In a country well-governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country poorly-governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. — Confucious

Today’s seminar deals with poverty. This is kind of a difficult concept to grasp, because its definition and meaning is often derived by drawing a comparison to specific conditions at hand; poverty finds its way onto a continuum, anchoring the end of the scale defined by want and need.

For context we asked the students to contemplate the following statistics:

Number of people in the world who live on less than $2/day: 2.5 billion.

Number of people in the world who live on less than $1/day: 1.5 billion.

A full 25% of the world’s population live without electricity.

In 2014, the world’s population hovers somewhere at or slightly above 7 billion, meaning that *more than half* of the world subsides on less than $2/day.  For context, the average daily wage in the US is about $70.  With a population of about 350 million, the US accounts for 5% of the world’s population. Think about this extreme inequality when considering how much of the world’s resources the US (and the global north) controls, commands and consumes.

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This seminar is intended to prepare students (and leaders) for a field activity where we will be living on $1 dollar for the day. The day will start with a bucket shower, and will continue with no gadgets or unnecessary creature comforts. It will be an eye opener for sure, especially considering the way of life in the US represents a luxurious minority, far from the world’s norm.