The Nature of Mass Poverty by John Kenneth Galbraith (Hardcover)

The Nature of Mass Poverty is an economics book by John Kenneth Galbraith published in 1979, in which Galbraith draws on his experiences as ambassador to India to explain the causes for and solutions to poverty. He begins by differentiating so-called “case poverty” of individuals (as detailed years earlier in The Affluent Society) from “mass poverty”, largely observed in rural areas of the developing world.

Galbraith discusses a variety of different explanations for poverty, e.g. climate, mountains, access to harbours, raw materials, culture or political system. A typical example is his comparison of two train journeys in eastern Europe in 1860 and 1960. He points out that the effect of communism on economics was rather limited—the train basically being the same, the relative differences in economic status kept unchanged as well, (eastern) Germany and Czechoslovakia leading and Romania being the last. The same applies to Asia, where “being Chinese” had a greater effect on local wealth than climate or local political system.