Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

Here are some frightening facts about the world we live in how millions of people live today...


- Less than one 1% of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen

- Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day.

- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names

- The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money

- 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the worlds goods

- In 1960, the 20% of the world's people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% -- in 1997, 74 times as much

- An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about :

3 to 1 in 1820
11 to 1 in 1913
35 to 1 in 1950
44 to 1 in 1973
72 to 1 in 1992


- The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants

- The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.

- The combined wealth of the world's 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion

- 7 Million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis. 8525038 children have died since the start of the year 2000

- Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity

- A mere 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.


Frightening and shameful isnt it!

thats scary

in all the time that the world existed, it has only been at peace 8% of the time...

America, among other states in the world, has been in war the most since world war II...

The amount of money Africa pays USA to pay off the debt is 0.001% of totall USA income yearly, for USA its nothing, for Africa it is a lot of money which taken from education and welfare.

Jesus, into money matters today, Lil?

im sorry

I was doing my revision and i stumbeled upon that!!

sexy rexy!! has a better ring to it then sexy texy!

NO!

It's REXXY!

That's what I've always called him.

Sorry...Rexxy!!

Still not right...REXXY....all caps.

Damn it!! ok, here i go again...and...

REXXY!

Actually...you can call him whatever you want.

It makes no difference to me.

I do! sexy rexy!

nice one lil

now THAT's scary (the sexy rexy part)

true, the other things are already known by a lot of ppl, atleast by me

You'll be suprised Fire how many people dont know about it (not aobut sexy rexy about the poverty)...

well than most ppl live like twats

Thats also true.

I would have no problem erasing all debt...If the money was used for education and welfare, not making the leaders of those nations wealthy

Yeah, well that's life.

Yeah, thats very interesting how so many people accept that this just is the way it is, always have and always will be...

And in reality, what would you like folks to do about it. We all know governments do exactly as they please. How many people protested The war in Iraq? Bush and Blair went a head anyway...against most peoples wishes. Nothing will change until something drastic happens. Sad but true.

Not everyone joined in though.....

Agreed with Silva not everyone joined!


What would we do? Stop debts!

as i said earlier:

''The amount of money Africa pays USA to pay off the debt is 0.001% of totall USA income yearly, for USA its nothing, for Africa it is a lot of money which taken from education and welfare.''

I hate watching "Cribs" on MTV and seeing how many cars the latest Rap Star owns!!! It's so pointless.

Some of them probably have more money than some small countrys in Africa.

thats sick specially if they dont need that money, seriously who the hell needs like 25 cars the price of one can feed a small country !!

You can't blame them, that's just the society they live in, it's not their fault that the american economy is good enough for that.

But truly it isnt. There is more than enough people living in poverty in the states, they should share the wealth those greedy so and sos
That is why if I ever make enough money I plan to donate a chunk each month or so or if I win the lottery

you know something scary chopard watches cost 98,000 $ ppl pay that much for a stupid watch !!!

Look at the prices of some cars around shocking really

sorry that its not about money but another scary thought (in my mind) that there are more people alive at this moment that have ever died, ever!

yeah it sure is frightening and shameful.

Right now, 70% of all people driving on highways, are speeding Sorry, I put this in the Random Useless Facts too... Oh well

haha other people are poor...haha

Real mature 113.

Capatalism does drive innovation and competition, unfortunately a side effect is that the gap between rich and poor just keeps getting bigger. What we need is a Union of countries where the less developed benefit by the great wealth of the more successful nations.....oh wait, isn't that what the EU is supposed to do.

No politics please, I was only joking.

a side effect??? mechy I think that's more than a side effect, it's the serious failure of capitalism.

and I won't get into to discuss wether or not the EU works, I think it will in a few years

I happen to agree with that, from a business point of view its the only way to have a "level playing field" for companies to compete fairly on. You're at the heart of it all too Fire, when do the other nations join, is it May?

If only communism worked better....

haha we're rich and other people aren't

You are rich by destroying other countries and taking over

Your all right about the "big side effect of Capatalim is the side effect from the rich to poor. but you all make it sounded like its the rich persons fault. Not true. Should we start telling people how rich they should be? why should someone get punished for doing a good job? Should we tell Bill Gates that he is to smart and has done to good of a job? NO we shouldin't. Its the poor persons fault there poor. If you no how to save money and when to spend money it is not very difficult to get rich (your at least financially secure by the time your 50) the big problom is they think we should all be book smart when losts of us just need to be money smart.

