Extreme Poverty

EXTREME POVERTY IS also called absolute poverty. It is the condition of living in such deprivation that in terms of American dollars a person is living on less than $1 a day. It is estimated that there are over one billion people in the world living in extreme poverty. In addition it is estimated that at least eight million people die from the effects of extreme poverty each year.

Most of the people in the world living in extreme poverty are living in rural areas of developing nations. Most are living on marginal land or are dependent on marginal land, where they are forced to extract a subsistence living from poor resources.

Extreme poverty is the result of several factors. Perhaps the most important is the very poor natural conditions in which millions live. The land or the economic resources are extremely limited. This means that even if the capital or assets were equally distributed, most people would still be very poor. In addition traditional techniques for farming, extraction, herding, or other means of producing food have a low yield. The productivity from traditional methods is insufficient to support current population levels.

Making the problem of extreme poverty worse is the fact that the number of people living in conditions of absolute poverty are increasing in many areas. At least 80 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas away from the resources that cities provide. Poor health decreases the productivity of those living in extreme poverty as well. At least 400 million people suffer from chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, other in-sect-borne diseases, and worms from polluted waters. The growing spread of HIV/AIDS has only worsened the problem. Adding to the poor health of those living in extreme poverty is their reduced caloric intake. At least 600 million people receive less than the needed calories for good health.

The conditions of rural life for those in extreme poverty have led millions to transfer the problem to urban centers around the world. A great number of the cities of the world now have shantytowns or other areas [Page 333]filled with the rural poor who, by moving, have become the urban poor. The mass migration of the rural poor living in extreme poverty has fueled the massive illegal immigration into the industrialized countries in Europe and in North America.

Extreme poverty, also known as absolute poverty, has been defined by the United Nations as a poverty line of living on less than $1 a day. As shown above, extreme poverty is not restricted to urban areas, but occurs mostly in rural settings all over the world.

The problem of extreme poverty is mixed. In some places extreme poverty is decreasing. In other areas it is increasing. In the former Soviet Union, Africa, and in much of Latin America it is increasing. However, in Mexico, China, India, and other countries it is decreasing. In Mexico the continued flow of remittances sent by Mexican Americans back to Mexico, along with the absence of large numbers of Mexicans in Mexico, has transferred part of the problem to the United States, while transferring solutions back to Mexico in the form of dollars amounting to many billions each year. The long-term effect is that Mexico is being transformed economically.

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