In our town of 1000-180 of us live high on a hill called the developed world.
820 of us live in the rocky bottom called the rest of the world.
The fortunate 180 on the hill have 80 percent of the wealth of the
whole town, over half of the rooms in town with over two rooms per
person, 85 percent of all the automobiles, 80 percent of all the TV
sets, 93 percent of all the telephones, and an average income of $5000
pers person per year.
The not-so-fortunate 820 people on the bottom get by on only $700 per
person per year, many of them on less than $75. They average five persons
to a room.
How does the fortunate group of hill dwellers use its incredible wealth?
Well, as a group they spend less than 1 percent of their income to aid
the lower land. In the US, for example, of every $100 earned:
$18.30 goes for food
I wonder how the villagers on the crowded plain-a third of whose people
are suffering from malnutrition -feel about the folks on the hill?
Consider the world as if it were shrunk down to a community of 1000 persons:
$6.60 is spent on recreation and amusement.
$5.80 buys clothes
$2.40 buys alcohol.
$1.50 buys tobacco.
$1.30 is given for religious and charitable uses, and only a small part
of that goes outside the U. S.
Makes you stop and think...huh???....