My friend is taking an economics course at the moment; and he's sending me some crazy stats on MSN from his textbook. Here's a bunch that really boggled me:
"the assets of the three richest ppl are more than the comibned GNP of the 46 least developed countires with a combined population of 660 million"
"the assets of the richest 200 ppl are more than the combined income of 41 percent of the world's ppl, approx. 2.4 Billion ppl"
"the richest 1/5 of humanity has 82 times the income of the poorest fifth and consume 86 percent of the world's resources"
"one man, bill gates, has more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of americans combined, 120 million ppl"
"another fact that's scary about how fast things r changing, in 1980 the CEO of a large american corporation earned 42 times the wage of a typical factory worker, in 1998, the average CEO earned 419 times more"
"the net worth of the words 200 richest ppl in 1994 was 440 billion, in 1998 1.042 trillion"
"a yearly contribution of 1 percent of the wealth of the 200 richest ppl could provide universal access to primary education for all, at a cost of 7-8billion dollars"
"the 200 richest, 65 r from north america, 55 from europe and 30 from asian and the pacific, only 3 from eastern europe and CIS"
Dec-02-2003 08:23
jon jon
viva la clubland
Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Footwork
die hippy.
p.s Yeah capitalism is wack at times, but I'll still take good ol acquisition of wealth (along with greed, corruption, excess and filth) over state owned property any effing day of the week.
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
Dec-02-2003 08:28
Durafei
the crazy russian
Registered: Oct 2000
Location: San Francisco, California
Some facts are "misrepresented"..
Bill Gates for instance "has" all those billions, but technically he doesn't. Most of the money is in the shares of Microsoft. If he wanted to sell them all they would go down in price significantly(he has something like 20% of all shares).
But yeah, the world is generally very poor. We are lucky to live in Canada !
EDIT: As far as Communism goes. It's actually a great idea - but unfortunately not realistic - people are too greedy.
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
Dec-02-2003 08:32
jon jon
viva la clubland
Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Footwork
quote:
Originally posted by dEsidEL
are u guys into Pro-line ? gambling??
I'm confused by the point you're trying to make. But I'll answer accordingly...
Personally, never been a gambler. I've even been to Vegas and maybe dropped 50$. I've never understood the merit, and not to mention the odds (well of winning the lottery anyways) are always out of control. The idea of "making it" by gambling will never ever apply to me, I came to that self-actualization when I was like 5 trying to get a stuffed toy out of those intricate grappling hand toybox machines. I also think it's the libra in me, I wouldn't win the lottery unless I got ran over by a bus first. It all has to even out my friend. Dun Dun Dun BALANCE!
Originally posted by halo20
I'm confused by the point you're trying to make. But I'll answer accordingly...
Personally, never been a gambler. I've even been to Vegas and maybe dropped 50$. I've never understood the merit, and not to mention the odds (well of winning the lottery anyways) are always out of control. The idea of "making it" by gambling will never ever apply to me, I came to that self-actualization when I was like 5 trying to get a stuffed toy out of those intricate grappling hand toybox machines. I also think it's the libra in me, I wouldn't win the lottery unless I got ran over by a bus first. It all has to even out my friend. Dun Dun Dun BALANCE!
and you see just because of that .. TA Invasion 006 will be held at Casino Rama
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
^^^^^ haha. I'd rather spend my money in ways that make me happy not by spending it in a way that is basically handing it to some corporation for free. At least when I watch a movie or pay to watch a musical, I feel I get something out of it. When I gamble (or made bets as I was a kid) it did nothing for me in that way.
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Und ich tanz einfach weiter...
Dec-02-2003 08:47
jon jon
viva la clubland
Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Footwork
quote:
Originally posted by Endlesswave
I'd rather spend my money on hookers
(edit/delete thread.. )
