We're looking into the question of whether poverty is going up or down. We're not figuring out the solution to poverty. Let's say I point to improved cancer mo

We're looking into the question of whether poverty is going up or down. We're not figuring out the solution to poverty. Let's say I point to improved cancer mortality (on average, of course) as a result of human progress, are you going to argue that it's all irrelevant since some people still die from cancer? You're simply straying from the topic. > And how useful is the "global average is getting better" to people who want to raise kids well-fed but currently cannot? Not useful at all, obviously. Kids can't eat statistics. They also can't eat your HN comments, for that matter.