Book excerpt: The world is wealthier than ever, yet the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. Jeremy Seabrook summarises his celebrated work on the meaning of povertym, drawing on the experience of poor people in both rich and poor societies. He concludes that the opposite of poverty is not wealth but sufficiency. the relatively poor majority of the world's people do not aim to be rich but to be safe. Economic growth will never overcome the problems that it is largely responsible for creating. This is a call for radical thinking about the way we live.