The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/13/text/world11.html GLOBAL INEQUITIES Three families top 600m poor Date: 13/07/99 London: The combined wealth of the world's three richest families is greater than the annual income of 600 million people in the least developed countries, according to a United Nations report released yesterday. Economic globalisation is further polarising those such as Microsoft's Mr Bill Gates, the Walton family, who own the Wal-Mart empire, and the Sultan of Brunei - worth $US135 billion ($205 billion) combined - and the millions who have been left behind, the UN's Human Development report says. UN figures show that over the past four years, the world's 200 richest people have doubled their wealth to more than $US1 trillion. In the same period, the number of people living on less than $US1 a day has remained unchanged at 1.3 billion. "Global inequalities in income and living standards have reached grotesque proportions," the report says. Canada ranks number one again for quality of life, while war-ravaged Sierra Leone stays bottom of the table. Australia is ranked seventh. To counter the downside of globalisation, the UN recommends a forum of business, trade unions and environmental and development groups to counter the dominance of the leading industrial nations; a code of conduct for multinationals; and the creation of a legal centre to help poor countries with global trade negotiations. - The Guardian This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
