Greta Thunberg must be getting very used to mixing with the rich and famous. Prince Charles met with Greta at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But it seems more as if it is the rich and famous who are seeking out to have the photo opportunities with Greta to boost their credibility.
The socialist movement is having its trials. This is to be expected. The transition from capitalism to socialism will be tempestuous. It would be folly to even hope for all smooth sailing. Let no comrade despair of the future. We are certain that before long the world will witness heroic rebellions of the people in all countries seeking to break once and for all the chains of exploitation and establish the true free society of socialism. Social ideas now has fertile soil to grow.
Hunger exists in a world of plenty. Why can’t the global food industry feed the hungry? Enough food is produced in the world to provide substantially more than the minimum required for good health. Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the supply of food in the world today. Despite that over-populationists blame too many people. The problem is not too many people. If people could decide what they produce, there would be more than enough food for many times the world’s population.The problem is that only a minority decide – a minority who want to organise production for their own benefit and for no one else’s.
That’s why they promote population numbers as a problem – to prove that hunger and poverty are not the fault of the rich for deciding not to produce what people need, but the fault of the poor and hungry for being too many.
The fact that there is already enough food to feed the world shows that the food crisis is not a technical problem — it is a social and political problem. The global food industry is not organised to feed the hungry; it is organised to generate profits for corporate agribusiness and they are achieving that objective very well indeed. It is profit what counts, no matter what the effect may be on earth, air, and water — or even on hungry people. World hunger can only be ended by ending capitalism.
“…the capitalist system works against a rational agriculture…a rational agriculture is incompatible with the capitalist system.” Marx
Workers puzzle over the question of why we can produce so much, how is it that we ourselves get so little? We produce hundreds of times more wealth with the factories than our great-grandfathers did without them. But the things we produce do not belong to us. Why? The answer is simple. The world’s great productive system is owned by a little handful of people who run it for their own profit and not for people’s use. And it can run at full steam and keep running only when society as a whole owns and operates it.
We live in a world where hunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, racial and sexual discrimination, and many forms of repression, including the most barbaric, such as torture and genocide, are the lot of the majority of the earth’s inhabitants.
The emancipation of the workers will be accomplished by the workers themselves. They will achieve it through socialist revolution, which will end private ownership of the means of production in order to establish socialist and collective property, and replace capitalist commodity production by the social organisation of production and designed to ensure the complete well-being and full development of each person. As socialists, we cannot accept that it is beyond the ability and intelligence of mankind to solve the problems of hunger, poverty, unemployment or the even greater problems of peace and war.
The unemployed, along with old, the sick, the disabled and single-parent families are forced to lead restricted and often isolated lives in poverty which prevents them from fully participating in the economic, political, cultural and social activity of our society. Socialism stands for all that is best in life, for replacing fear by hope, narrowness and meanness by generosity and compassion, poverty by plenty, exploitation by co-operation and jingoism by comradeship.
Why is it necessary that human beings should work at all? In order that the world may be supplied with goods, of course. Do we therefore rejoice when the world is so supplied? That is the greatest disaster we can imagine. We must labour in order to supply the world, and when the world is supplied we must starve because there is plenty for all and our labour is not needed. Science and invention by increasing the productivity of our labour. One insoluble difficulty of capitalism is to devise a method whereby the march of science and inventive genius can assist industry without menacing the bread and butter of the working class.
The destruction of the environment of our planet is not caused by scarcity or overpopulation. The problem in large areas of the globe is not over exploitation but under development. Much of Africa’s farmland is not properly irrigated, and the amount of arable land could be vastly increased. Environmentalists often claim that economic growth, or even human society itself, is inherently hostile to nature. Modern technology is not in itself destructive. Some go as far as to associate humanity with a parasite upon the planet. This simplistic opposition between ‘man’ and ‘nature’ is meaningless. Human activity has already changed most of the earth’s surface beyond recognition.
