Poverty

As I bounce around through thoughts on a sustainable economy, poverty, negative economic growth, etc, I become convinced of two things. One, it is a heavy, complex subject with no simple answers. Two, negative economic growth may not only be the wrong thing to do (due to the effect it has on the worlds' poor), it may already be happening. The apparent growth in the developed world may primarily be a redistribution of resources in a slightly less than zero sum game.

From http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:

Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29

image source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?em