[Xmca-l] A propos Pete Seeger and Wealth Extraction

[Greg Thompson]

I imagine if Pete Seeger were getting his start today, issues like global
inequality would be at the top of his list. Consider this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNYemuiAOfU
(part of a series available on Youtube called "Why Poverty?")

This video looks particularly at wealth disparities between Switzerland and
Zambia, while making a broader point about wealth disparity around the
globe. The video notes that if you look at aid to developing countries and
the amount of capital extracted from those countries, you find that ten
times the amount of aid that goes into those countries is extracted from
these countries in wealth (and the youtube video provides a nice metaphor
with the extraction of copper from Zambia).

What a wonderful system of wealth redistribution - not only do wealthy
individuals in wealthy countries get the majority of the wealth, they also
get to appear as benevolent benefactors in the process! (and add to that
the fact that much of the development aid comes from public dollars and you
have another strong case for the public subsidizing the wealth of the rich).

Better than anything P.T. Barnum could have cooked up - this may be the
greatest boondoggle of our times.

-greg