GLOBALIZATION AT A GLANCE

International Socialist Review, Aug/Sep 2001

RICH AND POOR

* Share of total world GDP (gross domestic product) accounted for by the top one-fifth of nations: 86 percent

* Total sales, General Motors, 1997: $164 billion

* GDP of Norway, 1997: $ 153 billion

* Portion of the world's population that lives on $2 a day: 50 percent

* Number of people that live on less than $ 1 a day: 1.2 billion

* Ratio of income of the top 20 percent to that of the poorest 20 percent in 1960: 30 to 1

* Ratio of income of the top 20 percent to that of the poorest 20 percent in 1994: 78 to 1

* Portion of global income necessary to eliminate world poverty: 1 percent

DEBT

* Total external debt of all developing countries, 1988: $ 1.2 trillion

* Total external debt of all developing countries, 1998: $2.5 trillion

* Difference between what developing countries paid in debt services minus what they received in new loans, 1990-97: $77 billion

* Brazil's debt interest payment as a portion of total government revenue: 75.6 percent

THE SUPERRICH

* Number of least-developed countries necessary to make a combined income equal to that of the three richest people in the world: 48

* Net worth of the world's 200 richest people in 1994: $440 billion

* Net worth of the world's 200 richest people in 1998: $1 trillion

* Portion of wealth that the world's 225 richest people would need to give up to wipe out world poverty: 4 percent

* Portion of Americans that earn as much after taxes as the poorest 100 million Americans combined: 1 percent

* Estimated net worth of Bill Gates as of April 2001: $46.56 billion

* Estimated sum that Bill Gates has made per second since March 1986: $95

* Number of Haitian workers that produce Disney dolls and clothes who could be hired for Disney CEO Michael Eisner's salary: More than 100,000

* Number of years it would take a Haitian worker to earn as much as Eisner makes in one day: 166

FOREIGN TRADE

* Amount of total world trade that takes place between the world's richest countries: two-thirds

* Total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 1982: $58 billion

* Total FDI in 1999: $865 billion

* FDI that went to the top one-fifth of countries: 68 percent

* FDI to the poorest fifth of countries: 1 percent

* Daily turnover in foreign exchange trading, 1986: about $200 billion

* Daily turnover in foreign exchange trading, 1998: about $1.5 trillion

* Inflow of capital into East Asia in 1996: $93 billion

* Outflow of capital from East Asia in 1997, after the currency crisis: $ 105 billion

* Value of cross-border corporate mergers and acquisitions, 1992: $52 billion

* Value of cross-border corporate mergers and acquisitions, 1997: $236 billion

MILITARY SPENDING

* Total world military spending, 1999: $809 billion

* U.S. military spending, fiscal year 2001: $305.4 billion

* Share of world military spending that would provide health care for all (including. immunization for all children), eliminate severe malnutrition and halve moderate malnutrition, and provide safe drinking water for all: 12 percent

* Cost estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to fund the F-22 fighter jet: $45 billion

* Cost of funding Head Start programs for six years: $44 billion

HEALTH

* Number of children who die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases: 3 million

* Number of people who die each year from malaria: 1 to 2.6 million

* Amount necessary to prevent 500,000 malaria deaths per year: $ 1 billion (less than one-fortieth of Bill Gates' wealth)

* Cost annually of achieving the universal provision of basic services in developing countries: $80 billion

* Net worth of the three richest people in the world: $ 135 billion

* Share of all global public and private biomedical research devoted to the major killer diseases in the developing world: 2 percent

* Number of nurses in Ghana, 1985: 1,782

* Number of nurses in Ghana, 1991, after IMF-imposed cutbacks: 956

AIDS

* Number of people suffering from AIDS worldwide: 36 million

* Portion of AIDS sufferers from sub-Saharan Africa: 70 percent

* Number of people who die from AIDS-related illnesses every day worldwide: 15,000

* Number of people who die from AIDS-related illnesses in Africa every day: 6,000

* Portion of the 36 million people infected with HIV/AIDS who can afford drugs to treat the disease: Less than 10 percent

* Cost of one B-2 "stealth" bomber: $997 million

* Official aid that Africa receives yearly to fight AIDS: $ 160 million

HUNGER

* Number of people who are chronically malnourished: 840 million

* Number of people in the U.S. who suffer from food insecurity: 34 million

* Number of infants who die of malnutrition every day: 40,000

* Estimated U.S. and European expenditure on pet food per year: $ 17 billion

* Estimated annual cost of providing health care and nutrition for everyone in the world: $ 13 billion

Globalization watch

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