Will Global Poverty Ever Be Eliminated Entirely?

iStock/Thinkstock

In Linda Yueh's "The rise of the global middle class [6.18.13]," she purports that the new global middle class in China, India and Brazil have propelled their economies to equal the size of the industrialized G7 countries and that by 2050, they are forecast to account for nearly half of world output, far surpassing the G7.

What is middle class?

According to organisations like the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it's someone who earns or spends $10 to $100 per day.

Will the trend last?  As the article says at the end, "The prize, which many will hope is in reach, is that global poverty is eliminated entirely within another couple of decades."

Read the entire article:  The rise of the global middle class  Be sure to read all the reader's comments - oftentimes more telling than the article itself.

More current pieces on the rise of the middle class:  The Swelling Middle, How We Can Strengthen the World's Fragile Middle Class (requires free registration) and The "Fragile Middle"

The Middle Class Is On the Move All Over the World

According to Milton Kotler, the middle class is on the move all over the world.  What does that mean?  We need to open our eyes to the reality of the vast urban middle class in the East, and other parts of the so-called developing world. He illustrates his points (trends) in a comparative view of two great cities, one new and one old: Shenzhen, China and Chicago, Illinois (the latter where I live - pictured).

The second purpose is to open Western eyes to the economic dynamism of BRIC countries and their emerging and developing market cohorts in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. The Middle Class in on the move all over the world, and is moving at a faster pace in the Developing and Emerging global sector than in the Developed sector.

Learn more over at Milton Kotler's China blog (fascinating material).

Photo courtesy:  ©2013 Laurel Delaney.  All rights reserved.