One Illness Away Why People Become Poor and How They Escape Poverty

About this book

Why does poverty persist? A critical, but so far ignored, part of the answer lies in the fact that poverty is regularly created. Large numbers of people are escaping poverty, but large numbers are concurrently falling into chronic poverty.

This book presents the first large-scale examination of the reasons why people fall into poverty and how they escape it in diverse contexts. Drawing upon personal interviews with 35,000 households in different parts of India, Kenya, Uganda, Peru, and the United States, the book goes on an illustrative journey, filled with facts, analyses, and the life stories of people who fell into abject poverty and others who managed to escape their seemingly predetermined fates.

Letting a farmhand's son or daughter remain a farmhand, even though he or she is potentially the next Einstein, is a tragedy that poor people witness time after time. Remedying this situation is crucial for making poverty history. This book addresses how equal opportunity can be promoted and how slum-born millionaires can arise in reality.

Contents

Preface
1: Refilling the Pool of Poverty
2: Poverty Flows
3: The Rising-Falling Tide
4: Reasons for Descent: The Health Poverty Trap
5: Reasons for Escape: Diversification and Agriculture
6: Connecting Capability with Opportunity: Investing in Information
7: A Two-Pronged Strategy: Protection and Opportunity
Appendix: Measuring Poverty: Testing Stages-of-Progress

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