The essential philosophy of this book is that what is best
for all is also best for each person.
Thus if we are wise and
love all humanity as we love ourselves, then we will act in a
way
that is best for everyone.
From this spiritual perspective
we can see that most people in the world are suffering
unnecessarily
because of cruel and irresponsible political, social, and economic
policies.
More than half of humanity is suffering in poverty on less
than two dollars per day,
and more than 1,300,000,000 people are
in extreme poverty
living on less than one dollar per day.
Each
year six million children die of malnutrition;
2.2 million children
die because they are not immunized; and
1.4 million children die
because they do not have safe drinking water or adequate sanitation.
The number of people lacking access to clean water is 1.3 billion.
Two billion people do not have electricity, and 2.6 billion lack
basic sanitation.
At the same time that this ghastly poverty is increasing in
the developing world,
the wealthy are becoming even richer.
The
gap between the richest and poorest nations has gone from 3-1
in 1820
to 11-1 in 1913 to 44-1 in 1973 and to 74-1 in 1992.
In 2021 the income of the top 1% was 139 times as much as the income of the lowest 20%.
The
combined wealth of the world's 7.1 million millionaires was $27
trillion,
which was equal to the total annual income of every person
on the Earth.
By 2005 the world had 691 billionaires with a combined
wealth of $2.2 trillion, which is
more than twice as much as the
gross domestic products (GDP)
of all the nations in sub-Saharan
Africa.
In 1960 Africa was a net exporter of food,
but now the
continent of Africa imports one third of its grain.
More than
forty percent of Africans do not have enough food.
The twenty
percent of the population in the world’s developed nations
are
consuming 86% of the world’s goods.
Attempts by capitalist institutions such as the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to alleviate poverty
in the third world
by loaning money to their governments and capitalists
have made the situation worse.
In 1999 the World Bank reported
that for every dollar the developing countries
received as a grant
they had to pay $13 in debt repayments.
The World Bank and IMF
have imposed structural adjustment on debtor nations,
forcing
them to reduce their governments’ social programs and causing
what
economists call a “race to the bottom” for the
benefit of the capitalists.
Governments are pressured to produce
more exports
even while their people are suffering deprivation.
These policies caused Argentina, for example, to sell the people’s
assets owne
by their government to private corporations, resulting
in an economic melt-down in 2001.
Protests by the people ended
the government’s austerity policies,
and Argentina defaulted on
its $155 billion debt.
Having become a bankrupt country, Argentina
has been rebuilding itself gradually
with more sensible policies
of mutual cooperation
that brought about annual growth rates of
8%.
By 2005 Argentina had restructured its debt.
In September 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit in
New York the
leaders of 189 nations signed the Millennium Declaration,
promising to achieve
the following eight development goals by
2015:
1) cut extreme poverty in half,
2) achieve universal primary education,
3) achieve gender equality in education,
4) reduce infant mortality by two-thirds,
5) reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters,
6) reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
7) ensure sustainability and reduce lack of safe water by half,
8) create partnership for development aid, trade, and debt relief.
At the Monterrey Financing for Development Conference in March
2002
leaders proposed the goal of the wealthy nations increasing
to 0.7% of their
gross domestic products their annual contributions
to developing countries by the year 2015.
Although Denmark, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden
have already met this goal, others
lag far behind.
At this time the United States was contributing only 0.16%.
In 2003 the 22 richest nations gave only $69 billion to developing
nations.
US President George W. Bush promised to increase annual
US funding for development
assistance to $5 billion by 2006; but
the actual 2005 budget was only $1.5 billion,
and his budget for
2006 called for only $3 billion.
Although many people responded
to the tsunami disaster at the end of 2004,
the efforts of the
Live 8 concerts in July 2005 to raise awareness
on these wider
poverty issues had little effect.
The leaders of the wealthy G8
countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia,
United
Kingdom, and the United States) meeting in Scotland pledged to
increase aid
to Africa by only $25 billion by the year 2010.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) now includes 148 member
nations.
Although it attempts to operate by consensus, since the
Seattle protests of 1999
this has been difficult to achieve.
Its
Dispute Settlement Board almost always takes the recommendations
of its Dispute Panel
because reverse consensus is required to
block them.
If the offending party does not change its policy
in a reasonable time,
the usual enforcement mechanism is by authorizing
retaliatory measures.
However, this allows the larger economies
to ignore the complaints of smaller nations.
For example, in March
2005 the United States was reprimanded for its cotton subsidies
but has refused to alter its policy.
Critics contend that the
WTO favors the multinational corporations
as well as the wealthy
nations.
Some of the WTO treaties have been considered detrimental
to workers and the environment.
