Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism.
Jeffrey SachsRead
America's government is not even aware of the gap between its commitments and action, because almost nobody in authority understands the actions that would be needed to meet the commitments.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights a disconnect between governmental promises and the actual measures required to fulfill them.
Jeffrey Sachs critiques the American government's lack of awareness regarding the disparity between its commitments and the necessary actions to fulfill them. He underscores that those in positions of authority often lack the understanding needed to translate ambitious promises into tangible actions, which leads to a gap between what is promised and what is realistically achievable.
Themes
GovernmentCommitmentsActionLeadershipAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate discussing climate change policies, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for action over promises.
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All quotes βAll of the incessant debate about development assistance, and whether the rich are doing enough to help the poor, actually concerns less than 1% of rich world income. The effort required of the rich is indeed so slight that to do less is to announce brazenly to a large part of the world: 'You count for nothing.' We should not be surprised, then, if in later years the rich reap the whirlwind of that heartless response.
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The key to ending extreme poverty is to enable the poorest of the poor to get their foot on the ladder of development. The ladder of development hovers overhead, and the poorest of the poor are stuck beneath it. They lack the minimum amount of capital necessary to get a foothold, and therefore need a boost up to the first rung.
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Without restoring an ethos of social responsibility, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery.
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Our challenge, our generation's unique challenge, is learning to live peacefully and sustainably in an extraordinarily crowded world. Our planet is crowded to an unprecendented degree. It is bursting at the seams. It's bursting at the seams in human terms, in economic terms, and in ecological terms
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