The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
 

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

by Jeffrey Sachs

Celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs has a plan to eliminate extreme poverty around the world by 2025. If you think that is too ambitious or wildly unrealistic, you need to read this book. His focus is on the one billion poorest individuals around the world who are caught in a poverty trap of disease, physical isolation, environmental stress, political instability, and lack of access to capital,... (read more)

Top tags: economicspovertyglobalizationpoliticsnonfiction (all tags)

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Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

Wasay
  • Rated 4 stars

I loved this book!
How can nations do everything right and stil end up sinking deeper in poverty? How, what connects us all, can be both a blessing and a curse. Dr.Sachs shows Economics as an instrument of living and a remedy for human condition.
Every third world citizen must read this book.

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Didn’t Like It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
scheruvi
  • Rated 2 stars

With the quixotic, bright-eyed optimism of a freshly college-graduated peace corp applicant, Jeffrey D. Sachs makes the end of poverty seem like a few pennies away if only we could get rid of pesky geo-politiking and greed. His last chapter rises up in an especially saccharine cresendo when he compares ending poverty to other historically critical achievements such as abolition of slavery (which still exists), antiapartheid and civil rights movements (not really closed chapters, are they?)...

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Community:
  • Rated 3.922222 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.3 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • dike-ogu c

    dike-ogu c said:

    Allisunni, I appreciate the emotional appeal of foreign aid. yes, aid can help one person, ten, twenty...maybe even a hundred. but it cannot build a nation. in every country, developed or developing, there will always be individual cases of extreme poverty. a bit of charity will always do some good in every country. BUT- it takes much more than charity to build the systems and institutions that drive socio-political and economic stability. aid is like emergency first aid at the site of an accident. good governance is like learning how to drive safely so you don't crash in the first place. when a government is stable, capable and has the right ideas about what to do, then we can talk about money. until then, there's not much money can do.

    posted Saturday, May 31 2008
  • Allisunni

    allisunni said:

    Dike-ogu c, I think you agree with Sachs about governance issues. He only advocates foreign aid for people who are only able to earn the equivalent of $1-2 a day, even though they work hard every day. Why aren't you a fan of foreign aid? If there are African grandmothers raising 6 children under the age of 6 and walking 3-6 miles a day to get enough water to live on, they're not going to be able to improve their government. They're too busy trying to stay alive.

    Where are you from? What do you think should be done?

    posted Monday, May 26 2008
  • dike-ogu c

    dike-ogu c said:

    I think it's a good book in that it makes on see how easy it can be to tackle some of these issues. However, I don't think that a solution that depends largely on simply increasing the amount of money available to be spent will work. Development, for me, is not simply building a certain number or roads or hospitals or schools within a fixed time frame. Development is not a result. It's a system that is capable of producing results consistently, by itself. That's why I'm not a fan of foreign aid. For a nation to develope, it must build a self-sustaining, self-reliant, self-improving system that allows it to consistently improve its standard of living (no matter how small the steps) over time. I appreciate Sach's point of view but till Africa, for instance, tackles issues of governance and builds effective institutions able to maintain progress, no amount of money will produce any long lasting change on a large enough scale to make any real difference.

    posted Friday, May 23 2008
  • morade  m

    morade m said:

    what do you think about this?

    posted Friday, February 8 2008
  • Joshua, Inbakumar

    joshua, inbakumar said:

    A book that can change the lives, the style of living
    a recommended book that all should read

    posted Thursday, December 20 2007
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