David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote: Do you know whether or not these numbers reflect services and products that > a family can generate to supply their own basic needs?
No, I am sure they do not. That would be too complicated to factor in. These numbers also do not factor in the lower cost of living (cheaper food, or free national health care for example). > For example, you can construct a house from the local materials by your > family labor which does not show up as direct income. > Most rural third world housing is cheaper and more rudimentary than American housing. See, for example, this video starting at minute 32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FACK2knC08E For that matter, houses in Japan in the 1970s were cheaper and more flimsy than US houses, typically with no insulation and no central heating. They were heated with kerosene heaters, which are very dangerous. In many cities such as Okayama they had cesspools instead of sewers, which make a dreadful stench in summer. Most Third World villages have outhouses or just pits. Deep water wells with electric pumps, electric heating of hot water, cooking and illumination, and septic systems would be a godsent in much of the world. 1.2 billion people do not have electricity. 15.4% of the world population. http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/3.7 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/ > I recall an expression concerning the poverty of self sufficiency, but if > one can supply everything he needs to make a reasonable existance then > money is less important. Until you get appendicitis. Fortunately, healthcare in the Third World has greatly improved, and in most countries it is free. Infant mortality in the Third World is now at the level it was in the US in 1963. (It is free for the patient in all first world countries except the U.S., and the cost to the nation in all other first world nations is 1/2 to 1/3 of what it costs in the U.S.) > I would not recommend trying to live in that manner, but it might suggest > that these people are not as 'poor' as we would expect when comparing the > dollars of income. > You can get a sense of how Third World poor people live from the video. - Jed
