Poverty can be an ephemeral life stage of a young person whose skill sets will become more valuable with training and experience, a personal setback such as losing a job, or a systemic affliction that puts a whole community in danger of widespread famine. A common theme of this volume’s essays is that we cannot understand poverty and famine unless we acknowledge that poor people are not mouths to be fed but agents. Amartya Sen got this right, crediting Adam Smith for the seeds of his insight. What has been enabling people by the billions since Smith’s time to work their way out of poverty?

中文翻译：

---

贫困

贫困可能是年轻人短暂的人生阶段，随着培训和经验的积累，其技能将变得更有价值，也可能是失业等个人挫折，也可能是使整个社区面临大范围饥荒危险的系统性苦难。本书文章的一个共同主题是，除非我们承认穷人不是要吃饭的嘴，而是他们的代理人，否则我们就无法理解贫困和饥荒。阿马蒂亚·森（Amartya Sen）说对了，他将亚当·斯密的洞察力归功于亚当·斯密。自史密斯时代以来，是什么让数十亿人能够通过工作摆脱贫困？