The Nature of Mass Poverty

"The Nature of Mass Poverty" [The nature of mass poverty Galbraith, J.K. Cambridge, Mass. (USA) Harvard Univ. Press 1979 ISBN 0-674-60533-0 Originally given as lectures at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva and at Radcliffe Institute;] is an economics book by John Kenneth Galbraith which was published in 1979.

In "The Nature of Mass Poverty", John Kenneth Galbraith reflects on his experiences as ambassador to India to explain the causes and solutions for poverty. He begins by differentiating so-called "case poverty" of individuals (as detailed years earlier in "The Affluent Society") from "mass poverty", largely observed in rural areas of the developing world.

Galbraith undergoes a variety of different explanations of poverty, e.g. climate, mountains, access to harbours, raw materials, or culture or political system. A classical galbraithian is his comparison of a train journey in eastern Europe 1860 and 1960 and points out, that the effect of communism on economics was rather limited - the train basically being the same, the relative differences in economic status kept unchanged as well, (eastern) Germany and Czekia leading and Romania being the last. The same applies to Asia, where "being Chinese" were of more effect to local wealth than climate or local political system.

Galbraith then lays out two arguments with regards to mass poverty. First, he contends that many of the causes attributed to the conditions of the rural poor (governmental corruption, lack of education) are in fact "both" cause and effect of poverty. The poor being perfectly adapted to their labour intense status, an "accommodation" to poverty makes it culturally ingrain and the poor and their offspring tend to stay in that vicious circle. With his characteristic biting wit, he points out that most solutions for poverty prescribed by the West (capital investment, innovation of organization and technology, increased agricultural production) are conveniently those which the developed nations are readily able to provide but often failed to take into consideration the local accommodation to poverty (compare Axelle Kabou).

Drawing on his observations in postwar Western Germany, which faced an enormous amount of displaced persons after the war, he concludes that emigration was not a problem but in combination with the high level of education a base of the economic success and reconstruction effort. Galbraith recommended for India improvement on general education on the one hand and a focused help for those willing to escape out of the circle of poverty. In general, as well for developed countries, emigration and embracing other cultures were not a problem but a sign of action and willingness to escape unsustainable status.

The more literate and informed a population, the more different influences and cultures available as a role model, the more motivated its members will be to escape perpetual poverty. His primary Indian example is the Punjab region of India, a cross road of trade and different cultural influences where the ambition to maintain a high literacy and education and the local mixture of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim accelerated more economic growth relative to poorer southern provinces.

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* [http://abridge.me.uk/doku.php?id=the_nature_of_mass_poverty Abridgement of The Nature of Mass Poverty]