Most people are familiar with the term GNP (gross national product). Similarly, GWP is gross world product, and the graph below shows that while it remained basically stagnant for hundreds of years, it has sky-rocketed since 1820 and the advent of the industrial revolution. Why is this good news? Two reasons: First, the forty-nine fold increase shown over the last 180 years makes one thing abundantly clear: arguments that economic growth in developing countries threatens developed countries are false. GWP is not a zero-sum equation. Second, as daunting as the work of making a dent in global inequalities can be, the problems are not age-old and therefore unlikely to be resolved. We have only being tackling these issues for a couple of generations, giving Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty, and myself, quite a bit of hope.

Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin. 2006.