Saying it's someone fault is harsh. No one can predict the outcome of things, buying the wrong stocks can make you bankrupt and poor, a terrible accident can do the same, even a law suit. How is it anyones fault?? The point is there should be more rich people, and countries even willing to give some of what they have to others who have very little, or in some cases nothing!

Your Right Siver Maybe it is harsh to say its there fault that there poor but the thing is, is most poor people (not all) have put them selves in there position. EX. spending all there money on drugs, alcohol, or beating it all away. I think they should help them selves not ask for everyone else's help.

As for the richest countrys giving money to the poor countries you get two major problems (at least for the U.S.) The US gave the second most in foreign aid last year (right behind Japan) but we mayed way more money then all the other country's we where twenty-second in % comparing are GDP (national wealth) to how much money we gave. (I think Sweden was the heights) I understand that we could give way more but how much is two much. why try to make money and work if America is going to give you free money?....Another problem is who do you give it to? we sent 12.5 billion in aid to Israel. If we stopped wodint Israel eventually become a there'd-world country again?...and another problem with Africa is if you give money to one country all the rest want some. Where do we stop? Do we send all are money and become a There'd-world country are selves and are forced to beg the all might EU for money? that dosint sound like a good idea to me.

The best way to help thire'd-world countrys is to help them help themselves. tell them we will send financial advisers budget mangers and wherever else's they need to jump start there economy BUT NO MONEY. If we give them free money them, and all there naders just want more and it never ends.

The problem with foreign aid is that there is no real way to monitor and control the way the money is spent. For example i think it was Chad(not 100% sure but it was one of the north african countries) that we gave foreign aid money to and the government instead of spending it on it's people used the money for their own benefit

Foreign aid does jack squat if the government you give it to doesn't know how to use it. Mainy governments won't put in enough funds for big economy boosters such as drilling for oil and building roads because they're either too greedy or don't have the financial know how on how on what to use the money on.

yep damn straight

in stead of writing "most poor people (not all)" the best you could write of it was "some poor people (if not a very few)", cause I don't know how good you know poor people, but from my experience, the only thing they want to do (over here that is) is to WORK and not have to beg people to get food and water or to sleep in boxes and have a chance of dying when it's cold outside, THAT is their concern: survival. And without a doubt they will take the most degrading job or what ever they can find in order to get money and survive to just die another day.


I suggest you go to a country that isn't as rich as the US, you won't find them sitting in their bed, yawning every five seconds, you will find them on their land, working and sweating trying to make at least some profit to go to the market and buy some water!


I won't comment on Israel, cause of my way of thinking


what you describe there is very natural and is losely translated from dutch: wanting something mimeticly (sorry, english isn't my first language), it's that if someone gets it, everyone wants it. Like Fire pointed out a few days ago, you had the blur-tags and a few knew how it went and suddenly every (well, the new ones who never say it before) wanted to know how it went and wanted it too. It's normal and you can't blaim countries for that attitude.


funny that you don't want to send any money, cause the countries do actually need it, despite how I dispise the money-driven world we live in, they need money, cause they spend MUCH more money paying off debts than making and getting money to help out!

Africa is a mess because of their horrible leaders. I'm tired of the blaming Whitey game. South Africa was better financially when it was in White hands now that they rule it is the rape capital of the world. Stop feeling guilty for a people that keeps screwing up is not our fault. Imperialism ended long ago.

you forget one thing vader,
it IS the whitey's their fault that africa is a mess!

how did those lands got created? not by themselves, but why the europeans who just said "from there to there, that's yours, the rest is mine" and with just deviding it without thinking of the local tribes who are at war with eachother and such, they created countries full of fighting tribes
if they let africa alone or at least devided it in countries where people could stand eachother, africa wouldn't be such a big mess

If you're not White I'm not surprised you blame everything a on Whitey. Different "tribes" and ethnicities live in the USA without problem. The wars, hunger and all the other troubles are THEIR OWN GOD-DAMN FAULT. Africa is terribly rich in resources yet they haven't been able to built anything worthwhile, not a society, not a civilization.

Do a search on Robert Mugabe, this should clear things for you.

