Читать книгу Active Hope - Joanna Macy - Страница 23

At the moment, the poor of our world are bearing the brunt of the Great Unraveling. As oil prices have gone up, the cost of food has rocketed. Global food prices more than doubled between February 2001 and February 2011, pushing more and more people below the poverty line.²⁷ In 2010 more than 900 million people suffered chronic hunger. Meanwhile, the richest 20 percent of our world’s population (that’s anyone able to spend more than $10 a day) receive three-quarters of the total income.²⁸

While some argue that economic growth is needed to tackle poverty, wealth has flowed much more to the rich than to the poor as the global economy has grown. The number of millionaires and billionaires increases, while nearly half the world’s population still lives on less than $2.50 a day.²⁹ Within affluent countries too, the gap between rich and poor has grown wider. Twenty-five years ago, the richest 1 percent in the United States earned 12 percent of the national income and owned 33 percent of the wealth. In 2011 they earned nearly a quarter of the income and owned 40 percent of the wealth.³⁰ Studies show the more economically divided a society becomes, the more trust levels fall, crime increases, and communities fall apart.³¹

The UN Millennium Project estimates that extreme poverty and world hunger could be eliminated by 2025 for a cost of approximately $160 billion a year.³² The world’s military spending in 2010 was ten times that amount, with the US government spending almost as much as all the other countries in the world put together.³³ The unraveling of our world comes, in part, from seeking security through battling enemies rather than addressing the threats presented by deepening inequalities, resource depletion, and climate change.