Recent events have pushed me to contemplate the concept of truth. How possible is it to arrive at what we refer to as ‘the truth?’ We now have access to thousands of news sources, websites, and can delve into even the most private aspects of our friends’, families’, and even complete strangers’ lives. And yet, are we any closer today than at any other point of actually discovering what makes up ‘the truth’ of our existence?

Voices, stories, even real time reporting often contradict itself, leaving us on the outside with an uneasy sense of confusion about what is actually true. We are inclined towards biases, leaning towards the voices that grab our ear first, the most dramatic, even the most scandalous. Ultimately, it seems that there is only experience; and from the collected experiences of our lives we form a base set of principles and evidence on which to base our decisions between truth and deception when that dichotomy presents itself.

It is said that history is written by the victors. Despite access to a wide variety of voices, that seems truer today than ever. Economic growth is measured by the overall strength of a nation’s economy. That data outrageously ignores the growing distance between the upper and lower classes. Despite a multitudinous cry for reform, the World Bank and other international money lending firms are derailing attention away from the increasingly downtrodden conditions the impoverished are subjected to.

Let us heed the words of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus to change the way we measure the health and strength of a national economy. Growth should be measured by the change in health and finances of the lower 50% of the population on the economic scale. The upper half does not need to grow anymore to stay healthy. Because a majority of trade that makes up the economy of the poor is in the informal sector (outside the realm of taxation, and therefore largely immeasurable), health indicators (i.e. infant mortality, rate of HIV infection, life expectancy) become the only reliable means of calculating real change for this portion of society. The fact is that it is a significant portion; nearly 50% of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. How is it that when we hear ‘the truth’ about India, China, or America’s economic surge, those who have no power individually are conveniently left out of the rosy picture portrayed by the media?

We are years away from accurately representing the plight of the impecunious. Despite a constant influx of media and information, we are, as a population, left in the dark when it comes to the poor. India’s economy grew at a rate of 9% this year; sounds pretty good, yet infant mortality and other health statistics remained largely unchanged if not worse than previous years. So the economic growth was concentrated at the top, because improved economic welfare equals improved access to health services.

Ultimately, it may seem impossible to come to a consensus on the truth of anything, including world poverty. However, there are ways to understand real growth in a nation and as our understanding of poverty continues to grow; it seems that health indicators are quickly becoming the only way to uncover and address the needs of those in the direst set of circumstances.

For further reading check out; Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, The End of Poverty by Jeffery Sachs, and Dying for Growth edited by Jim Kim.

Robert