ABSTRACT
The annual Gross National Income per capita of the richest countries was about $27,000 in 2001, whereas that of the poorest countries was about $430 (World Bank 2003: 235, Table 1). But even the latter sum is misleading, because the distribution of income in poorer countries is appallingly skewed. Even according to World Bank estimates, some 1.2 billion people, one in every five people on Earth, are forced to live on less than $370 per year, that is, on less than $1 a day. Almost half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day (World Bank 2001: 3).
