Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

gatesnotes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 181 posts

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#21

Post by jngreenlee »

peteretep wrote: post #15
H8crilA wrote: post #5

It's important to remember that the world has been unbelievably successful at getting people out of extreme poverty (inflation-adjusted $1.9 per day). We went from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 0.65 billion in 2018. Ways to go, but it is a truly amazing achievement of humanity. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the past 30 years. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty

I think this number is marginally misleading, because a huge amount of that is China: > According to the World Bank, more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015 China was not historically poor, and this is a reversion to the mean once minimal free trade was allowed.

It's still a true story...nothing diminishes the significance of this.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#22

Post by peteretep »

jngreenlee wrote: post #21
peteretep wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this number is marginally misleading, because a huge amount of that is China: > According to the World Bank, more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015 China was not historically poor, and this is a reversion to the mean once minimal free trade was allowed.

It's still a true story...nothing diminishes the significance of this.

The achievement is ... Mao died?

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#23

Post by falcongod082 »

pdonis wrote: post #19
falcongod082 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not nothing...but making the ridiculously poor slightly less poor isn't something I'd call an "amazing achievement" since it's stupid easy to make them not poor.

> it's stupid easy to make them not poor Really? How so?

pay them, boost their economy, etc...there are exceptions for countries that are screwed politically but if the government is decent and willing to work with you it's pretty simple.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#24

Post by gcc_programmer »

falcongod082 wrote: post #18
gcc_programmer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow... Please elaborate how exactly to make these people not poor? And please let us know what you are doing to help these people? This is an amazing achievement and people like you better start understanding it: we have no idea, literally no idea, how it feels like to live with $2 a day... Watching those videos does not do it justice. I myself have no idea what it's like, I try to imagine it but my brain can't. If y…

Give it time, for the past 40 or 50 years we've been working towards that goal by getting rid of workers and consumer rights, you might be able to experience it yourself before you die. It's really amazing what income disparity can do for a country.

You did not answer my question but answered your own. What are you talking about?

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#25

Post by hanniabu »

watersb wrote: post #8
rolph wrote: post #2

it can get even worse. i wonder how many people here have had to live on however many empty beer cans you can collect and cash in in a day.

I haven't had to go that far, but for about six months I had a food budget of less than $2 per day. If I had needed to pay for housing, health care, everything on $2 I am not sure how I would do so.

What did your meals consist of?

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#27

Post by falcongod082 »

gcc_programmer wrote: post #24
falcongod082 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it time, for the past 40 or 50 years we've been working towards that goal by getting rid of workers and consumer rights, you might be able to experience it yourself before you die. It's really amazing what income disparity can do for a country.

You did not answer my question but answered your own. What are you talking about?

My apologies, you're correct. I've heard that there exists a field of study called economics in which we know how all of that works, if that's actually true then we know how to cure poverty.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#28

Post by H8crilA »

peteretep wrote: post #22
jngreenlee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a true story...nothing diminishes the significance of this.

The achievement is ... Mao died?

And probably Deng Xiaoping's re-architecture of China.

Still, what caused the advance does not diminish the success of humanity. Progress is progress.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#30

Post by RyanAF7 »

falcongod082 wrote: post #18
gcc_programmer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow... Please elaborate how exactly to make these people not poor? And please let us know what you are doing to help these people? This is an amazing achievement and people like you better start understanding it: we have no idea, literally no idea, how it feels like to live with $2 a day... Watching those videos does not do it justice. I myself have no idea what it's like, I try to imagine it but my brain can't. If y…

Give it time, for the past 40 or 50 years we've been working towards that goal by getting rid of workers and consumer rights, you might be able to experience it yourself before you die. It's really amazing what income disparity can do for a country.

Sad you have such a narrow view.
Post reply on HN