Just Thinking

Random Thoughts of Ray Tomes

Post details: Are there getting to be less poor people?

31/01/07

Permalink 01:00:29 am, by RayTomes Email , 152 words, 1203 views   English (NZ)
Categories: political

Are there getting to be less poor people?

Unpublished letter to NZ Listener written 19th December 2006:

Dear Editor

To me, your editorials by Pamela Stirling are one of the highlights of the Listener and I generally read them first. The latest one "Peace in the Pacific" is no exception apart from one thing. You state that "The number of people subsisting on $US2 a day has dropped from 39% of the world's population in the 1970s to 18%". Wouldn't it be nice if this was a real measure of reduction in misery, however the value of the US$ has declined so much that you would need to use $US10 a day now to be comparable with $US2 a day in the 1970s.

On that basis the equivalent figure for the present would be very much higher than 18% and there might in fact be no reduction at all from the 39% of the 1970s.

sincerely
Ray Tomes

NZ Listener article "peace in the pacific"

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Just Thinking

From time to time I have a rave about something. I write letters to the NZ Listener and the NZ Herald but they never publish them. Does that make me a subversive? Probably not, but it seems to me that people with very dim thoughts get given lots of free air while useful thoughts often get ignored. OK, you can ignore the rest of this now ...

Well, these thoughts are about social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all, even though most people don't pay much attention to them.

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