Jeffrey Sachs on Global Poverty: "Wrong To Let People Die"

Economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, spoke with New York Times science writer Claudia Dreifus on March 4, 2013. The full conversation, which is part of 92Y's "Global Issues" series, covered a full range of topics, including the AIDS epidemic in America and abroad, the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and Jeffrey's career.

On global poverty, Sachs sees a moral imperative to find solutions.

"It does seem very strange that in this world of incredible wealth and technology, you have people dying of hunger, lack of safe water and medicine...it's nuts. I think it's wrong to let people die."

Sachs also thinks the worlds billionaires could help solve the problem.

"Just a little over a thousand billionaires in the world have four and a half trillion dollars of wealth...they by themselves could solve this problem if the got around to it."

Do you agree with Jeffrey that we can be doing more to solve the hunger problem? Leave your comment below.