World Poverty and Human Rights
2. Edition September 2008
304 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Some 2.5 billion human beings live in severe poverty, deprived of such essentials as adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, adequate shelter, literacy, and basic health care. One third of all human deaths are from poverty-related causes: 18 million annually, including over 10 million children under five.
However huge in human terms, the world poverty problem is tiny economically. Just 1 percent of the national incomes of the high-income countries would suffice to end severe poverty worldwide. Yet, these countries, unwilling to bear an opportunity cost of this magnitude, continue to impose a grievously unjust global institutional order that foreseeably and avoidably perpetuates the catastrophe. Most citizens of affluent countries believe that we are doing nothing wrong.
Thomas Pogge seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. He analyses how our moral and economic theorizing and our global economic order have adapted to make us appear disconnected from massive poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers a modest, widely sharable standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.
Thoroughly updated, the second edition of this classic book incorporates responses to critics and a new chapter introducing Pogge's current work on pharmaceutical patent reform.
well-informed works of political philosophy yet written on world
poverty. (A) brilliant work."
James Grant, Australian Journal of Political Science
"A triumph of cosmopolitan argumentation for a global system of
justice. This book has been, and will remain, a standard for all
students of poverty and human rights."
Human Rights Review
"If only everyone living in affluent nations were to read
World Poverty and Human Rights! Pogge's combination of
rigorous moral argument and judicious use of the relevant facts
compels us to acknowledge that the existing global economic order
is ethically indefensible. A wonderful book that could do an
immense amount of good."
Peter Singer
"One of the very best books known to me on global inequality,
the most important moral problem facing the world today. Pogge
shows convincingly how we, and the institutions we support, can
best try to make the present world order less unjust. These
proposals combine, in a remarkable way, moral depth, clear
thinking, inventiveness, and practical good sense."
Derek Parfit, All Souls College, Oxford
"Pogge's gift is to recognize as imaginary the boundaries
between economics and ethics. A striking example is the
historically derived and currently dysfunctional way we apply
patents for medicines. With simplicity and clarity, Pogge offers an
analysis without villains, a remedy without losers and a practical
path to fundamental reform."
Carl Nathan, Cornell University
