US in the 1985-2005 period, you arrive at an equivalent poverty line of $1.815/day (2005 dollars), much higher than what you indicate (www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm).
You can go to PovCalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm) to see what a difference this makes. If the poverty line is fixed where the World Bank now fixes it, at $1.25/day (2005)
= $38/month (2005), then the number of poor is 1908.45m in 1990 and 1214.98m in 2010 for a 36.34% reduction over twenty years -- enough to halve the proportion
of poor in the LDC population.
If the poverty line were fixed at the inflation-adjusted equivalent of where it was initially fixed, at $1.815/day
(2005) = $55.18/month (2005), then the number of poor is
2698.42m in 1990 and 2146.68m in 2010 for a mere 20.45% reduction over twenty years -- nowhere near enough to halve the proportion of poor in the LDC population.
All the best,
Thomas Pogge
Leitner
Professor of Philosophy and International
Affairs
Yale University, PO Box
208306, New Haven, CT
06520-8306