These global economic policies and circumstances seem to me
to be unjust and even cruel
because the wealthy nations and corporations
have designed the globalized economy
in order to enhance their
profits at the expense of the majority of people on Earth.
The
pressures of increasing population and diminishing supplies of
fossil fuels
and now also
less fresh water because of global warming
are making this enormous misery worse.
We need a radical change
of direction in order to do what is best for everyone.
If we think
of the human race as our family, we could begin
by helping to
take care of those most in need first.
Our top priorities should
not be increasing the wealth of those who are already rich
but
making sure that everyone has their basic needs so that they can
survive.
This goal makes much more sense and is more sustainable
because by helping people
to reach a minimum standard of living
with good education they will be able to become
self-sufficient
and contribute more.
Statistics show that people who are educated
are not as likely to succumb to malnutrition
and diseases because
they tend to take the steps necessary to avoid those problems.
This horrendous situation can be alleviated in many ways.
We
need to educate ourselves and others as to the problems and generously
contribute
to solving them, both privately and through governmental
institutions.
When the people assert their democratic rights within
their nations and globally as well,
then we will be able to implement
policies that are more merciful as well as more just for all.
Also as we shall see in other chapters, by disarming the weapons
of war
and eliminating warfare, humanity will have more resources
available for humanitarian needs.
Some people seem to believe
cynically that widespread famines and epidemic diseases
are ways
that the increasing human population can be drastically reduced.
Yet modern trends have shown that the most effective and the most
humane ways
of controlling population growth are by providing
people with security, health care,
and education so that they
can reduce the number of their children
by conscious family planning
and birth control.
The poor who feel insecure often make their
poverty worse by having many children
in the desperate hope that
perhaps some of their children
will be able to help them in their
old age.
Recent trends in Latin America, for example, have shown
that the birth rate
has been reduced from more than six children
per family
to less than three by using birth control.
This has
happened in predominantly Catholic countries
even though recent
Popes have opposed such birth control.
In my view the best investments we can make to improve every
society are to make sure
that everyone has decent health care
and good education.
Yet the wealthy United States has resisted
implementing health care for all its people
even though despite
its expensive health care costs,
the health of the US ranks near
the bottom of the industrialized nations.
The United States ranks
23rd in infant mortality, 20th in life expectancy for women,
21st
in life expectancy for men, and 67th in immunizations.
Yet the
United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care
than any other industrialized country with universal health care.
Because it is much more efficient than privately financed health
care which spends
about a quarter of its premiums on administration
and profits,
single-payer health care would save the United States
about $200 billion per year or more.
Medicare, for example, spends
only three percent on administration.
How much more misery must
go on before we realize that providing health care
prevents much
more costly problems?
The United States could also convert its
more than seven hundred military bases
in other countries into
hospitals, clinics, and schools.
After the tsunami in December 2004 people around the world
contributed money to relieve
those who had suffered from this
natural disaster, and nations even began to compete
with each
other to see which are the most generous.
This motivated many
to contribute more, especially in the United States.
Yet the chronic
problems of widespread poverty still persist.
Why not have a world
competition to see who can contribute the most charity to help
people
instead of the deadly arms race that we have known for
the last century?
Surely those nations that give generously to
help others will have friends instead of enemies.
Opinion polls
have shown that many North Americans believe that the United States
gives a substantial portion of their taxes in foreign aid, perhaps
a quarter or more.
Yet in reality if military aid is excluded,
the United States Government spends less than
one percent of its
budget on foreign aid, and much of this is used to promote propaganda
through the National Endowment for Democracy or Voice of America
programs.
The world is currently spending more than one trillion dollars
each year
on the military and weapons of war.
By eliminating most
of these expenditures humanity would be able to provide
good health care and education for everyone in the world.
The
results would be a better standard of living not only in the poor
countries but everywhere
as these resources were converted to
beneficial purposes that improve the lives of people.
When the
poor become healthy and well educated, they will not only be able
to provide
for
themselves, but also their work will provide better
goods and services for the world economy.
In 2024 the 2,781 billionaires had a total net wealth of $14.2 trillion.
In 2024 the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that the world
was spending $2,718 billion on the military
and that year the United States spent $997 billion on the military.
This chapter has been published in the book
BEST FOR ALL: How We Can Save the World.
For information on ordering, please click here.
Global Emergency
Alleviating Poverty
Disarming Weapons of War
Creating Global Democracy
Reforming the US Constitution
Restoring Justice
Sustainable Economics
Freeing Communication
Spiritual Awakening
Nonviolent Strategies
Appendix:
Global Disarmament Treaty (first draft by Beck)
Constitution of the United Nations Democracy (first draft by Beck)
Constitution of the United States Revised (first draft by Beck)