From: "Lysander Zimmerman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 17:14:38 -0500 To: "Direct Democracy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] Global inequality: Top 1% earn as much as the poorest 57% People are wondering why the police are becoming militarized, the military is undergoing heavy training in urban warfare, and the US is making a dash to entirely take over the middle eastern oil supply? Here is the answer, straight from the horse's, or rather the fat pig's mouth! PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neil Tangri" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 4:46 PM Subject: [IMF-WB-Protest-Discuss] Global inequality: Top 1% earn as much as the poorest 57% > And here we go again...the World Bank reports this shocking finding and > then continues to believe that the solution is more of what caused it... > > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4337872,00.html > > Top 1% earn as much as the poorest 57% > > Larry Elliott and Charlotte Denny > Guardian > > Friday January 18, 2002 > > The world's richest 50m people earn as much as the poorest > 2.7bn and may soon be forced to live in heavily protected gated > communities to escape the resentment of the billions living > below the poverty line, a senior World Bank economist warns > today. > > Research from Branko Milanovic, published today in the > Economic Journal, shows a staggering increase in global > inequality, which has been rising as rapidly internationally as in > Britain under Mrs Thatcher. > > In a wide ranging study covering 85% of the world's population > from 91 countries, Mr Milanovic has found that the richest 1% of > the world have income equivalent to the poorest 57%. > > Four fifths of the world's population live below what countries in > North America and Europe consider the poverty line. The > poorest 10% of Americans are still better off than two-thirds of > the world population. > > "We can wonder how long such huge inequalities may persist in > the face of ever closer contacts, not least through television and > movies, where opulent lifestyles of the rich influence > expectations and often breed resentment among the poor," said > Mr Milanovic. > > "Should it be of concern to the rich? Perhaps, if we believe that > wide income gaps lead to immigration and resentment breeds > terrorism. For ultimately, the rich may have to live in gated > communities while the poor roam the world outside those few > enclaves." > > Mr Milanovic said there were three main reasons for the increase > in global inequality. Firstly there has been a growing gulf > between sluggish rural incomes in Africa and several populous > Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh compared with > the rich west. > > Secondly the shock treatment administered to the former Soviet > Union and its satellites in eastern Europe emptied out the global > "middle class". Before the fall of the Berlin wall, most citizens in > socialist countries had incomes between those in the rich west > and the impoverished south. > > Finally, China's embrace of the market economy has opened up > a divide between more affluent urban dwellers and poor farmers > in the world's most populous country. > > Mr Milanovic's research compares inequality in 1988 with the > position five years later. However, he has since used 1998 data > to check his findings and said that the level of inequality globally > has remained the same. > > The study used a measure of inequality known as the Gini > coefficient which uses a scale from zero to 100 where zero is a > completely equal country and 100 is a country where one > person has all the money. > > Mr Milanovic said that the world's Gini coefficient was 66 - > double that in Britain - and equivalent to 66% of people having > zero income and the remaining 34% dividing the entire world > among themselves equally. > > _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
