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Has Western Civilization Peaked?


TOMapleLaughs

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This is garbage. People have been spewing the same mantra since the beginning of time. The truth is things are getting better. Fewer people died in armed conflict in the last decade than any period in human history. "Devastating" recessions pale in comparison to what we've seen in the past. This round Americans lost their large suburban homes or ended up with bad credit ratings. A hundred years ago, if the same thing would've happened, people would've been starving and dying in the streets.

Will the West remain "dominant"? Does it matter? We're entering an era where borders and geographic location are becomming meaningless. Any society that chooses freedom and openess will move on up with the rest.

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This is garbage. People have been spewing the same mantra since the beginning of time. The truth is things are getting better. Fewer people died in armed conflict in the last decade than any period in human history. "Devastating" recessions pale in comparison to what we've seen in the past. This round Americans lost their large suburban homes or ended up with bad credit ratings. A hundred years ago, if the same thing would've happened, people would've been starving and dying in the streets.

Will the West remain "dominant"? Does it matter? We're entering an era where borders and geographic location are becomming meaningless. Any society that chooses freedom and openess will move on up with the rest.

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I love how "Will McVoy" a fictional character on a second rate TV show is being used to shape people's outlook on the question at hand.

Things aren't out of our control. We have the power to shape our fortune. I'm not saying I'm optimistic but to suggest a continued societal decline is out of our control is foolish.

We know we are destroying the environment. Could we fix this if our survival depended on it (Which it does)? I believe so but the will isn't there.

We know corruption is rampant through government and private enterprise. Could we fix this if the system is becoming slow and not adapting to the demands of it. I once again believe so but the will isn't there.

Shortsightedness, greed and apathetic are the biggest problems we have to worry about. The system isn't flexible to change with the changing times. Americans are arguing about a 2nd amendment to justify owning RPGs, AK-47s, etc. Do you think Washington and Jefferson had the urban gang violence of the 21st century in mind when they were writing the declaration of independence?

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This is garbage. People have been spewing the same mantra since the beginning of time. The truth is things are getting better. Fewer people died in armed conflict in the last decade than any period in human history. "Devastating" recessions pale in comparison to what we've seen in the past. This round Americans lost their large suburban homes or ended up with bad credit ratings. A hundred years ago, if the same thing would've happened, people would've been starving and dying in the streets.

Will the West remain "dominant"? Does it matter? We're entering an era where borders and geographic location are becomming meaningless. Any society that chooses freedom and openess will move on up with the rest.

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Matter of perception, but I do think that people in "the West" (an archaic term if you ask me) tend to be more negative about the situation they are in because they've not really viewed it from the other side of the coin...as was already mentioned earlier, I think those who uproot and emigrate here see it in much more of a positive light than those of us who have been stagnating here all of our lives...when something is fresh and new, like any trend...it is very popular for those who have just happened upon it, but for those who have known about it for years, the interest wanes over time. That said, I think this is a circular discussion, and will not have a "right" or "wrong" answer.

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Poverty Facts and Stats

Author and Page information

  1. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

    2005-poverty-levels-bar.png

    At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1

  2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2

  3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3

  4. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 4

  5. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

    If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5

  6. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.Source 6

  7. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7

  8. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.Source 8

  9. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9

  10. Water problems affect half of humanity:

    • Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

    • Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.

    • More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.

    • Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.

    • 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)

    • Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea

    • The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.

    • Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.

    • Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.

    • To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 10

[*] Number of children in the world 2.2 billion Number in poverty 1 billion (every second child) Shelter, safe water and health

For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

  • 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)

  • 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)

  • 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

Children out of education worldwide 121 million Survival for children

Worldwide,

  • 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)

  • 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

Health of children

Worldwide,

  • 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized

  • 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)

Source 11 [*]

Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.Source 12

[*]

Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.Source 13

[*]

In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.Source 14

[*]

Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.Source 15

[*]

In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:

consumption-inequality-2005-pie.png

The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:

consumption-inequality-2005-bar.pngSource 16

[*]

1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:

Breaking that down further: Number of people living without electricity Region Millions without electricity South Asia 706 Sub-Saharan Africa 547 East Asia 224 Other 101

[*]

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Source 18

[*]

World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.

  • The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).

  • The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).

  • Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)

  • Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).Source 19

[*]

The world’s low income countries (2.4 billion people) account for just 2.4% of world exportsSource 20

[*]

The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”

In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.Source 21

[*]

For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22

[*]

51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.Source 23

[*]

The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.Source 24

[*]

The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.Source 25

[*]

In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.Source 26

[*]

An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:

  • 3 to 1 in 1820

  • 11 to 1 in 1913

  • 35 to 1 in 1950

  • 44 to 1 in 1973

  • 72 to 1 in 1992Source 27

[*]

“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”Source 28

[*]

For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:

  • Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.

  • Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).

  • Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.

  • Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29

[*]

A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.Source 30

[*]

Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998 Global Priority $U.S. Billions Cosmetics in the United States 8 Ice cream in Europe 11 Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12 Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17 Business entertainment in Japan 35 Cigarettes in Europe 50 Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105 Narcotics drugs in the world 400 Military spending in the world 780

And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

Global Priority $U.S. Billions Basic education for all 6 Water and sanitation for all 9 Reproductive health for all women 12 Basic health and nutrition

13

The world is a pretty crappy place for so many people , and it is pretty obvious that most people in the "WEST" could not give a crap .

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One of two things will happen. One is for certain. Humanity has not come to terms with there is finite resources, and clearly we're living beyond the means of the planet to handle our massive population. Unless we understand that and work at renewable resources and control ourselves we are doomed for self-destruction.

We will run out of food, arable land, and clean water, energy, etc. Until we work out a balance with what our planet has to offer instead of making it a polluted wasteland we are screwed. If we are lucky, enough people and leaders will correct the path to self-destruction.

Otherwise, we will be destroyed by our own greed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=pB74Wxp8BWw&NR=1

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The first line of Fareed Zakaria's book "The Post-American World" is great (and I paraphrase I think): "This book is not about the decline of the United States, but the rise of everyone else." I think with the rise of the rest of the world and the ever increasing interconnectedness of all trading nations it is inevitable that the world's economic influences will balance out and the US will no longer be able to use their force like they have so much since WWII. And the world will continue to become more and more peaceful as Stephen Pinker explains "we are actually living in the most peaceful time in the history of civilization." So no need to worry, things are getting better:)

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THE DECLINE

Where are all the stupid people from?

And how'd they get to be so dumb?

Bred on purple mountain range

Feed amber waves of grains

To lesser human beings, zero feelings

Blame it onHuman nature, mans destiny (mans destiny)Blame it on the greediocracy (greediocracy)Fear of godThe fear of changeThe fear of truth

Add the bill of rights, subtract the wrongsThere's no answersMemorize and sing star spangled songsWhen the questionsAren't ever askedIs anybody learning from the past? We're living in united stagnation

Father what have I done? I took that 22A gift to me from youTo bed with me each nightKept it cleanPolished it wellCherished every cartridge, every shell

Down, by the creek, under brush, under dirtThere's a carcass of my second killDown, by the park, under stone, under pineThere's a carcass of my brother williamBrother where, have you gone to? I swear, I never thought I couldI see so many timesThey told me to shoot straightDon't pull the trigger, squeezeThat will insure a killA kill is what you wantA kill is why we breed

The christians love their gunsThe church and nraPray for their salvationsPrey on the lower faiths

The story book's been readAnd every line believedCurriculum's been setLogic is a threatReason searched and seized

Jerry spent some time in michiganA twenty year vacation, after all he had a dimeA dime is worth a lot more in detroitA dime in california, a twenty dollar fine

Jerry only stayed a couple monthsIt's hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the assAsphyxiation is simple and fastIt beats seventeen fun years of being someones bitch

Don't think (stay)Drink your wine (home)Watch the fire burn (be)His problems not mine (safe)Just be that model citizen

I wish I had a schilling(for each senseless killing)For every senseless killingI'd buy a governmentAmerica's for saleAnd you can get a good deal on it(a good deal on it)And make a healthy profitOr maybe, tear it apartStart with assumptionThat a million people are smartSmarter than one

Serotonin's goneShe gave up, drifted awaySara fled, thought process goneShe left her answering machine onThe greeting left spoken sincereMessages no one will ever hear

Ten thousand messages a dayA million more transmissions layVictims of the laissez faireTen thousand voices, a hundred guns[ From: http://www.metrolyri...yrics-nofx.html ]A hundred decibels turns to oneOne bullet, one empty headNow with serotonin gone

The man who used to speakPerforms a cute routineFeel a little patronizedDon't feel badThey found a way inside your headAnd you feel a bit misledIt's not that they don't care, yeah

The television's put a thought inside your headLlike a barry manilow, jingleI'd like, to teach the world to singIn perfect harmonyA symphonic blank stare, yeahIt doesn't make you care (make you care)Not designed to make you care (make you care)They're betting you won't care (you won't...)

