World Poverty and Human Rights

Some 2.5 billion human beings live in severe poverty, deprived ofsuch essentials as adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, basicsanitation, adequate shelter, literacy, and basic health care. Onethird of all human deaths are from poverty-related causes: 18million annually, including over 10 million children underfive.

However huge in human terms, the world poverty problem is tinyeconomically. Just 1 percent of the national incomes of thehigh-income countries would suffice to end severe povertyworldwide. Yet, these countries, unwilling to bear an opportunitycost of this magnitude, continue to impose a grievously unjustglobal institutional order that foreseeably and avoidablyperpetuates the catastrophe. Most citizens of affluent countriesbelieve that we are doing nothing wrong.

Thomas Pogge seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. Heanalyses how our moral and economic theorizing and our globaleconomic order have adapted to make us appear disconnected frommassive poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers amodest, widely sharable standard of global economic justice andmakes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.


Thoroughly updated, the second edition of this classic bookincorporates responses to critics and a new chapter introducingPogge's current work on pharmaceutical patent reform.