The percentage of humans living in extreme poverty has diminished greatly since 1820. That’s an important and marvelous fact. But there’s also nuance around how to interpret that, and what narrative it might serve. There was recently a debate between researchers on the subject, and Vox does a good job of summarizing it. Recommended reading.

…over the course of the debate, the two sides’ positions appeared, at least to me, to converge substantially. Everyone agrees that since 1981, the incomes of the world’s poorest people have gone up — even Hickel has disavowed his Guardian headline, saying it was forced upon him by editors. Everyone agrees incomes for the poor haven’t gone up enough, and that $1.90 per day is hardly enough for a human being to live a decent life.

The big differences, then, are how to slice and interpret these facts, and which political interests and narratives they serve. Hickel argues that focusing on data showing declines in global poverty does political work on behalf of global capitalism, defending an inherently unjust global system that has failed residents of rich and poor nations alike. Pinker agrees that the data supports the idea that capitalism is working for the world’s poorest, and says that’s a decisive rebuttal of Hickel’s narrative of enduring persecution.

Bill Gates tweeted out a chart and sparked a debate on global poverty – Vox