As Robert Burns once said “Facts are chiels that winna ding” [trans. facts are fellows that will not be overturned, cannot be disputed]
Worldwide it is estimated that the wealthiest 10% owns 85% of global household wealth.
The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 47 countries with the least GDP.
The richest 2% of the world population own more than 51% of the global assets.
8% of humanity takes home 50% of global income, the top 1% alone takes home 15 percent.
From 1988 to 2008, people in the world’s top 1 percent saw their incomes increase by 60 percent, while those in the bottom 5 percent had no change in their income.
The ratio between the average incomes of the top 5% to the bottom 5% in the world increased from 78 to 1 in 1988, to 114 to 1 in 1993.
20% of the world’s population (that’s 1.4 billion people) live on less than $1.25 a day
Almost 50% the world’s people (over 3.5 billion) live on less than $2.50 a day.
80% live on less than $10 a day.
The greatest concentrations of people living below the $2 a day poverty line are to be found in rural areas where three in every four are to be found. Life is little better in the cities where over half the world’s 7.2 billion population now live, one in three of whom live in a slum.
22,000 children (under the age of five; if it was 6, or 7, the numbers would be even higher) die every day due to poverty related issues.
Of the two billion children in the world, half are currently living their lives in extreme poverty, with limited or no access to clean water or sanitation, health care and education worth the name.
The largest proportion of those living in poverty are in India, rural China and Sub-Saharan Africa, where despite the fact that some countries within the last decade or two have seen economic growth, poverty rates have remained unchanged and some countries – Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon – have actually seen an increase in the percentage of their population living in extreme poverty.
It would take more than 800 years for the bottom billion to achieve ten percent of global income under the current rate of change.
In America:
One in four children live in poverty.
The country’s wealthiest 1% (incomes above $394,000) take home 22 percent of the nation’s income; the top 0.1 percent, make do with a colossal 11 percent.
40 percent of Americans less than they did four decades ago
From 2009 to 2012, incomes of the top 1% in America, increased more than 31%, while the incomes of the 99% grew 0.4% – less than half a percentage point”
The United States, with a mere 5% of the world’s population, uses 30% of natural resources; the 25% of people living in developed countries use 80% of the world’s non-fuel minerals.
The International Organisation for Migration estimates there to be, over 105 million persons [excluding children] working in a country other than their country of birth. Women make up the lions share of this number. Migrant workers form an economic lifeline for millions of families. In 2012 they sent $406 billion in savings to their families in developing countries.
The US State Department states that up to 800,000 persons are trafficked every year (although the figure is probably considerably higher): 80% of victims are women, of which 80% are sold into the commercial sex industry.
In a world of plenty why are billions of people vulnerable to exploitation, to political and economic manipulation, to slavery, to sexual abuse, and to the effects of natural disasters?
The vulnerable and exploited exist because of an inherently unjust social-economic system, which has caused extreme global inequality and built a divided fractured world society. The resulting social injustice strengthen existing divisions, creating resentment, anger and violent conflict. The apologists for capitalism and of the wealthy elite is that there is no alternative. Socialism, a more just and humane model of development, based on equitable distribution of the world’s resources, is a viable alternative. Its time has come. The idea of equitable distribution, of sharing the food and water, the resources knowledge, skills, ideas and technology of the world, can be the guiding principle for development and economic life. Poverty can be eliminated. The health, the education, the assets and the productivity of the poor can be improved so that the improving of their lives can become self sustaining.
Adapted from here
Worldwide it is estimated that the wealthiest 10% owns 85% of global household wealth.
The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 47 countries with the least GDP.
The richest 2% of the world population own more than 51% of the global assets.
8% of humanity takes home 50% of global income, the top 1% alone takes home 15 percent.
From 1988 to 2008, people in the world’s top 1 percent saw their incomes increase by 60 percent, while those in the bottom 5 percent had no change in their income.
The ratio between the average incomes of the top 5% to the bottom 5% in the world increased from 78 to 1 in 1988, to 114 to 1 in 1993.
20% of the world’s population (that’s 1.4 billion people) live on less than $1.25 a day
Almost 50% the world’s people (over 3.5 billion) live on less than $2.50 a day.
80% live on less than $10 a day.
The greatest concentrations of people living below the $2 a day poverty line are to be found in rural areas where three in every four are to be found. Life is little better in the cities where over half the world’s 7.2 billion population now live, one in three of whom live in a slum.
22,000 children (under the age of five; if it was 6, or 7, the numbers would be even higher) die every day due to poverty related issues.
Of the two billion children in the world, half are currently living their lives in extreme poverty, with limited or no access to clean water or sanitation, health care and education worth the name.
The largest proportion of those living in poverty are in India, rural China and Sub-Saharan Africa, where despite the fact that some countries within the last decade or two have seen economic growth, poverty rates have remained unchanged and some countries – Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon – have actually seen an increase in the percentage of their population living in extreme poverty.
It would take more than 800 years for the bottom billion to achieve ten percent of global income under the current rate of change.
In America:
One in four children live in poverty.
The country’s wealthiest 1% (incomes above $394,000) take home 22 percent of the nation’s income; the top 0.1 percent, make do with a colossal 11 percent.
40 percent of Americans less than they did four decades ago
From 2009 to 2012, incomes of the top 1% in America, increased more than 31%, while the incomes of the 99% grew 0.4% – less than half a percentage point”
The United States, with a mere 5% of the world’s population, uses 30% of natural resources; the 25% of people living in developed countries use 80% of the world’s non-fuel minerals.
The International Organisation for Migration estimates there to be, over 105 million persons [excluding children] working in a country other than their country of birth. Women make up the lions share of this number. Migrant workers form an economic lifeline for millions of families. In 2012 they sent $406 billion in savings to their families in developing countries.
The US State Department states that up to 800,000 persons are trafficked every year (although the figure is probably considerably higher): 80% of victims are women, of which 80% are sold into the commercial sex industry.
In a world of plenty why are billions of people vulnerable to exploitation, to political and economic manipulation, to slavery, to sexual abuse, and to the effects of natural disasters?
The vulnerable and exploited exist because of an inherently unjust social-economic system, which has caused extreme global inequality and built a divided fractured world society. The resulting social injustice strengthen existing divisions, creating resentment, anger and violent conflict. The apologists for capitalism and of the wealthy elite is that there is no alternative. Socialism, a more just and humane model of development, based on equitable distribution of the world’s resources, is a viable alternative. Its time has come. The idea of equitable distribution, of sharing the food and water, the resources knowledge, skills, ideas and technology of the world, can be the guiding principle for development and economic life. Poverty can be eliminated. The health, the education, the assets and the productivity of the poor can be improved so that the improving of their lives can become self sustaining.
Adapted from here
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