Sachs’s main argument is that countries in extreme poverty need only the opportunity to get a foothold on the ladder of economic development. This theme contains two points that are crucial throughout Sachs’s argument. First, the countries that are currently suffering extreme poverty (that is, where resources are so low that daily survival is a struggle and incomes are roughly a dollar a day or less, on average) do not need the rich countries to give them enough money to make them immediately wealthy. Instead, they just need enough to begin taking actions that will allow them to grow economically.

Second, countries in extreme poverty literally cannot begin to improve their condition because of the “poverty trap,” which means that their poverty is not generally a result of being lazy or irresponsible, and they generally will improve their economic state (often permanently) as soon as they have the opportunity. Stated in more traditional economic terms, the theme expresses Sachs’s point that those in extreme poverty require assistance because they have no means of obtaining the minimum capital necessary to kickstart the economic growth that rich countries have enjoyed for 200 years.