We can be the generation that no longer accepts than an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies–but will we be that generation? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy and indifference murmuring softly in our ears? Fifteen thousand people dying needlessly every day from AIDS, TB, and malaria. Mothers, fathers, teachers, farmers, nurses, mechanics, children. This is Africa’s crisis. That it’s not on the nightly news, that we do not treat this as an emergency–that’s our crisis.
–Bono, in the forward to Jeffrey Sach’s The End of Poverty

Today we can invoke the same logic to declare that extreme poverty can be ended not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our time. The wealth of the rich world, the power of today’s vast storehouses of knowledge, and the declining fraction of the world that needs help to escape from poverty all make the end of poverty a realistic possibility by the year 2025.
–Jeffrey Sachs

This book is illuminating and encouraging. In light of Hurricane Katrina and the ambitious plans to rebuild New Orleans I hope that we do not attempt to alleviate the poverty of some by creating poverty for more.
We must resist the temptation to slash Medicare, Medicaid and educational programs to fund reconstruction. If there is no tax increases then what recourse is there but to slash current budget items? I don’t think there are any plans on slashing defense so that leaves our already paltry social programs.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is never a good economic plan.
I’m sure to be commenting more on this as I work through this book.