Are We Close To Ending Poverty?

In the article, “Can We End Extreme Poverty?” (Upfront, Smith, 2022) I learned that poverty around the world is a great issue. Extreme poverty to the World Bank is considered as living on $1.90 a day. In 1990, poverty was a big issue. About 36 percent of people worldwide were living in poverty. But as of 2017, only about 9 percent are living in poverty, which is a big improvement. But when the pandemic hit, about 97 million people fell into extreme poverty. A jump from 36 percent to 9 percent is about a billion people who were able to get out of the worst poverty. Although poverty isn’t fully diminished many countries are still giving great efforts in trying to end it and they have seen great changes and improvements. This progress is spreading quickly. In Ethiopia, it used to be 7 out of 10 people who were living in poverty. But now, it has dropped to 3 out of 10 people. Indonesia had about half its population in extreme poverty in 1990, but now it has dropped to 3 percent. That is a drastic improvement in about 30 years. 

I believe that poverty can be ended. I feel like if everybody who has power and money actually used it and put it to use for a good cause like this one, then world poverty would be diminished quicker. Instead, they blow their money on something else. But I feel like the world has come a long way since 1990. For example, there were millions and millions of people who were in extreme poverty at that time. But compared to now, those numbers have decreased drastically. If we keep going at the pace that we are at I feel like eventually, poverty will end. But like I said, if people who had the money and power to help decrease poverty, it would end way quicker than the pace we are at currently. But the main point is that one day people will not have to be living at