'It's gotten so out of control between rich and poor that one of the obstacles to solving extreme poverty is now extreme wealth' said Ben Phillips, a campaign director at Oxfam.
'We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many. Concentration of resources in the hands of the top one per cent depresses economic activity and makes life harder for everyone else – particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder. In a world where even basic resources such as land and water are increasingly scarce, we cannot afford to concentrate assets in the hands of a few and leave the many to struggle over what’s left'.
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty and 2.7 billion live on less than $2 a day which the The World Bank defines as the poverty line.
Maybe we should ask the third of the starving population how the Capitalism system is working out for them because for 100 people, it's brilliant.
What is brilliant is if you are flogging weapons as the top five military giants accounted for 62% of the total global expenditure with the United States once again topping the league, then China and India, Russia and Saudi Arabia's making the top five spenders of over £2 trillion.
The World Bank put the percentage of people living in Poverty around the World at 23% with 15% in America, 7% in China, 68% in India, 14% in Russia and 20% in Saudi Arabia so for the £2 trillion spent, if you asked them if they wanted the obscene money spent on weapons or spent improving their lot, you might get a different answer.
One of the best speeches was made by American President Dwight Eisenhower who said: 'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed', okay, so he went on to threatened to nuke China and spent billions on nuclear tests while helping with the dropping of napalm on the Vietnamese so he was all mouth and trousers but the thought was there.
6 comments:
Lot of tripe in this post.
1. much of this "rich" money is in the hands of people like Xi and Putin. then there are the Islamic monarchs. They don't give a rats ass about the poor.
2. most the "rich" money is the west is actually "unrealized". in other words it is stock ownership in large companies that provide goods and services to the world
3. 15% of the poor are in the US. total crap. with the exception of tiny percentage of the US population that is "homeless", being poor in america means you live inside a safe building with running water, a toilet, shower, power (electric and/or gas). you have all the food you can eat, plus enough money for some illegal narcotics, a smart phone, wifi, free health care (albeit low quality by US standards), furniture, clothing, and a big screen tv.
Poor people just across the border in Mexico live in a shack made of cobbled together wood, cardboard, tin, wire, rope, and brush. have no running water. poop outdoors. barely have enough to eat. have no electricity or gas. worn, used clothing and shoes. no health care. typically few or no teeth. ditto venezuela, nicaragua, honduras, and much of the rest of south america. which is apparently better than africa, india, and china.
but feel free to toss you weapons, the russians won't take advantage. neither would hamas or iran.
i can imagine what the turks would do if the kurds gave up their weapons. see the uyghurs for an example.
no doubt that if laid down its arms pakistan would follow suit - choking on laughter at this ridiculous thought...
north korea would not invade south korea if the south disarmed.
and china would not take taiwan by force either... right
but great post. brilliant lucy
arrrgg no edit and i haven't had my coffee
"no doubt if INDIA laid down its arms..."
I reckon you have had too much coffee. Very erratic use of capital letters here also or did you find some additional quota that you didn’t use up over the past few decades for some of the comments?
love it. when you attack me instead of the data and logic it is an admission that you know your position indefensible.
hey, i'm sorry about all the posts, did i take away from all the other people that responded to your posts? don't worry about me. be sure and respond to all the other readers!!
oh wait, am i the only verifiable reader for the last 3 or 4 years? i think so... at least i bother to read what you write.
Ouch. Did i hit a nerve bringing up your poor grammar skills or rather your attempt to 'hide' your poor grammar skills? Nothing to be ashamed of, there are plenty of other people who do exactly the same thing.
no, you didn't hit a nerve.
i'm not near as emotional as you seem to think. perhaps you are projecting your feelings onto others. in fact, for decades i have been considered unflappable - hence one reason i facilitated strategy and competitor intelligence sessions for the c-suite and board of an F100 company for almost 20 years. and the c-suite and board were both full of former generals and admirals - not famous for tolerating bullshit, idiocy, or emotions...
why do you so often try to analyze my motive instead of dealing with the data, logic, and history? is it a lack of knowledge on your part? or maybe, you are simply so wise that you know that no amount of data and logic will change someones opinion...
i just see your responses as the typical dodge by you when faced with history, data, logic.
all good. nothing new.
for the record, i'm not trying to insult you. i'm trying to challenge immature or ill-informed opinions with data, logic, and history. not even trying to change your opinion on any topic.
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