Humanity should marvel at the advancements in health that have extended lifespans, rising from 64.6 years in the early 1990s to 72.6 years in 2019. The number of people who are centenarians has never been greater than it is today.
We should marvel at the reduced deaths at childbirth and less child mortality due to inoculations.
In the early 1970s, women had on average 4.5 children each; by 2015, total fertility for the world had fallen to below 2.5 children per woman.
We should marvel also at the technological innovations that have eased our lives and connected us more than ever.
We should marvel at the gains achieved in gender equality and in sexual orientation, in civil liberties and human rights
Yet too many of us are still exposed to discrimination, repression and tyranny.
Yet our planet still remains in jeopardy from environmental destruction and global warming.
For too long politicians and businessmen have been ignoring problems around the world. Investors with voracious greed for economic expansion and capital accumulation, who have been making lucrative profits by exploiting the natural resources and the people of our planet through industrialisation and intensive farming, are the ones behind this suicidal rush to the cliff’s edge and the abyss, not the number of people in the world.
Capitalism has been despoiling the land, poisoning the water and turning the air toxic. Millions of people and even more millions in the future are without a home because of climate impacts and military conflicts.
In a socialist world, 8 billion people would mean 8 billion minds and 8 billion pairs of hands eager to build prosperity and comfort to be shared by all.
Under capitalism, 8 billion people struggle to survive, scraping and scavenging desperately to make a living so that a privileged few can bask and wallow in opulence and luxury.
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