Melisa Ay
The United Nations declared October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on December 22, 1992. In the 33 years since then, with the claim of “bringing about policy change by raising awareness of poverty,” people have not been able to escape the quagmire of poverty. UN data also admits that no progress has been made in eradicating poverty since 2019.
According to the World Bank’s poverty data, which is often criticized for its flawed methodology, 700 million people worldwide are extremely poor, forced to live on less than $2.15 per person per day. One billion people worldwide struggle to make ends meet on between $2.15 and $3.65 per day. Approximately half of the world’s population, or 3.5 billion people, live on less than $6.85 per day. Although the World Bank’s calculations show that poverty has decreased compared to the previous year, its calculation method is criticized for the point at which it sets the poverty line.
Western imperialism, which creates poverty and feeds off it, along with capital and financial giants, present new studies every year, but the fight against poverty goes no further than “presenting data.” Even the IMF, which first creates crises and then turns them into opportunities, offers advice on “sustainable economies to combat poverty.” In countries where the IMF and World Bank implement their “structural adjustment” programs, people are becoming poorer by the day. In countries that have used IMF loans in the past, burdened by interest payments and forced to adopt many hostile policies, including “austerity” measures such as higher taxes and lower public spending, poverty has not ended. Food subsidies for public support for healthy nutrition, the increase in the cost of public services, and the suppression of wages are the basic conditions of the IMF program. Argentina, one of the countries implementing this program, is taking out new loans from the IMF to be able to repay its IMF loans, while the Argentine people are rebelling due to high inflation and experimental economic management.
In Turkey, one of the countries implementing an IMF-style program without the IMF, where all the conditions of the IMF program are met, those who earn their living through labour are condemned to misery below the poverty line, unable to see the poverty line on the horizon. Poverty has not ended in Mexico, the first country to implement “structural adjustment” in exchange for loans, and in the Latin American and Sub-Saharan African countries that followed suit. There is no example of a country that has achieved growth with IMF loans, provided prosperity to its people, and ended poverty.
In the IMF’s poverty assessment based on gross domestic product, sub-Saharan African countries are considered the poorest. Millions live in hunger and poverty in these countries, where their people are used as virtually free labour, where the West encourages war and conflict, and where their natural resources are exploited for their own wealth. South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Malawi, Madagascar, Sudan, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Niger are the poorest countries according to the IMF.
Even if the IMF and World Bank do not classify them as “poor,” economies such as Turkey, which fall into the low-middle income category, are shaped by GDP income inequality. Turkey leads the way in inequality in the Gini coefficient ranking, which measures income inequality. In this country, which ranks first in Europe in terms of inequality, the wealthy benefit from the increasing GDP. 60% of the population survives on an annual income below the per capita income.
EMPTY WALLETS ON ONE SIDE, LUXURY CARS ON THE OTHER
Purchasing power declined with high inflation, and austerity policies cemented poverty. Those forced into debt were further harmed by high interest rates. The wealthy, on the other hand, have added to their fortunes both through the profit environment created by the suppressed exchange rate and high interest rates, and through the operation of their money. Capitalists, who grew under the AKP government and were fed by public tenders and state subsidies, only suffered “losses from profits” during crises.
While millions in the country were forced to struggle to survive below the poverty line, sales of luxury vehicles increased. According to September 2025 data from the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD), sales of luxury segment vehicles continued at full speed. Between January and September, 5,013 ultra-luxury vehicles were sold. During the same period, luxury vehicle sales reached 24,791 units. Approximately 30,000 luxury vehicles were sold in nine months.
The minimum wage in the country covers only 24.3% of the current September poverty line. The coverage rate at the poverty line remains at 79%. While being able to feed oneself has become a luxury for millions who earn their living through labour, luxury vehicle sales are breaking records.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Yoksulluk ve lüks aynı anda büyüyor, published in BirGün newspaper on October 17, 2025.
