Bill Gates: There will be no poor countries by 2035

[pampango]

4. The Millenium Development Goals from the UN have made much progress since 2000.

The goal of halving global extreme poverty from what it was in 2000 was met by 2010 in spite of the global recession. The optimists are predicting that it is possible to eliminate absolute poverty (at least on national levels) by 2035.

It seems to me that it is the conservative folks with their "the poor will always be with us so why should be sacrifice anything to help them" mantra that stands in the way. Liberals don't usually look at abject poverty and say "I wish we could deal with it, but it cannot be done."