Household expenditure surveys conducted in selected low-income nations in the late 1980s and early1990s provide tangible evidence of the meager living conditions prevailing in poor nations. Consider results from the World Banks Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys of Ghana (conducted 1987-89), Jamaica (1989), Pakistan (1991), and Peru (1994). To these surveys we add results from a 1993-94 survey of Tanzania and a 1995 survey of rural Guatemala (1995).