[p2p-research] Poverty in Brazil, China and India and in Particular Bihar, India

[Kevin Carson]

On 12/1/09, Ryan <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Poverty in Brazil, China and India and in Particular Bihar, India
> via Next Big Future by noreply at blogger.com (bw) on 11/29/09

> In 1981, 84% of China’s population was below the poverty line of $1.25 a day (in 2005 prices); in 2005 the share was just 16%. Brazil’s share of those in poverty fell by half from 17% to 8%, an annual reduction of 3.2%. India did least well, cutting the share below the poverty line from 60% to 42% between 1981 and 2005. This implies an annual reduction of 1.5% a year, though there are problems with Indian statistics; using different consumption figures yields an annual reduction of 3%, comparable to Brazil’s.
>

I'm extremely skeptical of such statistics, because computation of
money incomes is likely to include the monetization of a lot of
previously unmonetized subsistence functions.  And the rise in per
capita money incomes is also likely to be accompanied with all sorts
of increases in the money cost of subsistence, as the overhead cost of
many forms of subsistence increases (e.g. the need for growing numbers
of people to own cars as changes in urban settlement patterns render
commuting by foot or bike no longer feasible).  The atomization of
society creates a need to work for wages to obtain many of the
subsistence goods that were previously obtained in the informal
economy, and the kinds of radical monopoly described by Ivan Illich
increase the total overhead cost required for a given unit of
consumption.

-- 
Kevin Carson
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