Inequality
written at Monday, May 30, 2011
I enjoy my majors so much, I love what I'm studying and I find it such a great opportunity to be learning all this at this point in my life, I'm seriously considering the Business School's honours programme (if I can get the grades for it) which would be another year of post-graduate study. But something beyond the academics and the research surrounding my discipline of study, there are certain issues that touch the heart deeply, and it has been on my mind a lot every time I write about it, or learn more about it.
My chosen discipline of study had also opened my eyes to the reality that is. Capitalism, greed, human nature and how it affects other human beings. There is a great divide between the rich and the poor, there is a greater disparity in income and standard of living. Countries with ever-increasing debt which they are unable to get out of as it will cripple them, politicians who pocket the money, foreign multinational corporations flooding the countries to exploit the cheaper labour. There are surrounding arguments about the pros and cons of MNC involvement in these countries, but the reality still remains, talk about it as much as you want in your dark black suits, around a large rose-wood table.
In 1980, the 10% of the worlds' income is 79 times higher than the poorest 10%
In 1999, this head increased to 117 times higher.
Exclude China and its stunning economic growth from the above statistics and you find that the ratio increases from 79 to 90 and 117 to 154 respectively.
“These are the ravages not just of poverty but of a system where unregulated, or corporate-regulated, global and domestic markets produce horrifying inequalities in the basis conditions of peoples’ lives” (Weissman 2003, 17)
“Private drug companies have no incentive to invest R&D funds in vaccines or drugs for diseases endemic to poor countries…because there is no sizable market” (Weissman 2003, 16).
There's still so much to be done...
Inequality
written at Monday, May 30, 2011
I enjoy my majors so much, I love what I'm studying and I find it such a great opportunity to be learning all this at this point in my life, I'm seriously considering the Business School's honours programme (if I can get the grades for it) which would be another year of post-graduate study. But something beyond the academics and the research surrounding my discipline of study, there are certain issues that touch the heart deeply, and it has been on my mind a lot every time I write about it, or learn more about it.
My chosen discipline of study had also opened my eyes to the reality that is. Capitalism, greed, human nature and how it affects other human beings. There is a great divide between the rich and the poor, there is a greater disparity in income and standard of living. Countries with ever-increasing debt which they are unable to get out of as it will cripple them, politicians who pocket the money, foreign multinational corporations flooding the countries to exploit the cheaper labour. There are surrounding arguments about the pros and cons of MNC involvement in these countries, but the reality still remains, talk about it as much as you want in your dark black suits, around a large rose-wood table.
In 1980, the 10% of the worlds' income is 79 times higher than the poorest 10%
In 1999, this head increased to 117 times higher.
Exclude China and its stunning economic growth from the above statistics and you find that the ratio increases from 79 to 90 and 117 to 154 respectively.
“These are the ravages not just of poverty but of a system where unregulated, or corporate-regulated, global and domestic markets produce horrifying inequalities in the basis conditions of peoples’ lives” (Weissman 2003, 17)
“Private drug companies have no incentive to invest R&D funds in vaccines or drugs for diseases endemic to poor countries…because there is no sizable market” (Weissman 2003, 16).
There's still so much to be done...
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Knowing
What matters supremely, therefore, is not
in the last analysis, the fact that I know God,
but the larger fact which underlies it --
the fact that He knows me.
J. I. Packer
