The Present Reality

Preamble

When we look at our world, should we be pleased with what we see, or should we be disappointed or even outraged with the world we have created?

There is no doubt that the standard of living, particularly in the western world, has substantially improved in the last three centuries. This improved standard of living has been driven primarily by science and technology, starting with the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century and moving on to electrification in the mid-nineteenth century, the internal combustion engine in the late nineteenth century, air travel in the early twentieth century, space travel in the mid-twentieth century, and the IT revolution in the late twentieth century, to name but a few moves forward. However, in spite of all this progress, has the quality of life for the general public improved over this time?

Quality of life should not be confused with standard of living, which is based primarily on income. The term `quality of life' refers to the general well-being of individuals and societies; it relates not just to wealth and employment but also to the physical infrastructure, physical and mental health, education, recreation, leisure time, social belonging, freedom, human rights, personal security, social justice, equality for all, and so on. In general, a good quality of life is a prerequisite for the achievement of happiness. Happiness is subjective and difficult to measure, but it is certain that it does not necessarily increase in proportion to increasing income. As a result, one's standard of living should be taken as only one of the many components that influence happiness.

However, a certain level of wealth is necessary in order to achieve a good quality of life. To quote a line from a speech former US President Bill Clinton made during one of his visits to Ireland, `Money is not everything, but it's up there with oxygen.' Mr. Clinton's one-liner rightly suggests that we need money to survive. However, the similarities between money and oxygen end there. In the case of oxygen, there is an adequate supply available to all people, and nobody can hoard it or build up a supply in case he or she might need it in the future. Sadly, that is exactly what is happening with money; the few with the power control the money supply, leaving the vast majority with an inadequate amount on which to survive.

Distribution of Wealth

The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society or country and should not be confused with the distribution of income. Wealth consists of those items of economic value that an individual owns, while income is an inflow of items of economic value. A detailed analysis of these topics would fill many books and would only confuse the central points I wish to convey in this book, so my intention here is merely to explain that the distribution of wealth in the world is not very equitable.

In the US, 5 per cent of the population owns almost 62 per cent of the wealth, while the bottom 40 per cent owns only 0.2 per cent – not a very equitable distribution. This problem is even more lopsided if we look at the global situation, where 0.111 per cent of the population owns 81 per cent of the wealth, while the bottom 99.889 per cent owns only 19 per cent.

This inequitable distribution of wealth creates a global society where a very small percentage of people live in luxury; a large working class struggles to pay its mortgages and taxes, educate its children, and make ends meet; and a large lower class lives in poverty. Of course, there are many sub-levels in each of these three categories, but it is an accurate summation of the overall situation.

Quality of life

In addition to the inequitable distribution of wealth – and sometimes because of it – the quality of life for the vast majority of humanity is much lower than that you would expect in a civilized world. Some examples of this unacceptable quality of life follow.

Hunger

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people, or one in eight of the 7.1 billion people in the world, suffered from chronic undernourishment in 2010–2012. Of these 870 million undernourished people, 852 million lived in developing countries, and approximately 18 million lived in developed countries.

According to the United Nations, about 21,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes – almost fifteen people every minute, ten of whom are children. Children are the most vulnerable victims of under-nutrition. Poorly nourished children suffer up to 160 days of illness each year. Poor nutrition is the main cause of 5 million child deaths each year, which is almost ten deaths every minute.

Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. Hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn, thus leading to even greater hunger, a vicious cycle.

Poverty

Poverty is a major problem in the world today. There are fundamentally two types of poverty: (1) absolute poverty (or destitution), where people lack the basic human needs, such as water, food, healthcare, clothing, shelter, and education; and (2) relative poverty, which refers to economic inequality in a particular country or society and is the most useful measure for ascertaining poverty rates in wealthy developed nations.

The threshold for absolute poverty is difficult to establish. For example, the absolute poverty line in the US was $15.15 per day in 2010 (for a family of four), while in India it was $1.00 per day. The World Bank has set a threshold of $1.25 per day, although some experts disagree with this number. World Bank data (2011) reveals that, in 2008, 22.4 per cent of the world's population lived on less than &8364;1.25 per day

Relative poverty is the most useful indication of poverty rates in wealthy developed nations. Relative poverty is usually measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of the median income in a particular country or society. It is a reflection of the cost of social inclusion and equality of opportunity in a specific location or society.

The principal cause of poverty (and, consequently, of hunger) is how the economic and political systems in the world operate. Control over food, resources, wealth, and income is normally based on the military, political, and economic power that typically ends up in the hands of a minority who live in luxury, while those at the bottom barely survive. In fact, many do not survive.

War and Conflict

War and conflict have been the cause of immense suffering, bloodshed, poverty, hunger, and deprivation for thousands of years. For example, the approximate number of fatalities in World War I was 16 million; World War II, 60 million; the Korean War (1950–1953), at least 1.2 million; the Vietnam War (1955–1975), at least 2 million; the Colombian conflict (1964–present),...