‘We by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like something standing outside nature … we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst … all our mastery consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly. Other animals simply use nature, unlike the hunter, the wolf does not spare the doe which would provide it with the young the next year; the goats in Greece that eat away the young bushes before they grow to maturity, have eaten bare all the mountains of the country …’ – Engels
Capitalism compromises our relation to nature. All production decisions are made by a tiny handful of capitalists, not in the interests of humanity, but purely for profit. Environmental concerns are ignored in the short term scramble for profit. The vast majority of the population who want to live in a safe, healthy world, and to enjoy nature, have no control over decisions that affect our lives. Even at our own workplace we have to struggle for the most meagre health and safety measures. The market can never be harnessed to develop a harmonious relationship with nature. Because it depends on the exploitation of most of humanity, it must keep us subjected. Because its motor force is profit, it will result in the blind destruction of the environment.
“Poverty is bad for your health”
England’s poorest people get worse NHS care than its wealthiest citizens, including longer waiting for A&E treatment, and worse experience of GP services, a study shows. While 134 per 100,000 of the least deprived were admitted to hospital because of pressure sores, the rate among the poorest was three times higher, 394 per 100,000 people.
Those from the most deprived areas have fewer hip replacements and are admitted to hospital with bed sores more often than people from the least deprived areas.
With regard to emergency care, 14.3% of the most deprived had to wait more than the supposed maximum of four hours to be dealt with in A&E in 2017-18, compared with 12.8% of the wealthiest. Similarly, just 64% of the former had a good experience making a GP appointment, compared with 72% of those from the richest areas.
Research by the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation thinktanks found that the poorest people were less likely to recover from mental ill-health after receiving psychological therapy and be readmitted to hospital as a medical emergency soon after undergoing treatment.
The findings show that poorer people’s health risks being compounded by poorer access to NHS care. Moreover, previous evidence showed that, while life expectancy is still improving for the best-off, it has stalled or gone backwards among the poorest.
The research found large disparities between richest and poorest in measures of children and young people’s health, including take-up of the MMR vaccine in five-year-olds, teenage pregnancy and admissions for self-harm for under-18s.
“Poverty is bad for your health, and people in the poorest parts of England face a vicious cycle,” said Ruth Thorlby, a co-author and assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation. “Poor living conditions, low quality work and underfunded local services lead to worse health. These findings show that, added to this, those in the most deprived areas are routinely experiencing longer waits in A&E, lower satisfaction and more potentially avoidable hospital admissions,” she added.
“These findings show some concerning trends about the knock-on effects an overstretched NHS is having on the people in England who often need it most,” said Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust and the other co-author. “My worry is that continued pressure on the NHS is only going to exacerbate inequalities, despite the very best of intentions from staff to provide fair and equal care.”
Dr Stephen Jivraj, an associate professor in the faculty of population health sciences at University College London, said: “These findings point to an inverse care law where those most in need of health services are experiencing the poorest quality. They provide context to why the gap in health between rich and poor is getting larger, as shown in recent research from UCL. The increase in the gap between deprived areas and less deprived areas is worrying.”
Lebanon – No future
Lebanon announced the formation of a new government on Tuesday following three months of political blockade. However, the protesters say the new government comprises the same people they have been rallying against since October 17. Protesters have been calling for sweeping reforms and a government that is led by independent technocrats and that can deal with the crippling economic crisis and widespread corruption. Protesters reject members belonging to the current political elite, which has ruled Lebanon since the end of its civil war in 1990 and is considered responsible for the country’s economic crisis. Lebanon has been without an effective government since caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, under pressure from protests against state corruption and mismanagement, resigned in October.
“We want the government to work according to our needs. If not, to hell with them,” said Mohammed, a 23-year-old protester. “If anything, the old cabinet that we rallied against is slightly better than this ‘one colour’ government,” he said, using a term to describe the new cabinet backed by Hezbollah
and its allies. “They’re still stealing from us. We don’t have electricity, we don’t have hospitals, and we are starving to death,” Mohammed added. “We’re forced to escalate, the revolution is no longer peaceful … we gave them a chance for 30 years.”
“We want the government to work according to our needs. If not, to hell with them,” said Mohammed, a 23-year-old protester. “If anything, the old cabinet that we rallied against is slightly better than this ‘one colour’ government,” he said, using a term to describe the new cabinet backed by Hezbollah
and its allies. “They’re still stealing from us. We don’t have electricity, we don’t have hospitals, and we are starving to death,” Mohammed added. “We’re forced to escalate, the revolution is no longer peaceful … we gave them a chance for 30 years.”
