12.10.11

The End of Poverty

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  1. The End of Poverty?

    In spite of the gains of globalization on f the economy, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. It is unthinkable that in a post-industrial era in terms of human development and progress, the poor get only a trickle an effect.

    The gap between the richest and the poorest country was:

    3 to 1 in 1820
    35 to 1 in 1950
    74 to 1 in 1997

    The richest 1% of the world's population owns 32% of the wealth.

    Example, from 1503 to 1660, Spain took enough silver from the New World to multiply European reserves by 4.

    Since 1960, Third World countries have suffered a 70% drop in price of agricultural exports compared to manufactured imports.

    Meanwhile, the Developing World spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.

    Cutting global poverty in half would cost $20 billion, less than 4% of the U.S. Military Budget.

    By 1990s, the number of people living on less than $1 a day day rose from 273 million to 328 million in Africa alone.

    Of the 1 billion living on less than $1 a day, 162 million live on less than $0.50 cents a day.

    Rising food prices could plunge an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty.

    16,000 children die each day from hunger or hunger-related diseases.

    Such travesty is an affront to human dignity as the documentary, "The End of Poverty?" wants us to believe...

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