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The Lie of Global Prosperity: How Neoliberals Distort Data to Mask Poverty and Exploitation
A deconstruction of the neoliberal placations about global capitalism, exposing the inequalities of global poverty
“We’re making headway on global poverty,” trills Bill Gates. “Decline of Global Extreme Poverty Continues,” reports the World Bank. “How did the global poverty rate halve in 20 years?” inquires The Economist.
Seth Donnelly “It didn’t!” In fact, according to Donnelly, virtually nothing about these glad tidings proclaiming plummeting global poverty rates is true. It’s just that trend-setting neoliberal experts and institutions need us to believe that global capitalism, now unfettered in the wake of the Cold War and bolstered by Information Technology, has ushered in a new phase of international human prosperity.
This short book deconstructs the assumption that global poverty has fallen dramatically, and lays bare the spurious methods of poverty measurement and data on which the dominant prosperity narrative depends. Here is carefully researched documentation that global poverty—and the inequalities and misery that flourish within it—remains massive, afflicting the majority of the world’s population. Donnelly goes further to analyze just how global poverty, rather than being reduced, is actually reproduced by the imperatives of capital accumulation on a global scale. Just as the global, environmental catastrophe cannot be resolved within capitalism, rooted as it is in contemporary mechanisms of exploitation and plunder, neither can human poverty be effectively eliminated by neoliberal “advances.”
“We’re making headway on global poverty,” trills Bill Gates. “Decline of Global Extreme Poverty Continues,” reports the World Bank. “How did the global poverty rate halve in 20 years?” inquires The Economist.
Seth Donnelly “It didn’t!” In fact, according to Donnelly, virtually nothing about these glad tidings proclaiming plummeting global poverty rates is true. It’s just that trend-setting neoliberal experts and institutions need us to believe that global capitalism, now unfettered in the wake of the Cold War and bolstered by Information Technology, has ushered in a new phase of international human prosperity.
This short book deconstructs the assumption that global poverty has fallen dramatically, and lays bare the spurious methods of poverty measurement and data on which the dominant prosperity narrative depends. Here is carefully researched documentation that global poverty—and the inequalities and misery that flourish within it—remains massive, afflicting the majority of the world’s population. Donnelly goes further to analyze just how global poverty, rather than being reduced, is actually reproduced by the imperatives of capital accumulation on a global scale. Just as the global, environmental catastrophe cannot be resolved within capitalism, rooted as it is in contemporary mechanisms of exploitation and plunder, neither can human poverty be effectively eliminated by neoliberal “advances.”
160 pages, Hardcover
Published August 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 29, 2021
concise and incisive. an absolutely essential read for anyone looking to understand the role of poverty data in global governance and extractive political economy.
May 30, 2022
The book's title might be highly striking, thereby one might think it is not worthwhile, for it might be seen as another leftist manifesto; nevertheless, it is well-informed research. The book's first part shows how the methods to measure poverty in the world, carried out by global institutions like the World Bank or the FAO, are, at least, erroneous.
To mention two examples, the World Bank's methodology of poverty AKA "line of poverty" is not only old-fashioned but it eliminates at the stroke of a pen millions of poor in the world by underestimating the minimum required income to live adequately. Likewise, FAO's measurements have changed their methodology in order to reduce the essential daily eating requirements wherewith global hunger is as well reduced.
The second part is an ideological critique of political economy rather than a study with stats, therefore it is a complement to the first part. I recommend this book to people who want to review the outgoing global situation, and also want to acquire data to analyse critically the current politics.
To mention two examples, the World Bank's methodology of poverty AKA "line of poverty" is not only old-fashioned but it eliminates at the stroke of a pen millions of poor in the world by underestimating the minimum required income to live adequately. Likewise, FAO's measurements have changed their methodology in order to reduce the essential daily eating requirements wherewith global hunger is as well reduced.
The second part is an ideological critique of political economy rather than a study with stats, therefore it is a complement to the first part. I recommend this book to people who want to review the outgoing global situation, and also want to acquire data to analyse critically the current politics.
November 29, 2019
It's all a conspiracy to manipulate the Proletariat. Probably in a future book Seth Donnelly will tell us about the Reptilians.
January 23, 2020
Donnelly snakkar om korleis PPP dollar er eit mål som dyljar fattigdomen i verda, og korleis dei framstega statistikken seier har vore dei siste 30 åra mest er framsteg i statistikken. Sidan kjem eit analysekapittel og ein appell — dei er greie, men ikkje so nyskapande å snakka om. Det er dataa i fyrste bolken som gjer boka verd å lesa.
March 25, 2024
Very informative and an eye opening read but as a person with no economic background I found it difficult to follow at times
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews