Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism.
Jeffrey SachsRead
Our interconnectedness on the planet is the dominating truth of the 21st century. One stark result is that the world's poor live, and especially die, with the awareness that the United States is doing little to mobilise the weapons of mass salvation that could offer them survival, dignity and eventually the escape from poverty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the global interconnectedness and the moral responsibility of wealthier nations to help the impoverished.
Jeffrey Sachs highlights the critical reality of interconnectedness in the modern world, stressing that the dire conditions faced by the poor, particularly in the context of their awareness of disparities in wealth, reflect a failing of global responsibility. He argues that while the United States and other affluent nations have the means to provide significant aid and support to those in poverty, their reluctance or failure to mobilize these resources leads to continued suffering and injustice.
Themes
InterconnectednessPovertyResponsibilityGlobalAidDignitySurvival
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on global leadership, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of international aid.
More from Jeffrey Sachs
All quotes →All 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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Soil mapping is one of the pillars to the challenge of sustainable development
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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.
Jeffrey SachsRead
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
Jeffrey SachsRead
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