Will Egyptians Get Back on Track for Better Lives?

The removal of Mohammed Morsi as President of Egypt by that country's military is an historic rarity, in my view; more of a "popular recall" than a military coup, even though the military carried it out. More than two years ago, after the ouster of Mubarak but prior to the election that brought Morsi to power, I blogged about the likely frustration that a large population of well-educated young Egyptians felt as they try to get ahead in life. Updating those numbers from the World Bank, we can see that as the earlier protests were taking shape in Egypt, only 15 percent of Egyptians lived on less than $2/day, compared to 30 percent in China, and 69 percent in India. Yet, the average income (GNI in PPP--no data on the GPI are available for Egypt) was $6,640 in Egypt compared to $9,210 in China and $3,840 in India. The numbers show that income in Egypt was only halfway between India and China despite the fact that poverty levels were well below either of those countries. We don't have new numbers from the World Bank that reflect any changes that might have occurred during the past year, but it is almost certain that no changes were occurring. More importantly, it seemed unlikely to a lot of people "in the street" that any changes were in the works. Violence continues in the country at the moment, but with any luck a new election, held without delay, will finally allow the country to move ahead, especially in a way that will provide real opportunity to the nation's 15 million young people aged 15-24.