November 1996, U.K.
Just in case you doubted that the world population is divided between a small percentage who own most of the wealth and the vast majority who must work for them in order to survive, here are some facts:
The world's 358 billionaires, including the Sultan of Brunei and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, have more assets than the combined incomes of countries representing 45% of the planet's population.(1)
Incomes of the richest fifth of the world population are now on average fifty times the incomes of the poorest fifth.(2)
More than 1 billion people in developing countries live in absolute poverty(3), defined by the Worldwatch Institute as "the lack of sufficient income in cash to meet the most basic biological needs for food, clothing and shelter."
1.5 billion people in developing countries have no access to basic health services.(4) Half a million women die each year due to pregnancy and delivery complications; most without access to care.(5)
One third of children in developing countries under age five - nearly 200 million - are moderately or severely malnourished, and about 13 million still die each year from easily preventable illnesses.(6)
1.3 billion people in developing countries lack safe drinking water and 1.9 billion are without safe sanitation facilities.(7)
In sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Southern and Eastern Asia around 30% of the population, nearly one in three, are undernourished and ill.(8)
In response to these facts, many would still respond that the only way for the majority to improve their standard of living is for them to work for increased economic growth. While, for example, income per capita has increased in the so-called 'tiger economies' of South East Asia, which have attained high levels of growth over recent years relative to other states, it is far from clear that more growth necessarily means a higher standard of living for the majority. This view evades the key fact that wealth is produced for the owning class (Why Profit Gets Priority) and this minority gain a disproportionate amount of it. Inequality therefore increases. A recent UN report confirms this:
"Internationally, there has not been a universal trend towards greater inequality in recent years, although this has been the case in the majority of industrialised countries."(9)
Relative inequality has therefore increased. Furthermore, the standard of living is declining in absolute terms for many, with the United States being a notable example:
"According to figures published by the U.S. Dept of Labour, since 1973 real hourly and weekly earnings, in inflation-adjusted dollars, have already dropped respectively by 13.4% and 19.2%"(10)
All of these statistics will come as no surprise to regular readers of our journals. What is remarkable, however, is that these findings came during the International Year of Poverty (1996). Yes, this year was set aside by those who set years aside for special problems, in which the problem of global inequality was supposed to be solved.
"There was plenty for the pessimist," wrote Martin Jacques of the recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report (11) - though we would have preferred the term "realist." He pointed out that since 1980 over 100 countries have had stagnant or declining incomes that have reduced living standards for l.6 billion people.
Presumably we are supposed to feel "optimistic" about the 15 countries that have experienced economic growth during this period, even if, like Singapore, freedom of speech has been outlawed. The report also reveals that whereas the world's richest 20 percent were 30 times as wealthy as their poorer counterparts then (1980), they are now 61 times as wealthy.
Commenting on the UNDP report, Victor Keegan, writing in The Guardian, said: "Never in the history of the world have they [the rich] been present in such quantities and in such flamboyant contrast with the poor as now." We might add: "and never has the case for world socialism been so pressing".
Authors: DG & John Bissett