It is ironic that in this day and age of high technology and mass production, the gap between the rich and the poor has grown ever more wide. In the 1920's there is one rich person for every 3 poor people but now the ratio has alarmingly increased: 1 rich person for every 72 poor.[1] Yet global spending would make war and war-related expenses as the number one item in global spending. Consider the following statistics: .
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• The world spends one trillion dollars in armaments while 800 people million live in extremely bad poverty, 770 million people do not have food for an active working life, 100 million people are without shelter, one billion people do not have safe drinking water and 14 million children five years and below die each years because of poverty and poverty related diseases.
• The world's 500 largest industrial corporations employ only .05 percent of the world's population while controlling 25% of the world's economic output.
• Only one percent of all multinational corporations own one half of the global stock of foreign direct investments.
• Two thirds of world trade are controlled by multinational corporations.
• The top five multinational corporations control 70 percent of the global market for consumer durables.
• The top five firms in automotive, airline, aerospace, electrical components, electronics and steel industry control 50 percent of the whole business. .
• Third world debt amounts to 1.8 trillion dollars.
• Only 358 billionaires have a total income of 760 billion dollars which is equivalent to the total income of 2.5 billion people.
• 20 percent of the world's richest people receive 82.7 percent of the world's total income while the 20 percent poorest receive 1.4 percent of the total world's income.
