TOPIC 25 Poverty, wealth and inequality

TOPIC 25 Poverty, wealth and inequality

1. Economic changes

   • According to the Human Development Report of the United Nations Program, inequality in the world has increased markedly in recent years. It is important to review what has happened in recent decades at the level of the world economy.
     • Organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank modified their strategy. Its action was no longer oriented to the development of specific projects in the region, but to ensure the payment of the external debt and the stability of the international financial system.
       • The economic changes were accompanied by important technological changes: microelectronics, information technology, telecommunications. Biotechnology and new materials covered all human activities.
       • This phenomenon was called the Third Industrial Revolution. New ways of organizing production, derived from the Japanese experience, were also adopted

2. Wealth in the World

   • The gap between rich and poor has deepened in the midst of globalization. There is more inequality between countries and also within them. The richest countries, which form the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
   • The concentration also occurs in the use of energy sources. Developed countries consume a proportion of fuels and other energy sources around the world, much larger than their population.

3. Poverty and Indigence

4. How is poverty measured?

   • Method 1 The poverty line has been defined in one dollar a day per person. That means that with that value a person has only minimal survival conditions. In poor countries, 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day
   • Method 2 This method was developed by ECLAC in 1980 and is still applied in several Latin American countries.

5. Societies of waste

   • The main cause of poverty and the concentration of world wealth is the inequality of opportunities for people in poor countries to access the knowledge society. The benefits of scientific and technological progress, such as the Internet, do not reach the population of the South.

6. Overcome Poverty

   • The main key is in the villages that must organize to claim their rights. The social organization allows the people to move forward with their own forces, challenging the strength of those who monopolize the wealth in the countries and the great international capitals that concentrate the world's resources in very few hands.

Images and files in the map