On average, incomes of the poor rise one-for-one with incomes overall.
Spending on MassHealth, the programme for the poor, rose 40% between 2006 and 2010.
They fulfilled their social promises by borrowing or printing money, and thus left their countries poorer than when they found them.In Venezuela's case, since Mr Chávez took office, poverty has certainly risen: in 1999, 54% of households were poor, rising to 60% last year, according to official figures.
Poor people are likelier to kill themselves than richer ones; and since the old are relatively poor, rising standards of living tend to pull more of them out of poverty.But Mr Sudbury thinks that changes in medicine have helped, too: "we are getting better at treating depression".
In sub-Saharan Africa the extreme poverty rate fell only from 46.7% to 41.1%—and the number of poor rose, from 240m to 298m.In this section Overview Output, prices and jobs The Economist commodity-price index Output, trade and population Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates Markets Poverty Reprints.
There could, he told me, be "conflict, with the poor rising up against the rich".
As Mr Mandela's successor Thabo Mbeki once warned: "When the poor rise they will rise against us all".
When the poor rise up, they will rise up against the rich in general and not against the white rich only.
For instance, Tanzania, which has grown well and been devoid of conflict, has seen the number of poor rise from nine million two decades ago to 15 million today.
Enrollment in Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, rose from 48.5 million to 50.8 million between 2010 and 2011 amid a sluggish economy.
