Existing, not living - Existing on Less than $2 a Day

The primary purpose of population balance is to reduce misery and suffering in the world.

Over one third of the world’s people – more than 2 billion – survive on less than $2 a day.  Of course, it’s utterly impossible for Americans to even begin to comprehend this condition of existence. Some of the poorest 2 billion are not struggling as desperately as the poorest of these shown above. But many barely exist on the edge of survival.

Following is a description – only an attempt – to describe what this existence is really like for nearly all of these people:

 

Elderly woman in Bangkok

Elderly woman under a bridge in Bangkok, Thailand
Source: Ronn Aldaman

 

It’s out of the question that any of them will ever have anything like a bank account, pension plan, or insurance policies. They have none of these “safety nets” that most Americans take for granted.
 
They don’t even comprehend the idea of retirement since most will die before they are 55.

 

 

Receiving intravenous fluids in a government hospital in India
Source: Oxfam International

 
They are lucky if they have even the most basic medical care. And they often have to cope with highly crowded, grossly inadequate conditions for the care they do receive.

 People waiting to get registered at a government hospital in India

People waiting to get registered at a government hospital in India
Source: Oxfam International