The 2026 ATS presentation by Hardik D. Desai reframes tuberculosis not merely as a health scourge but as a macroeconomic force erasing 0.8% of global economic potential annually, equating to $1.35 trillion in lost welfare in 2023 alone. This observational analysis of DALYs paired with World Bank GDP figures is aggregate rather than experimental, drawing on population-level data without RCTs or specified sample sizes, and carries no declared conflicts from the independent Indian researcher. Yet it underplays how TB's concentration in the 15-54 age band perpetuates intergenerational poverty cycles, a pattern documented across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where affected households face 20-30% income drops. Peer-reviewed work in The Lancet Global Health (2022 observational cohort of 1.2 million cases) links similar productivity shocks to stalled GDP growth in high-burden nations, revealing systemic ties between infectious disease control and labor force stability that Desai's snapshot misses. WHO's End TB Strategy reports further show that each dollar invested in prevention yields $43 in economic returns by 2030, underscoring equity failures when just 22 countries shoulder 80% of the burden. These connections expose how untreated TB silently erodes human capital, mirroring malaria's documented drags on education and savings rates, and demand integrated policies that treat health spending as core infrastructure for development rather than optional aid.