I did not own slaves, I did not oppress this people, I did not steal from , I haven't harm them in anyway. I'M NOT GUILTY.

Vader, you gotta realize....Humans need someone to point the finger at. 20 years ago it was the Soviet Union. 60 years ago it was Germany. And on and on through history. The U.S. is the new evil empire, when they have fallen, the people will find the next group to blame for the troubles of the world. That is the way of things.

I am caucasian, I just wrote "their" to show the gap between me and them.
Can you please tell me what you understand with "tribes" cause the tribe I mentioned I doubt they exist in the USA.
you know, africa was mostly rich in resources and the europeans took most of it away, without paying them or give something in return.

Your right Lames.s everyone needs someone to blame for there problems and i guess its easiest to blame the most wealth country instead of yourselves.....I kind of hop the E.U. gets really strong so the hole world can go back to hating the Europeans instead of us over hear. I think it would be nice if when a country has a problems instead of coming to the U.S for help we can just put are feet up and say "hey go talk to the E.U. we no longer have any opinions" Damn that would be so great i can see it now we will close are boards pull all are troupes out off ever country there in, call all the nave home and spend all that money on are people and make the E.U. spend all there money and put there people in harms way. And during all this all us Americans can grab a beer and see how the world turns out from the safety of are T.V's

Ok, this is becoming a seriously political thread, so back pedal, folks.

YOu guys...i just kind of wanted to show you those statistic beause i came accross them in my revision...

Im sorry...

it's not your fault lil
it's more of mine, cause I reacted on a post of JRat

No need for apologies, lil you were right. The amount of debt is so insignificant it probably wouldnt be missed....by most countries let alone the US.

I want all of you who read this thread to put the words "global peak oil production" into a search engine. To "lil bitchines": Forgiving those debts would be a nice start to try and heal the world, but it may be too little and it might be too late. The time has come to do what all people have done throughout history when a huge empire is about to fall...You get some good people together and hide.

Woah, old thread!

I understand that, but its still very rightening, adn i suppose we should feel lucky...all of us, because we are part of the lucky 25% if not less of the richest people in the world.

Sorry about the old thread...but really cool, check it out. "Global peak oil production". It'll tell you that this civilization is going to fall, just like Rome. There's a good chance it'll happen in our lifetime.

This civilization has the highest energy throughput per capita in history. It's like an addiction. That's why all of the technological advances...to keep the energy flowing. The steam engine was invented to pump water out of coal mines. The coal was needed because there was no more wood to burn in Europe, c.1600.

Oil made things go even faster... So fast that we're going to use up all of the cheap oil really quick. When oil gets expensive (maybe really soon), it's possible the whole world economy will recede or collapse. Because the whole damned thing is based on oil. If the price of oil goes up, the price of EVERYTHING will go up.

It's why there's three wars taking place in the mideast. That this civilization, more than any other in the past, is destroying its own future.

In the words of an Apache I know, "The white man is eating his grandchildren to feed his children." It's unsustainable, it can't last.

This thread, it goes deep...

What would you do if you lived in Rome in like, 200AD, knowing it was on the verge of colllapse?

PS. I like your posts

Very true. On the other hand, if we manage to come up with an alternate form of power, we may be saved.

Absolutely. What you need is to get is a 2 kilowatt windmill, 1-2 kilowatts of solar panels, a bank of storage batteries, and gas storage tank and a hydrogen fuel cell.

When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing you got all the energy you need and you'll be charging the batteries.

After the batteries are fully charged, then...and only then...do you make hydrogen and oxygen from water, if the batteries drop a little, you go back to charging them up.

When the batteries are full again, you go back to making hydrogen and you store it in the tank...no smoking in the field that the tank is buried underneath, ok?

The hydrogen is for a rainy day when you've got no wind and no sun.

How's that sound?

i love when people complain about something but never do anything about it. Next time, when we're all going to complain about how bad everyone else has it in other countries, do something about it and don't just complain. "You must be the change you wish to see in the world," Gandhi once said. He said it for a reason. He was the change he wished to see in the world. We need more action-takers and true leaders instead of complainers.

Excuse me, but who exactly was complaining here! Informing people doesnt equal complaining you know!

a lot of that needs to be looked at in context, and a lot of it is unavoidable.. its not really frieghtening