For the period prior to 1981, the graph relies on estimates of GDP and income distribution from Bourguignon and Morrison.
Unlike household surveys, the B&M data does not provide information on people’s access to livelihoods or provisioning, and it does not adequately capture changes in non-commodity forms of household consumption (subsistence, vegetables, fish, game, foraging, commons etc). This becomes problematic because we know that during periods of enclosure and dispossession under colonialism and early industrialization, the livelihoods and provisioning of ordinary people was often severely constrained even in cases where GDP was rising. This violent history gets obscured by the graph. (For more on this problem, see here).
this paper demonstrates that using GDP data to assess poverty causes significant distortions, and sees that the only way to determine long-term trends is to use historical consumption data. To that end, he creates a basic necessities poverty level that is roughly similar to the World Bank’s $1.90 limit, and calculates the proportion of people living below it in three main regions: U.S, U.K, India
His findings reveal a much different story than the graph above would have us believe.
There’s a final observation from Allen’s paper that’s worth pointing out. Allen finds that the $1.90/day (PPP) line is lower than the level of consumption of enslaved people in the United States in the 19th century. In other words, the poverty threshold the World Bank uses is below the level of enslavement. It is striking that anyone would accept this as a reasonable benchmark for “better” in a civilized society.
That data on poverty is misleading.
For the period prior to 1981, the graph relies on estimates of GDP and income distribution from Bourguignon and Morrison.
Unlike household surveys, the B&M data does not provide information on people’s access to livelihoods or provisioning, and it does not adequately capture changes in non-commodity forms of household consumption (subsistence, vegetables, fish, game, foraging, commons etc). This becomes problematic because we know that during periods of enclosure and dispossession under colonialism and early industrialization, the livelihoods and provisioning of ordinary people was often severely constrained even in cases where GDP was rising. This violent history gets obscured by the graph. (For more on this problem, see here).
this paper demonstrates that using GDP data to assess poverty causes significant distortions, and sees that the only way to determine long-term trends is to use historical consumption data.
To that end, he creates a basic necessities poverty level that is roughly similar to the World Bank’s $1.90 limit, and calculates the proportion of people living below it in three main regions: U.S, U.K, India
His findings reveal a much different story than the graph above would have us believe.
There’s a final observation from Allen’s paper that’s worth pointing out. Allen finds that the $1.90/day (PPP) line is lower than the level of consumption of enslaved people in the United States in the 19th century. In other words, the poverty threshold the World Bank uses is below the level of enslavement. It is striking that anyone would accept this as a reasonable benchmark for “better” in a civilized society.