The Artificial Wealth Gap in the world

There is more than enough wealth in the world to comfortably take care of all 6 billion people on this earth.

According to a study released by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University:

• The richest 2 percent of adults in the world own more than half the world's wealth
• 1 percent of adults owned 40 percent of global assets in the year 2000
• The richest 10 percent of adults accounted for 85 percent of the world's total.
• The assets of half of the world's adult population account for barely 1 percent of global wealth.
• The average American's wealth amounted to $144,000 in the year 2000, more than 100 times higher than the average Indian or Indonesian, whose assets totaled $1,100 and $1,400, respectively.

Whatever has been done so far in terms of foreign aid programs, trade and immigration policies, etc. have not effectively impacted this wealth gap.

In fact, according to Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute, the rise of free trade has increased the wealth gap, both internationally and inside many countries.

She refers to the example of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed in 1992 by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. "Instead of Mexico being able to export its food to the United States, what's really happened is that U.S. corn exports to Mexico have tripled, pushing 2 million Mexican corn farmers out of business. And those are the very people who then migrate [to the United States]."

She continues:

• Those migrants then work for low wages inside the United States, pushing wages for all workers down.
• Regarding "the ability to export", the big plantations take the cake, "which creates further inequities inside of countries. You're not going to be talking about [improving livelihoods for] small farmers in Mexico or Honduras or India."

Communism failed, and capitalism does not work for most people on this earth.

Time for a NEW PARADIGM?