52.The Poverty Lab

摘要

There are various ways to define poverty. One definition of extreme poverty is living with a per-day budget of $1 in real terms. That's very convenient in that it can help track the world's progress and decide which regions might need the most aid. But it's also incomplete. Poverty is not just a lack of income but a lack of access to proper education, good health, and the ability to realize yourself according to your talents. There is no big answer to the big question of what to do about this. The only questions you can ask and answer conceptually are whether a particular program or policy is effective, and whether there's a way to make it more effective.