Link04
01-02-2005, 02:59 AM
Over consumption can accurately by called the root of global hunger, poverty, "overpopulation", and several othe large issues. Yet the media tells us to consume more and more. Surely consumption in itself is necessary, but in what amounts? Where can we draw the line? And why is this issue talked about so little?
Opinions, please.
.......ok...I guess I'll have to start this one off:
Just some figures for you:
Half the world's people live on less than $2 a day. World Bank, "Global Poverty Measures 1987-1998 and Projections for the Future," 1999.
1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day. World Bank, "Global Poverty Measures 1987-1998 and Projections for the Future," 1999.
The debt burden is the biggest single barrier to development in the Third World, the most powerful tool that western nations use to keep whole countries in bondage.
It is estimated that the Third World pays the developed North nine times more in debt repayments than they receive in aid. Africa alone spends four times more on repaying its debts than it spends on health care.
Jubilee USA Network - A Beginner's Guide to the Debt Crisis
In 1997 the foreign debts of ‘developing’ countries were more than two trillion (million million) US dollars and still growing. The result is a debt of $400 for every man, woman and child in the developing world – where average income in the very poorest countries is less than a dollar a day.
New Internationalist - Issue 312 "Debt"
“The assets of the 200 richest people in 1998 were more than the total annual income of 41% of the world’s people.
UNDP Human Development Report 1999
Three families – Bill Gates, the Sultan of Brunei and the Walton family – have a combined wealth of some $135 billion. Their value equal the annual income of 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries.
World Development Movement. WDM in Action, Winter 1999, Rebecca McQullan (article)
Global Inequality - Inequality between countries
The richest 20% of the world population now receives 150 times the income of the poorest 20%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1992
The richest one-fifth of the world:
• Consume 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5%.
• Consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4%.
• Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5%.
• Consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1%.
• Own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1998
The richest 20% of the population now receives 150 times the income of the poorest 20%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1992
The bottom line for poverty and incomes: The share of the poorest 20% of the world's people in global income now stands at a miserable 1.1%, down from 1.4% in 1991 and 2.3% in 1960. It continues to shrink. And the ratio of the income of the top 20% to that of the poorest 20% rose from 30 to 1 in 1960, to 61 to 1 in 1991 - and to a startling new high of 78 to 1 in 1994.
UNDP Human Development Report 1997
The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the poorest fifth, measured by average national income per head, increased from 30 to one in 1960, to 74 to one in 1997.
Human Development Report, United Nations Development Program, 1999.
826 million people remained undernourished in 1996-98
UN Food and Agriculture Organization - State of Food Insecurity in the World 2000
Hunger continues to plague an estimated 793 million people around the world, including 31 million in the U.S. Hunger kills. Every day, 24,000 people die from hunger and other preventable causes. Nearly 160 million children are malnourished worldwide.
Oxfam America - Hunger Fact Sheet
Almost 800 million people—about one-sixth of the population of the world's developing nations—are malnourished. 200 million of them are children.
Bread for the World (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Now do you see how a little thing like over consumption can adversely effect our entire world? Just think of our national class struggle; the rich minority making the poorer masses incapable of attaining their riches, so they can remain the rich minority. It's that way nationally, as you've seen (our government and corporations intertwined), and it's also this way on the global level. The First World ensures that the Third World pays the price of their over-consumption (someone has to), and oppresses them with debt, so the First World can continue to remain the First World.
It's not that there's not enough resources to go around the world for everyone, it's the inequality and our over consumption that CAUSES world poverty, hunger, and several other crisis'. We're locked in a vicous cycle of development, while the majority of the world suffers.
Opinions, please.
.......ok...I guess I'll have to start this one off:
Just some figures for you:
Half the world's people live on less than $2 a day. World Bank, "Global Poverty Measures 1987-1998 and Projections for the Future," 1999.
1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day. World Bank, "Global Poverty Measures 1987-1998 and Projections for the Future," 1999.
The debt burden is the biggest single barrier to development in the Third World, the most powerful tool that western nations use to keep whole countries in bondage.
It is estimated that the Third World pays the developed North nine times more in debt repayments than they receive in aid. Africa alone spends four times more on repaying its debts than it spends on health care.
Jubilee USA Network - A Beginner's Guide to the Debt Crisis
In 1997 the foreign debts of ‘developing’ countries were more than two trillion (million million) US dollars and still growing. The result is a debt of $400 for every man, woman and child in the developing world – where average income in the very poorest countries is less than a dollar a day.
New Internationalist - Issue 312 "Debt"
“The assets of the 200 richest people in 1998 were more than the total annual income of 41% of the world’s people.
UNDP Human Development Report 1999
Three families – Bill Gates, the Sultan of Brunei and the Walton family – have a combined wealth of some $135 billion. Their value equal the annual income of 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries.
World Development Movement. WDM in Action, Winter 1999, Rebecca McQullan (article)
Global Inequality - Inequality between countries
The richest 20% of the world population now receives 150 times the income of the poorest 20%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1992
The richest one-fifth of the world:
• Consume 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5%.
• Consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4%.
• Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5%.
• Consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1%.
• Own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1998
The richest 20% of the population now receives 150 times the income of the poorest 20%.
UNDP Human Development Report 1992
The bottom line for poverty and incomes: The share of the poorest 20% of the world's people in global income now stands at a miserable 1.1%, down from 1.4% in 1991 and 2.3% in 1960. It continues to shrink. And the ratio of the income of the top 20% to that of the poorest 20% rose from 30 to 1 in 1960, to 61 to 1 in 1991 - and to a startling new high of 78 to 1 in 1994.
UNDP Human Development Report 1997
The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the poorest fifth, measured by average national income per head, increased from 30 to one in 1960, to 74 to one in 1997.
Human Development Report, United Nations Development Program, 1999.
826 million people remained undernourished in 1996-98
UN Food and Agriculture Organization - State of Food Insecurity in the World 2000
Hunger continues to plague an estimated 793 million people around the world, including 31 million in the U.S. Hunger kills. Every day, 24,000 people die from hunger and other preventable causes. Nearly 160 million children are malnourished worldwide.
Oxfam America - Hunger Fact Sheet
Almost 800 million people—about one-sixth of the population of the world's developing nations—are malnourished. 200 million of them are children.
Bread for the World (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Now do you see how a little thing like over consumption can adversely effect our entire world? Just think of our national class struggle; the rich minority making the poorer masses incapable of attaining their riches, so they can remain the rich minority. It's that way nationally, as you've seen (our government and corporations intertwined), and it's also this way on the global level. The First World ensures that the Third World pays the price of their over-consumption (someone has to), and oppresses them with debt, so the First World can continue to remain the First World.
It's not that there's not enough resources to go around the world for everyone, it's the inequality and our over consumption that CAUSES world poverty, hunger, and several other crisis'. We're locked in a vicous cycle of development, while the majority of the world suffers.