The country’s newly appointed Prime Minister Hassan Diab pledged on Tuesday that his government “will strive to meet their demands for an independent judiciary, for the recovery of embezzled funds, for the fight against illegal gains”. He also said his cabinet will adopt financial and economic methods different from those of previous governments, amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Protesters insist that only a government of independent experts will have what it takes to save the country. Calls to dismantle ruling parties, which include groups that transitioned into politics since the country’s civil war, have also been a major demand of the protesters.
“It’s bullshit … they’re playing with us. They are the same people with different faces,” Stephanie, a 30-year-old protester, said of the new government. “People are here because they have no jobs and they’re trying to tell the government that a change if needed. “But nothing is happening … they’re still robbing us, torturing us, treating us like we don’t deserve anything good,” she said.
“When they put people like us in charge, people who really want to help us get out of this, I will go home,” added Stephanie. Despite a heavy security presence, people chanted slogans against Prime Minister Diab. Security forces responded by firing water cannons to disperse the crowds. “They’re here throwing water at us and I don’t even have water at home,” Stephanie shouted in dismay.
“This is really sad,” 25-year-old Hamza said of the current economic situation.
“We don’t deserve this. They control our jobs and our economy,” he said of the government, which he described as an “oligarchy”.
Like many young people in Lebanon, Hamza said he still hasn’t managed to finish college due to a lack of funds. He turned around to look at the protesters throwing stones near the front lines and said: “Everyone throwing rocks right now doesn’t have money … we are all desperate.”
Tasneem, aged 15, told Al Jazeera that she fears for her future and wants to live in a country where she feels “protected”.
“I want an education … Until now I feel like there is no future for me.”
Hard to breathe in Pakistan
In 2015, an estimated 135,000 Pakistanis died due to air pollution, a study published in the medical journal The Lancet found. Perhaps more crucially, the study found that air pollution cost Pakistanis more than 42.3 million disability-adjusted life years – averaged out over Pakistan’s cities, where air pollution is concentrated, that amounts to more than a year off every single urban citizen’s life.
Come October, changing weather patterns, high levels of environmental pollution and seasonal crop burning combine to make the air in Lahore some of the most toxic in the world, with the city’s air quality index (AQI) reading regularly topping 500 (the upper limit on most meters), according to AirVisual, an international air quality monitoring service. The AQI is a measure formulated by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to measure how healthy or polluted air is, and takes into account levels of five major air pollutants. Any reading higher than 100 is considered “unhealthy”, with readings higher than 300 considered “hazardous”, according to international standards. Pakistan’s classification system for AQI considers levels up to 200 to be “satisfactory”. The AQI during the four months between October and January rarely dips below “hazardous” levels. According to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) report commissioned by the Punjab government, roughly 43 percent of the province’s air pollution is attributable to vehicle emissions. A further 24 percent is from industrial emissions, 20 percent from the burning of crops in the winter season, and 12 percent from the country’s mainly coal- and furnace oil-fired power plants. Pakistan uses Euro-II standards for the quality of fuels used in vehicles, which allows for higher levels of pollutants. For example, the sulphur content in Euro-II grade diesel fuel is roughly 50 times higher than current global standards.
This year, for the first time ever, the provincial government shut down schools for three days due to hazardous air quality, asking citizens to remain indoors as much as possible. For many in Pakistan, where the average per capita income is less than $1,600 a year, staying indoors, however, is simply not an option.
“My whole family can eat only because I am running this pushcart,” says Jalal Hazrat Syed, a 24-year-old migrant to Lahore who sells household electrical equipment off a wooden cart in the old city. “If I shut it down, what will they do? It’s easier for those who work in offices. If I don’t work for a day, we don’t eat that day.”
This year, the government and activists have been encouraging citizens to wear filter face masks to protect themselves while outdoors in the smog, as well as to install air purifiers at home to filter the air. The main danger from the smog is high levels of particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM2.5. Such particles can be absorbed directly into the blood and organs after being breathed in, and have been linked to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems and other diseases. Pakistan’s standard for “safe” levels of PM2.5 in the air is 35 microns per cubic metre. At the peak of smog season, the level was regularly more than 15 times that amount.