Place a wager on your greedA wager on your prideWhy try to beat them when, a million others tried?

We are the whoreIntellectually spayedWe are the queerDysfunctionally raised

One more pill to kill the painOne more pill to kill the painOne more pill to kill the painLiving through conformity

One more prayer to keep me safeOne more prayer to keep us warmOne more prayer to keep us safeThere's gonna be a better place

Lost the battle, lost the warLost the things worth living forLost the will to win the fightOne more pill to kill the pain

Na na na na naLa na na na naNa na na na naNa na na na na

The going get tough, the tough get debtDon't pay attention, pay the rentNext of kins pay for your sinsA little faith should keep us safe

Save usThe human, existenceIs failing, resistanceEssential, the futureWritten off, the odds areAstronomically against usOnly moron and geniusWould fight a losing battleAgainst the super egoWhen giving in is so damn comforting

And so we go, on with our livesWe know the truth, but prefer liesLies are simple, simple is blissWhy go against tradition when we canAdmit defeat, live in declineBe the victim of our own designThe status quo, built on suspectWhy would anyone stick out their neck?

Fellow membersClub "we've got ours"I'd like to introduce you to our hostHe's got his, and I've got mineMeet the decline

We are the queerWe are the whoreAmmunitionIn the class warWe are workerWe love our queenWe sacrificeWe're soilent green

We are the queerWe are the whoreAmmunitionIn the class war

mike

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Poverty Facts and Stats

Author and Page information

  1. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

    2005-poverty-levels-bar.png

    At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1

  2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2

  3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3

  4. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 4

  5. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

    If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5

  6. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.Source 6

  7. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7

  8. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.Source 8

  9. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9

  10. Water problems affect half of humanity:

    • Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

    • Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.

    • More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.

    • Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.

    • 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)

    • Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea

    • The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.

    • Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.

    • Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.

    • To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 10

  • Number of children in the world 2.2 billion Number in poverty 1 billion (every second child) Shelter, safe water and health

    For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

    • 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)

    • 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)

    • 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

    Children out of education worldwide 121 million Survival for children

    Worldwide,

    • 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)

    • 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

    Health of children

    Worldwide,

    • 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized

    • 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)

    Source 11 [*]

    Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.Source 12

    [*]

    Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.Source 13

    [*]

    In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.Source 14

    [*]

    Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.Source 15

    [*]

    In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:

    consumption-inequality-2005-pie.png

    The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:

    consumption-inequality-2005-bar.pngSource 16

    [*]

    1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity:

    Breaking that down further: Number of people living without electricity Region Millions without electricity South Asia 706 Sub-Saharan Africa 547 East Asia 224 Other 101

    [*]

    The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Source 18

    [*]

    World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.

    • The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).

    • The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).

    • Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)

    • Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).Source 19

    [*]

    The world’s low income countries (2.4 billion people) account for just 2.4% of world exportsSource 20

    [*]

    The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”

    In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.Source 21

    [*]

    For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22

    [*]

    51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.Source 23

    [*]

    The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.Source 24

    [*]

    The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.Source 25

    [*]

    In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.Source 26

    [*]

    An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:

    • 3 to 1 in 1820

    • 11 to 1 in 1913

    • 35 to 1 in 1950

    • 44 to 1 in 1973

    • 72 to 1 in 1992Source 27

    [*]

    “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”Source 28

    [*]

    For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:

    • Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.

    • Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).

    • Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.

    • Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29

    [*]

    A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.Source 30

    [*]

    Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998 Global Priority $U.S. Billions Cosmetics in the United States 8 Ice cream in Europe 11 Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12 Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17 Business entertainment in Japan 35 Cigarettes in Europe 50 Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105 Narcotics drugs in the world 400 Military spending in the world 780

    And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

    Global Priority $U.S. Billions Basic education for all 6 Water and sanitation for all 9 Reproductive health for all women 12 Basic health and nutrition

    13

    The world is a pretty crappy place for so many people , and it is pretty obvious that most people in the "WEST" could not give a crap .

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Not sure how this is relevant in anyway to this discussion. I'm sure the poor people of the world appreciate you helping them out by posting on an internet forum though.

Noone disputes that there aren't people suffering in the world. However, you should note that things are getting considerably bettre for most people. In 1990 the UN set a goal to cut global poverty in half by 2015. They reached that goal in 2010.

http://www.economist.com/node/21548963

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