[H]ow easy and quick it is to become poor.

peter.reardon: on poverty and the fallacy of corporate bailouts: -

How useful to have this World Bank report available in support of  the poorest in society!

The article, by Marina Litvinsky and published by IPS would at first glance seem to be essential reading for ‘countries other than the industrialize group”; it is DEVELOPMENT: World’s Poor Offer Lessons in Bank Study.

Impoverishment is not unique to Africa, Asia, or Latin America, it exists where greed and doubtful democratic practice might prevail in a majority of governments globally, and is, therefore, part of the problem.

The world is now under no illusion as to the degree of corruption and/or greed of corporate groups.

For example tax money that is diverted from education programmes becomes a grant to fund projects of corporate friends. The lack of health care for everybody regardless of income exacerbates poverty, in part because malnourishment, or poor health, impedes learning.

"(Poor people) face a lot of exclusionary practices," said Nora Dudwick, senior social scientist at the poverty reduction group in the poverty reduction and economic management department of the bank."

From her report Litvinsky explains the definition of poverty and  “how easy and quick it is to become poor” and “who in the community qualifies as poor”.

It isn’t only the banking/corporate elite, but also the working class elite: the international trade unions, particularly the vehicle manufacturing giants both who while crying poverty demand that the working poor should bail them out of having spent beyond their means into corporate bankruptcy

"A lot of the reports that deal with poverty deal with income, but a (better criterion) is looking at resilience, which this report does," she said. "It shows the importance of empowering people. And how empowering people and organisations is the way to get people out of poverty."

The working poor and those without employment are increasing daily by the thousands and a force to be trained and funded in community development 

The alternative does not bear thinking about.