>The Chicago Tribune July 12, 1999 > >A 'GROTESQUE' GAP: > >The global economy's winners and losers are so far apart that balancing >efforts are needed to avoid disaster, according to a new UN overview. > > By R.C. Longworth > Tribune Staff Writer > >As the global economy grows, rich nations are getting richer than ever, and >poor ones are stuck in shantytowns on the outskirts of the global village. >"Global inequalities in income and living standards have reached grotesque >proportions," the UN Development Program said in its annual global overview, >the Human Development Report. > >For instance: > >The richest countries, such as the United States, have 20 percent of the >world's people but 86 percent of its income, 91 percent of its Internet >users, 82 percent of its exports and 74 percent of its telephone lines. The >20 percent living in the poorest countries, such as Ethiopia and Laos, have >about 1 percent of each. > >The three richest officers of Microsoft--Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve >Ballmer--have more assets, nearly $140 billion, than the combined gross >national product of the 43 least-developed countries and their 600 million >people. > >The United States, meanwhile, has more computers than the rest of the world >combined. Lesser-developed countries are not likely to catch up any time >soon: the same computer that costs a month's wages for the average American >takes eight years' income from the average resident of Bangladesh. > >The 200 richest people in the world more than doubled their net worth >between 1994 and 1998. But in nearly half the world's countries, per capita >incomes are lower than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Some of these are >oil-producing nations hit by the long slump in oil prices, but many are in >sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita income has fallen to $518 from $661 in >1980. > >In 1960, the richest fifth of the world's people had 30 times as much income >as the poorest fifth. By 1997, that proportion had more than doubled, to >74-1. > >The key to a solution to these problems, the UNDP said, is not to stamp out >the global economy but to embrace it with the rules and institutions that >will ensure it serves people and communities, not just markets and their >manipulators. > >"Competitive markets may be the best guarantee of efficiency but not >necessarily of equity," it said. "Markets are neither the first nor the last >word in human development. > >"Many activities and goods that are critical to human development are >provided outside the market, but these are being squeezed by the pressures >of global competition. > >"When the market goes too far in dominating social and political outcomes, >the opportunities and rewards of globalization spread unequally and >inequitably--concentrating power and wealth in a select group of people, >nations and corporations, marginalizing the others. > >"The challenge," the report said, "is not to stop the expansion of global >markets. The challenge is to find the rules and institutions for stronger >governance . . . to preserve the advantage of global markets and competition >but also to provide enough space for human, community and environmental >resources to ensure that globalization works for people, not just for >profits." > >The gap between people, like the one between nations, also is growing in the >global economy, the UNDP report said. Inequality is growing both in >industrialized nations--especially in the United States, Britain and Sweden, >it said--and in newly industrializing countries, such as China and the >formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe. > >One result of globalization, it said, is that the road to wealth-- the >control of production, patents and technology--is increasingly dominated by >a few countries and companies. > >Of all the countries in the world, only 10, including the United States, >account for 84 percent of global research-and-development spending. >Businesses and institutions in the same 10 control 95 percent of all patents >issued by the U.S. government over the past 20 years, it said. >Among corporations, the top 10 controlled 86 percent of the >telecommunications market, 85 percent of pesticides, 70 percent of computers >and 60 percent of veterinary medical products, it said. > >The major countries and the global corporations may have earned their >dominance, but, the report said, this monopoly of power is cutting poorer >nations off from a share of the economic pie and, often, from decent health >care and education. > >"The privatization and concentration of technology are going too far," the >report said. "Corporations define research agendas. . . . Money talks, not >need. Cosmetic drugs and slow-ripening tomatoes come higher on the priority >list than drought-resistant crops or a vaccine against malaria." > >Many new technologies, "from new drugs to better seeds," are priced too high >for poor nations, it said. Global patent laws, intended to protect >intellectual property, are blocking the ability of developing countries to >develop their own products. > >Even within the Third World, inequality is sharp. Thailand has more cellular >phones and Bulgaria more Internet users than all of Africa except South >Africa, the report said. > >The report was not all gloom and doom. Even as gaps between nations grow and >some countries slide backward, the quality of life for many of the world's >poor is improving, it said. > >Between 1975 and 1997, life expectancy in Third World countries rose to 62 >years from 53, adult literacy rates climbed to 76 percent from 48 percent, >child mortality rates to 85 per 1,000 live births from 149, and some >countries --Costa Rica, Fiji, Jordan, Uruguay and others--"have overcome >severe levels of human poverty." > >The UNDP report said uneven and unequal development around the world is not >sustainable and risks sinking the global economy in a backlash of public >resentment. > >Without global governance that incorporates a "common core of values, >standards and attitudes, a widely felt sense of responsibility and >obligations," the major nations and corporations face trade wars and >uncontrolled financial volatility, it said, with the Asian financial crisis >of the past two years only the first of many upheavals. > >At the moment, new rules and regulations are being written in talks at the >World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and other powerful >global bodies. But these talks are "too narrow," the report said, because >they focus on financial stability while "neglecting broader human concerns >such as persistent global poverty, growing inequality between and within >countries, exclusion of poor people and countries, and persisting >human-rights abuses." > >They also are "too geographically unbalanced," with an unhealthy domination >by the U.S. and its allies." > >The UNDP report called instead for a "global architecture" that would >include: > >- A global central bank to act as a lender of last resort to strapped >countries and to help regulate finance markets. > >- A global investment trust to moderate flows of foreign capital in and out >of Third World countries and to raise development funds by taxing global >pollution or short-term investments. > >- New rules for the World Trade Organization, including anti-monopoly powers >to enable it to keep global corporations from dominating industries. > >- New rules on global patents that would keep the patent system from >blocking the access of Third World countries to development, knowledge or >health care. > >- New talks on a global investment treaty that, unlike talks that failed >last year, would include developing countries and respect local laws. > >- More flexible monetary rules that would enable developing countries to >impose capital controls to protect their economies. > >- A global code of conduct for multinational corporations, to encourage them >to follow the kind of labor and environmental laws that exist in their home >countries. The report praised voluntary codes adopted in Asia by Disney >World and Mattel, the toy company. > >The leading industrial nations already are considering new global rules on >investment, banking and trade. The UNDP report, in effect, endorsed these >efforts but urged that they be broadened to include the needs of poorer >nations. > > > > > > regards, Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/worksite.htm
