Half the world is now middle class or wealthier (2018)
Incorrect use of the term &quot;tipping point&quot;.  Reaching this point may be noteworthy, but there is absolutely no evidence or reason to believe that the remaining poverty will diminish much more rapidly, which is what &quot;tipping point&quot; implies.[1]   Nor do they actually claim this in the article, they just keep on misusing the term.<p>Also, I live in a small city in a developing country where this phenomenon was quite visible; certainly people have a lot more material wealth than they did, say 20 years ago, but education and public health have not improved significantly, and possibly even declined for the lower middle-class.  And while people used to be poor here, nobody was malnourished in the bad old days, but now, with their new industrialized middle-class diets, they are getting &quot;starving fat&quot; like American inner city kids.  If people are really better off is debatable.<p>And all those new middle-class consumers are doing a real number on the environment, probably more so than a &quot;first world&quot; consumer of similar means because of the crappy infrastructure (proper waste management anyone?) and because the consumer goods here are of significantly lower quality (and so need to be replace more frequently).<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tipping_point_(sociology)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tipping_point_(sociology)</a>