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October 22, 2005
Sacred Cows
The global poverty rate is US$1.00 per day. That’s not much. When was the last time you bought lunch for a buck? I don’t know that I ever have. Roughly half of humanity doesn’t get even that dollar...
So, how much do you think the EU and it’s constituent governments pay for each Cow per day? More or less than the global poverty line? More? Twice as much? How about 2.6 times as much. Seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? As, I am sure, my over use of rhetorical questions in this essay...
The thing is, the one thing poor countries can do is make food. Agriculture is the absolute basis of a developing economy. And if they can make food cheaper than industrial nations, they can earn much needed capital. That capital can then be used for basic infrastructural improvements and an educational system that is up to 1st world standards...
To even begin doing that, they need to be on anything like a level playing field with 1st world agricultural producers. The EU (and incidentally the US) has the power to do this. Doing so would save their governments a lot of money. Doing so would also tend to hurt politicians in vote-rich agricultural areas, so it might not happen any time soon. I wonder which nations have the moral leadership to make the first move...
Posted by Andrew at October 22, 2005 12:30 PM
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Comments
I'm not sure the US has a first rate educational infrastructure anymore. You know, all the floks in my high school class who eventually became public school teachers were no better than C students. If this is a common thing, it is no wonder that we are sliding.
40 years of that can really hurt.
Posted by: Scorpio at October 23, 2005 12:51 PM