For many in Pakistan, however, buying air purifiers for their homes or workspaces is out of the question, given their high cost.
“We would see the smog descend in the evenings, mostly,” said Faiz-ul-Islam, 30, a tea seller in the city’s congested Shah Alami market. “It is unlikely, given I earn 15,000 rupees a month [$96], that I would be able to buy an air purifier.” Islam says he has no choice but to go to work, no matter what the air quality, because he needs to earn a living. “I cannot survive for a single day without going outside and working,” he says. “If we are forced to stay home, I will be forced into debt, and it will take months to work it off.”
Most air purifiers in Pakistani stores are imported, with prices starting at about 30,000 rupees ($194), or roughly double the monthly minimum wage. Prices for face masks certified to filter out PM2.5 particles are more affordable, however, with most masks retailing for roughly 200 rupees (about $1.30).
In September, thousands of young people marched in 26 cities across the country to register their protest against unsustainable climate policies, joining a global movement dubbed the Global Climate Strike.
Nida Afzal, a student at Lahore’s Punjab University, was among those marching.
” I am living under a system that is oppressing me and doesn’t allow me to speak the truth, then I should leave that system, right?” she says. “That seems to be anarchist, but it is really not anarchist. It is about communicating your opinion to power.
Students are now [engaging in this activism] because they know their rights,” she says. “[Authorities] don’t argue with us the same way, because they know … that we really shut them up. That’s the pride of this movement. How Greta speaks, you know?” Afzal says the time for governments to act is fast running out, and that for her, “it is do or die now”.”We have known about climate breakdown for 30 years, and we have been warned by scientists. We have now taken that stand, that we have to do something, because if we don’t work together, we die together.” Afzal works with the UK-based eXtinction Rebellion (XR), a climate activism group that conducts civil disobedience protests where activists court arrest in order to force authorities to take notice of climate change.In Pakistan, however, Afzal says it is more difficult to conduct those kinds of protests. “They couldn’t happen here, because people are scared. Over there, people are educated and very privileged. Their protests are flooded with middle-class white people, who are privileged,” she says. She believes privileged Pakistanis will have to use their social power to agitate for change. “The people will have to come forward and say, us educated people. A labourer cannot come forward to put his life and his wages in danger to say that they don’t accept corporations. We should not expect that, either. We need to work with them and work for their rights, but we should not expect them to be revolutionaries.”
“Young people are easier to convince. It is more probable that a young person is more aware of this issue than someone in their mid-30s,” says Raza Goraya, 25, a lawyer who co-founded the Clean Air Campaign in Lahore. Goraya warns, however, that opposition to sustainable policies appears to be based in a paradigm that pits development against environmentally friendly policies. “It is ingrained that pollution is necessary. That development with sustainability being brought into the equation is not possible, not on a fast pace.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/smog-istan-pakistanis-created-equal-200123081038630.html
Fertility rates
“Centibillionaires”
A new category for the ultra-rich has been coined: “centibillionaires,” those who have amassed more than $100 billion.
As tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, by the end of 2019, the 500 richest people saw their total haul jump by 25 percent, with $1.2 trillion added to their collective net worth.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, is one of them, and he piled up and extra $27 billion in personal wealth last year. Bill Gates of Microsoft added $22 billion to his stash. And even though Amazon czar Jeff Bezos lost $9 billion last year in a divorce settlement, his fortune multiplied so much that he’s still the world’s richest person.
The moneyed elite did nothing to earn these extra bonanzas. They didn’t work any harder, didn’t get smarter, didn’t add anything of value to society. They simply let their money make money. Their money does all the work to lift them above everyone else. The bulk of their booty goes to making them even richer, buying out other corporations, acquiring advanced technologies, dumping billions into Wall Street with buy-backs, intentionally and artificially jacking up the price of stocks you own. Your wealth expands exponentially; inequality spreads further and faster
Rupert Murdoch saw his riches fall by $10 billion in 2019 but only because he doled out that wad of wealth to his six children. Thus were born six brand new billionaires who did nothing to reach the top of the world’s financial heap except possess a wealthy father. For others it can take hard work, creativity, perseverance and luck to become a millionaire, but in today’s skewed wealth system, multibillionaires don’t need any of that. No money worries, set for life. Mansions and penthouses galore, luxury yachts, private jets, jewels, personal islands and other “trivial” trinkets barely dent their multibillionsl. Of course funding political front groups to protect your interests and financing corporate-friendly candidates takes a little bit of your wealth, as do some charity donations so to ensure some good publicity and appease your conscience.
