When there were four billion people on the earth about half of them were severely malnourished . Now there are over six billion and only 700 million are malnourished .There is now a large middle class in India , Russia , Brazil and other countries . There were almost no obese people in Mexico twenty years ago and now most Mexicans ( in Mexico) are obese. Thus the evidence suggests that poverty is decreasing . Also, if everyone is poor , who can the corporations sell houses , cars Cell Phone s etc to ?