Global Issues That Affect Everyone

Global Issues That Affect Everyone has this quote on their home page:

“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.” — Bertrand Russell, Roads to Freedom

They offer facts on many things that interest me. Here are some of the facts they’ve gathered on poverty:

1. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. ^{source 1}
2. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. ^{source 2}
3. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. ^{source 3}
4. 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 4}
5. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. ^{source 5}
6. The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. ^{source 6}
7. 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 7}
8. 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. ^{source 8}
9. The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. ^{source 9}
10. 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 10}
11. 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 1992 ^{source 11}