Bill Gates tweeted out a chart and sparked a huge debate about global poverty
Monday, February 18, 2019
By Dylan Matthews
Has global poverty declined dramatically?
That might seem like a straightforward question to answer, but it’s become the topic of fierce debate among development wonks, economists, and scholars.
The dispute began with (a) chart.
Produced by Our World in Data — a Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit website led by economist Max Roser that highlights long-term trends in human living standards — the chart depicts the extreme poverty rate, measured as the share of humanity living on $1.90 a day or less, plummeting from 94.4 percent in 1820 to 9.6 percent by 2015.
Photo courtesy of Mags’ pics for everyone.
Source: Vox (link opens in a new window)
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