Inequality, Poverty and Well-being

Abstract

With more than a billion people living on less than one dollar per day, some evidence of increasing gaps in living conditions within and between countries and clear evidence of substantial declines in life expectancy or other health outcomes in some parts of the world, the related topics of inequality, poverty and well-being are core international issues. The international community has a long history of concern for them and resolve to tackle poverty in the developing world, in income and other well-being dimensions, has evidently heightened in recent years given the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000. Among the many MDG targets are to halve the number of people living in extreme income poverty and to achieve universal primary schooling by 2015 (UN Millennium Project 2005). Concerns for well-being achievement in the developed world are also clearly evident, despite it having achieved ever higher levels of average incomes and improvements in traditional well-being measures. Issues such as social exclusion, human security, well-being sustainability, levels of personal satisfaction and happiness are widely discussed.