Saturday, June 18, 2005

People who live on less than a dollar a day

The number of people who live on less than a dollar a day is often bandied about when describing global poverty.

But what does this number actually mean?

Does it mean the amount of necessities of life that I could purchase if I walked down to the corner store with a (presumably US) dollar?

Or does it mean the amount of necessities of life that I could purchase if I wandered into the marketplace of a poor village in a Third World country with a (presumably US) dollar?

I realize it's probably the GDP of the country divided by the number of people, but which of these two scenarios is it probably closer to?

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