From here
https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/here-are-the-dirty-secrets-of-how-the-rich-become-the-uber-rich/?utm_source=push_notifications
Be disobedient – think for yourself (2006)
From the January 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard
Let’s rebel! Let’s free ourselves from the corrupt, rapacious society we live in!
We workers produce, organise, and manage production for a minority of capitalists who own what we produce; then, from the sale of the products we make, the capitalists accumulate more capital from profits. Some of the profits are reinvested to have us work to develop the production facilities for the owners, the remainder of the profits are used by the owners to expand their wealth and extend their power by controlling their governments and “persuading” politicians, both nationally and internationally.
Let us change this way of running affairs! We workers produce and distribute all goods; let us own everything and abolish private property, so everyone can democratically decide how to care for each other.
This division of world society into those who own and control capital (the capitalist class), and those who have to work to increase the capitalists’ wealth (the working class) must be abo1ished and replaced by a co-operative society of common ownership by freely associating individuals – that is everyone. A real inclusive society of carers with no selfish, private owning capitalists, as now , accumulating wealth and running society through their politicians and governments.
Under common ownership real democracy will work; everyone can participate fully in administration and be heard – not like now, when the 30 seconds it takes you to put a cross on the ballot paper is ignored for years by politicians too busy pocketing brown envelopes.
Within a society of common ownership, if there are individuals elected they will be controlled by the electors and subjected to immediate recall. This means the elected will be servants of the electors, and recalled to be removed immediately by those who elected them, if they do not follow the instructions of those who gave them the chance to be public servants.
The evidence that everyone has equal power and an equal vote in every decision taken will be obvious within this future society by the removal of the threat of hunger, exercised under capitalist society against all who are unwilling to accept the conditions of work and compliance. Within this future society of freely associating, equal individuals, every man, woman and child will take what goods they want from a communal store. This free access, this freedom is what will maintain real democracy, and it will be possible because money will be unnecessary and non-existent.
Money is a means of exchange in capitalist society. A form of rationing by the owners of the non-owners – no money, no goods. In a society of common ownership and free access – we use the word socialism to describe it – everybody will own everything, so why would we want to pay ourselves? Our common sense will tell us not to waste what could be shared with others.
As socialists we want to participate in a global-community progression to free humankind’s real human potential. We are all equals, if different. We don’t accept leaders, which is why we invite you to ignore leaders too. Begin to free yourself, be disobedient, think for yourself, ask questions, and inquire after the case we suggest.
– leaflet issued by socialists in Ireland.
Too many people?
Chris Packham presented a BBC Horizon documentary 7.7 Billion People and Counting on the consequences of the rise in population. Packham is a patron of the controversial charity Population Matters. He concedes that “We’re so good at saving lives.”
France had almost 150 years to adapt to the rise in aging population from 10 percent to 20 percent of the total, whereas China has to adapt to the change in slightly more than 20 years.
In England and Wales the birth rate hit a record low of 1.7 per woman in 2018.
About a quarter of schools in southwest Scotland are operating at less than 50 per cent capacity, figures have revealed. School rolls are falling in Dumfries and Galloway, which has experienced one of the highest rates of population decline in Scotland. A report to the council’s education and learning committee showed that about 6,000 more people died in the region than were born in the decade to 2018, causing the population to fall by 1.5 per cent.
Populations are already falling in many countries. Not since the Black Death and the great plagues of the Middle Ages have we seen population collapses of this magnitude. In rich countries, fertility rates have hovered below replacement levels of 2.1 children per woman for decades, but they are now below that threshold in middle-income countries across the world, from Iran to Thailand to Brazil. In South Korea, the fertility rate dipped to just 0.98 last year, and even in the US it hit an all-time low of 1.73 births per woman.Given parental desire to invest in each child, a fertility surge in rich countries is improbable. According to the latest World Population Prospects from the UN, 27 countries have fewer people now than in 2010, and it expects 55 nations — including China — to experience declines between now and 2050. In the 21st century, falling populations will become normal.
