The Forbes One Billion

I came across this thought-provoking article by Jeffrey Sachs in consumer advocate Neil Jenman's newsletter.

It appeared in the Aug 2007 edition of The Forbes 400.

The Forbes One Billion

The FORBES ranking of the superrich is a valuable and entertaining public service. But it's missing something. We need a Forbes One Billion for the other end of the scale--the superpoor.

If journalists spent as much time studying the lives of the poor as they do gazing at the rich, it would help us all keep our heads on straight. We would marvel at a world economy strange enough to sustain such gaps. We'd learn not to blame the rich for the poverty of the poor, but we'd also learn not to blame the poor themselves. Blame is a primitive response. Entrepreneurship is a much better one. The Forbes 400 could do an amazing job to help The Forbes One Billion into the world economy.

Read the rest of the article.