World Poverty and Human Rights
Encyclopedia
World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms is a 2002 book by Thomas Pogge
. In the book, Pogge explains that the poorest 46 percent of humankind have 1.2 percent of global income and their purchasing power per person per day is less than that of $2.15 in the US in 1993; 826 million of them do not have enough to eat. One-third of all human deaths are from poverty
-related causes: 18 million annually, including 12 million children under five.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 15 percent of humankind in the developed countries have 80 percent of global income. Pogge argues that shifting 1 or 2 percent of the wealthy states' share toward poverty eradication is morally compelling. Yet most of the affluent believe that they have no such responsibility and Thomas Pogge's book seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. He analyses how our "moral and economic theorizing and our global economic order" have adapted to make us appear disconnected from mass poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers a normative standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.
Thomas Pogge
Thomas Winfried Menko Pogge is a German philosopher and is currently the Director of the Global Justice Program and Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University...
. In the book, Pogge explains that the poorest 46 percent of humankind have 1.2 percent of global income and their purchasing power per person per day is less than that of $2.15 in the US in 1993; 826 million of them do not have enough to eat. One-third of all human deaths are from poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
-related causes: 18 million annually, including 12 million children under five.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 15 percent of humankind in the developed countries have 80 percent of global income. Pogge argues that shifting 1 or 2 percent of the wealthy states' share toward poverty eradication is morally compelling. Yet most of the affluent believe that they have no such responsibility and Thomas Pogge's book seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. He analyses how our "moral and economic theorizing and our global economic order" have adapted to make us appear disconnected from mass poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers a normative standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.