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More than 80 countries still have per capita
incomes lower than they were a decade or more ago Inequality has been rising in many countries
since the early 1980s
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The income gap between the world’s richest
fifth and its poorest fifth has more than doubled to 74 to 1 over
the past three decades.
-
Sustained economic growth has not reduced
unemployment in Europe at 11% for a decade affecting 35 million.
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One person in eight in the richest countries of
the world is affected by poverty, long term unemployment, a life
shorter than 60 years, an income below the poverty line or a lack of
literacy needed to cope in society.
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State provided care is suffering cutbacks
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Public services have deteriorated markedly the
result of economic stagnation, structural adjustment programmes or
dismantling of state services
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Debt servicing for the 41 poorest countries
amounted to $11.1 billion in 1996
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Some 50 million migrants are women, 30 million in
the Third World
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AIDS is now a poor people’s epidemic with 95%
of all HIV infected victims in the Third World
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Some 1.3 billion people do not have access to
clean water
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About 840 million are malnourished
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One in seven children of primary school age is
out of school
-
About 1.3 billion people live on incomes of less
than US$1 a day
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Mergers and acquisitions are concentrating power
in megacorporations
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Transnationals dominate global markets. They
account for some $9.5 trillion in sales in 1997. US based TNCs
account for more than a quarter of US GDP - $2 trillion of $7.3
trillion. Capital is becoming more and more concentrated.
Clearly we are witnessing a social crisis both
between and within countries of the North and the South. This crisis has
its roots in the market economy, which took hold with the development of
western industrial society. This model was based on a pattern of
production and consumption, which was unsustainable and benefited a
minority. It was exported worldwide first during the colonial era and
further intensified in the post-war ‘Development Decades’ that
followed.
