ABSTRACT
The central issue of our times is the unequal income of nations. Its importance outweighs most of the domestic problems in rich countries, and the division of the world into rich and poor has become more significant than the ideological cleavage between communism and capitalism. There are twenty-five rich countries where real income is between $1,300 and $3,200 a year, but more than 100 countries where income ranges from $150 to $1,300 a year. Two-thirds of the world’s population live in the latter group. Their poverty cannot be cured simply by transfers of income. The rich would have to give away more than half their income to achieve a levelling in consumption standards. Poverty can be abolished only by increasing output in the poor countries, and the limited aid which they receive must be used for this purpose.
