8/23/07

Only Hypothetical Help for World's Poorest

How many people in the world live on less than $1 a day?

When U.S. workers in an online survey answered that question, 23 percent correctly said 1 billion people or more. The survey, sponsored by the nonprofit group Millennium Promise, founded by the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, gathered information from employees at U.S. companies.

Sixty percent of the survey's respondents named Africa as the continent most in need of corporate philanthropy, twice the number who picked North America.

Yet 27 percent of those surveyed said their companies shouldn't devote resources to fighting poverty around the globe. The most common argument, cited by 52 percent of those dissenters, was that U.S. companies should focus their philanthropy on alleviating problems in America.

[Bloomberg News]

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