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Wealth, health and the cycle of progress 251870–2002. Despite minor fluctuations in the components, therehas been a general improvement in overall human well-being in theUnited States during the twentieth century. Each componentimproved throughout the century except for literacy, which reachedsaturation around 1970.Have gaps in human well-being widened?While human well-being has improved continually over the pasttwo centuries, it is often claimed that inequalities continue to widenbetween the developed and developing nations. A typical observationis the following from the United Nations DevelopmentProgram’s 1999 Human Development Report:Nearly 30 years ago the Pearson Commission began its reportwith the recognition that, “the widening gap between the developedand developing countries has become the central problem ofour times.’ But over the past three decades the income gap betweenthe richest fifth and the poorest fifth has more than doubled. Narrowingthe gaps between rich and poor … should become explicitglobal goals …” (UNDP, 1999).As Figure 7 showed, there are wide – and, in many cases,growing – disparities in income between the richer and poorercountries. The gaps in per capita income between Western Europeand the United States and other regions have ballooned since thestart of modern economic growth about two centuries ago, andmany people remain terribly poor (Maddison, 1998; 1999a).However, the increasing gap in incomes between the richer andpoorer countries does not mean that income gaps between allhuman beings in the world, regardless of where they live, is necessarilywidening (Economist, 2004). More importantly, it does notfollow that the well-being of the relatively poor groups is declining.In 2001, according to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people, mainlyin the developing world, lived in “absolute poverty” (defined as subsistingon less than one U.S. dollar per day based on 1993 purchasingpower parity) (Ravallion, 2004). Nevertheless, contrary to