Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace, recently wrote a provocative piece in the Huffington Post entitled “World to Poor: Drop Dead.”

“The spin-masters are already at work putting all of the sugar coating on it, but the reality is shocking and revealing. The world as a whole didn’t come up with a measly $5 billion a year for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. $5 billion was a bare minimum needed to maintain momentum in the fight against these diseases. Yet the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, China, Singapore, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, John Paulson, Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, 1,600 billionaires (with combined net worth of at least $5.5 trillion), and the rest of humanity couldn’t find the money. They came up with $4 billion instead, $1 billion short.”

How much would it hurt the rest of the world to raise the needed funds? According to Sachs, not much…

Read more via Huffington Post.
See also: $12 Billion is Pledged to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (New York Times)