In all likelihood, the Bank will continue to revise the poverty line downwards in real terms over the next fifteen years until it shows that poverty has been more or less eradicated. And when 2030 arrives, they will declare that they have succeeded. There will be much media fanfare, and politicians and development leaders will congratulate each other, pleased with a good-news story that will keep the public satisfied and silence any questions about the legitimacy of the global economic order. But meanwhile, back on Earth, some 4.3 billion people will know for a fact that it is a lie.
