Relative earnings

摘要

The chart on "extreme poverty" at the end of part one of your "Blueprint for a better world" series errs in using the classification of earnings below $1.25 per day (12 September, p 30). This amount, off the tourist trails, in northern India or Chad, for example, would probably buy a whole family a decent meal, but in Europe or the US they would need much more than that for the purpose. It is not sensible to assess poverty in these monetary terms; it needs to be compared with the local cost of living. I concede that this is often difficult to define, but "$1.25 per day" doesn't mean anything without comparison.