[ben_w]

Not quite today — I'm not even sure if it could be as early as by 2030 even if you eliminated all corruption and just had everyone working to build roads to and utilities in the remote towns and villages most in need of development.

We can certainly do more, don't get me wrong, but I don't think we could change so much for 750 million on a short timescale, even though that's just 10% of the world and we've clearly got the stuff in total.

China is, I think, doing a pretty decent job of getting itself out of poverty, but even they were "only" growing at 10%/year in this process.