Bulgaria’s population was around 9 million at the end of the 1980s, but it fell to fewer than 7 million in 2018, and is expected to fall below 6 million in 50 years. The UN Population Division projects that Bulgaria will lose 23% of its population by 2050 – a projection so high that the country is neck-and-neck with Lithuania for the fastest shrinking population in the world. What sets Bulgaria apart from other declining European countries is its massive outbound migration. As many as 1.1 million Bulgarians estimated to live abroad a
Italy’s birth rate has fallen to 1.32 children per women, far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain a stable population over time
Hungary will be providing free IVF to couples to combat the country’s declining birth rate. Xenophobe Viktor Orban recently announced that women who bear four or more children will never have to pay income tax again, while newly married couples are eligible for a loan which will be written off if they have three children. Hungary’s population is expected to drop from 9.8 million to 8.3 million by 2050. Emigration has removed around one million people between 2008 and 2018, according to the OSCE,
Thailand’s latest population projections show the country is poised to undergo a shift that could soon create a worker shortage. The country is ageing at one of the fastest rates in the developing world.The forecast suggests Thailand’s population will continue to increase until 2028, before starting to decline.Jinanggoon Rojananan, deputy secretary general of the National Economic and Social Development Council said: “Fewer children are being born, and the fertility rate is consistently declining. In studying different countries, we haven’t seen any successful method to boost the birth rate, yet.” In just 20 years, senior citizens are expected to make up about one-third of Thailand’s population. At the same time, the working-age population will decrease from 65 percent to 56 percent. That statistic is raising concerns about the future of Thailand’s manufacturing industry.”In the near future, we need to improve production methods by adopting new technologies and innovations,” Jinanggoon said. “That’s the only way to boost the national income level enough to support the population.”
Japan doesn’t have enough babies and young workers to keep up its tax income and finances. From 2017 to 2050, the fourteen-and-under age cohort is forecast to fall by nearly 40 percent. The workforce (15–65) falls by 34 percent in the same period. Thus, not only is Japan’s population declining, its workforce is declining much faster than the population as a whole. After peaking in 2010 at 128 million, the country’s population has eased back to 126 million and will continue to decline. Its population is set to shrink by 0.4 percent annually, with the decrease expected to accelerate to 1.0 percent annually by the 2040s. By 2050, Japan will have 23 percent fewer citizens. Nor does it stop in mid-century. Demographers see current trends persisting to the end of the century, when Japan’s population falls to fifty million, only 40 percent of its all time high.
“Croatia suffers a population loss equivalent to losing a small city every year,” prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said. Croatia – which has a population of just 4.2 million – since it joined the EU. The World Bank projects the population to decline to 3.46 million by 2050. The EU estimates that 15 per cent of working-age Croats live in other EU countries, the second-highest such percentage in the union after Romania. The birth rate at 1.44 children per woman is 10 per cent below the EU average and close to one-third less than the natural replacement rate of 2.1 that countries need to hold their populations stable. Croatia is not alone in the Balkans to face such a population decline.
On current projections, by 2050. Serbia 23.8 per cent fewer; and Romania 30.1 per cent. Serbia has tried to provide cash benefits for each child, with an increasing scale for up to four children.
Some 14.65 million babies were born in China last year, down from 15.23 million in 2018, and the lowest number since 1961, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday. The birth rate fell to 10.48 per thousand, the lowest level since at least 1949. Fertility rates dropped from 5.9 births per woman in 1970 to about 1.6 in the late 1990s. The replacement level for a population is 2.1.To avoid a demographic crisis, the government relaxed its one-child policy in 2016 to allow people to have two children, but the change has not resulted in an increase in pregnancies. The workforce is expected to decline by as much as 23 per cent by 2050. “The demographic problem is a slow, long-term one,” He said. US-based academic Yi Fuxian, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes that China’s population is over-estimated, and according to his work, the real population “began to decline in 2018”
By the end of 2018, the number of people aged above 60 had reached 249 million, more than 17 percent of the total population. And a country with more than 10 percent of its population above 60 is already labeled as an aging society. The population above 60 is widely expected to increase to 255 million in 2020.
