The Great Divide

The gap that separates the world's rich and poor, both within and between countries, is growing.  In 1992, the United Nations Development Program dramatized the inequity by representing the world's income distribution with a graph in the shape of a champagne glass1

The gap between the rich and poor has continued to widen over the past 10 years. Analysts are now saying that much of the gap is caused by unfair trade policies which favor the developed countries of the North. The World Trade Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), to name a few, are controlled by the developed countries. These organizations are supposed to help developing countries move people out of poverty and into self-sufficiency. This has not happened. What has happened is that the developing countries have to pay off the growing interest on the World Bank and IMF loans by cutting back on funding for health care, education, and social services as dictated by the World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs (SAP). And so it continues, the rich get richer and the poor become more poor.

Figure 1. Global Income Distribution
champagne.gif (10834 bytes)


Table 1. Earth's Three Socioecological Classes 2

Overconsumers - 1.1 billion
(Cars, meat, disposables)

Sustainers - 3.3 billion
(Living lightly)

Excluded - 1.1 billion
(Absolute Deprivation)
Travel by car and air Travel by bicycle and public surface transport Travel by foot or donkey
Eat high-fat, high-calorie, meat-based diets Eat healthy diets of grains, vegetables, and some meat Eat nutritionally inadequate diets
Drink bottled water and
soft drinks		 Drink clean water plus some tea and coffee Drink contaminated water
Use throwaway products and discard substantial wastes Use unpacked goods and recycle wastes Use local biomass and produce negligible waste
Live in spacious, climate-controlled, single-family homes Live in modest, naturally ventilated homes, with extended or multiple families Live in rudimentary shelters or in the open; usually lack secure tenure
Maintain image-conscious wardrobes Wear functional clothing Wear second-hand clothing or scraps


________________________
1 UNDP, Human Development Report 1992 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
2 Data from A. Durning, Asking How Much is Enough, in Lester R. Brown et al. The State of the World 1991 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), pp. 153-169.  


Close