For every person who is well off there is roughly one person living in extreme poverty. In order to effectively combat extreme poverty we need to get each person who is well off to help on average one extremely impoverished person. 

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It would be nice if we could cure extreme poverty by giving a small amount of money, but in order to make a real difference we need to get the average person who is well off to donate say, on average, $3000 per year.  Research has shown that people who donate to help others are actually happier than they would be if they had spent the money on themselves.

 

I realize that such a large donation is asking a lot of people but there are actions that people can take to save more than that amount annually.  See the article on saving money.