India’s population has indeed reached 1.37 billion, according to the recently released United Nations World Population Prospects, and it will continue to increase over upcoming decades, even if all Indian families choose to have just two children, because of the sheer numbers of the population entering into the reproductive ages. However, we must recognise India’s significant declines in fertility.
Its total fertility rate (TFR), the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime, is 2.2 and has reached replacement level (2.1), that is, the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next, in 17 of 28 states. This means that couples in most parts of India have just two children. And in the remaining states, the pace of the decline over the last decade has been significant in most areas, and across all social groups, and will likely reach replacement levels in the next two decades. The wanted total fertility rate in India, that is, the number of children a couple wants or wanted over the course of their married life is just 1.8, well below replacement level in all but four states
California’s population grew by just 50,635 people during the 12-month period ending July 1, which is close to a statistical zero. California barely escaped joining New York and the nine other states deemed to have lost population.
There is a case for believing that the biggest contribution to mitigating climate change right now is declining fertility around the world. However, Professor Corey Bradshaw of Australia’s Flinders University modelled what would happen if the global fertility rate dropped from 2.4 to 2 tomorrow: the population trajectory would reduce by about 50 per cent by 2100, but we’d only get a 7 per cent decline in total emissions, because most come from developed nations where the rate is already low.
Once again it reveals that civilisation’s survival it is not about the numbers game but depends on society changing its economic structure to one that is in harmony with our environment and which is sustainable. It is not about zero population growth but developing a steady state economy’s zero growth and that can only be accomplished by ending capital accumulation, expanding markets to extract bigger profits. Only socialism can achieve that.
The Wealth Divide
Inequality has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 70% of the global population living in countries where the wealth gap is growing, according to a new UN report.
Rising inequalities are benefiting the wealthiest. Top income tax rates have fallen in all countries, which have made tax systems less progressive. In wealthier countries, the top income-tax rates have dropped from 66% in 1981 to 43% in 2018.
Social and economic disparities have soared even in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, where inequality had been falling in recent decades, found the World Social Report.
The income gap has been exacerbated by the climate crisis. The report estimates that the gap between the richest and poorest 10% of the global population is 25% larger than it would be in a world without global warming.
If nothing is done to address the problem, the prosperity and development of millions of people could be damaged.
“If we don’t act now, the entrenched inequalities that are already there will worsen,” said Elliott Harris, chief economist and assistant secretary general for economic development in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Law and Order USA
The United States imprisoning almost twenty-five percent of all people imprisoned in the world, even though we only have 5% of the world’s population,
Mass incarceration is a direct result of changes in policy governing law enforcement and the judicial system such as the war on drugs and mandatory minimums for sentencing. It is also driven by the privatization of prisons. Prison corporations sign contracts with governments that guarantee a certain level of occupancy creating an obligation by the state to incarcerate people.
In the US, police brazenly kill on average more than 1,000 people per year or about three people per day. Black men are three times more likely to be killed by police than white men. Latino men’s risk of being killed by police is about 40 percent higher than the risk faced by white men. Men are 10 times more likely to be killed by police than women. Racial inequality in risk extends across gender.
Many people in heavily-policed communities do not feel safer when they see police in their neighborhoods. Too many feel like the police are an occupying force that gets away with murder. The violence of police leading to the death of civilians has become more widely known and understood as people developed the ability to report them through social media.
Drug use has been treated as a police issue for many decades, resulting in mass arrests and mass incarceration with a racially disproportionate impact on black and brown communities. Police are not equipped to solve the health and social problems of drug abuse. Legal access to heroin or public injection facilities as well as controlled access to heroin have had dramatic impacts on crime and health.
Rather than continuing to use the same mistaken policies, the US needs a new approach to drug issues. So far eleven states have legalized adult use of marijuana and prosecutors in some cities are no longer prosecuting low-level marijuana offenders. The Atlanta Police Department is disbanding its special Narcotics Unit and reassigning officers to other units to address violent crime.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/01/ending-militarization-of-our-communities/
https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/01/ending-militarization-of-our-communities/
