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Global Economic Justice

Below, the reality of economic injustice is subdivided into "issues"--meaning facets of it small enough to be addressed through particular grassroots campaigns and legislation. Nonetheless, it is well to have some grasp of the dimensions of economic injustice at the end of the millennium.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Economic globalization has eroded 150 years of efforts to mitigate the harshest aspects of capitalism. Mergers and buyouts have concentrated power in fewer and larger corporations. Currency speculators have ruined entire economies. National political decision making has returned to corporate control. Disparities of compensation have widened within companies; of income and wealth within nations; of consumption between nations. Wages have been depressed. Job security has eroded. Trade unionism has been seriously weakened in developed nations and is in effect forbidden in most developing nations.

"Competitive markets may be the best guarantee of efficiency but not necessarily of equity," the UN Development Program said in its annual global overview, the Human Development Report (1999 edition). "Markets are neither the first nor the last word in human development . . . . Many activities and goods that are critical to human development are provided outside the market, but these are being squeezed by the pressures of global competition . . . . When the market goes too far in dominating social and political outcomes, the opportunities and rewards of globalization spread unequally and inequitably--concentrating power and wealth in a select group of people, nations and corporations, marginalizing the others."

The greatest threats to non-violence, human rights, and the environment are posed by this increasingly unrestrained globalization of economic life. Thus, while peace and justice activists work on seemingly disparate issues, most of them are rooted in the quest for economic dominance. Under Democratic President Bill Clinton even more than under his Republican predecessors, the U.S. government has devoted its economic, diplomatic, and military power to sweeping away resistance to transnational corporate control.

The International Forum on Globalization provides excellent studies and informational materials. Its web site is www.ifg.org.

ILLUSTRATIVE DATA - GLOBAL

  • In 1960, the richest fifth of the world's people had 30 times as much income as the poorest fifth. By 1997, that proportion had more than doubled, to 74-1.
  • The wealthiest fifth of the world's population accounts for 86% of the world's consumption, while the poorest fifth accounts for 1.3% of global consumption.
  • In nearly half the world's countries, per capita incomes are lower than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Some of these are oil-producing nations hit by the long slump in oil prices, but many are in sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita income has fallen to $518 from $661 in 1980.
  • From 1980 to 1993, more than 1 billion people saw their incomes decline. Yet, between 1994 and 1998 alone, the 200 richest people in the world more than doubled their net worth.
  • The world's 3 richest people have wealth greater than the combined Gross Domestic Product (the value of all goods and services) of the world's 48 poorest nations.
  • The world's richest 225 people have combined assets equal to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people.
  • The top 10 corporations control 86 percent of the telecommunications market, 85 percent of pesticides, 70 percent of computers, and 60 percent of veterinary medical products.
  • Businesses and institutions in 10 nations control 95 percent of all patents issued by the U.S. government over the past 20 years.

ILLUSTRATIVE DATA - DOMESTIC

  • In the United States, the combined wealth of the top 1% of the population exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 90%. In 1976, the top 1% owned 19% of the wealth and the bottom 90% owned 50%, but since then the top 1% doubled its share, the next 9% stayed steady at 30%, and the rest declined to 32%.
  • Changes in income since the 1970s reflected the same growing gap. with income declining for those in the bottom 40%, growing under 10% for the next 50%, growing over 20% for the next 9%, but growing over 100% for the top 1%.
  • Since the late 1970s, wages for the average worker declined over 10%; wages for workers under 25 declined over 30%.
  • The real value of the minimum wage is at its second lowest level since it was enacted. Almost 5 million American workers earn less than $9,000 per year.
  • In 1995, the average chief executive officer of a U.S. corporation made 183 times the average hourly worker's pay, up from 34 times in 1974. CEO compensation averaged $2,100 an hour vs. the $11.46 average.
  • Job security has declined. The number of those working for temporary agencies grew 211% between 1970 and 1990. Currently, the largest employer in the U.S. is Manpower, Inc., a temporary agency.
  • One in every five children is growing up in poverty.