Could you survive on just $2.50 a day? According to Compassion International, approximately half of the population of the entire planet currently lives on $2.50 a day or less. Meanwhile, those hoarding wealth at the very top of the global pyramid are rapidly becoming a lot wealthier. Don’t get me wrong – I am a very big believer in working hard and contributing something of value to society, and those who work the hardest and contribute the most should be able to reap the rewards. In this article I am in no way, shape or form criticizing true capitalism, because if true capitalism were actually being practiced all over the planet we would have far, far less poverty today. Instead, our planet is dominated by a heavily socialized debt-based central banking system that systematically transfers wealth from hard working ordinary citizens to the global elite. Those at the very top of the pyramid know that they are impoverishing everyone else, and they very much intend to keep it that way.
Let’s start with some of the hard numbers. According to Zero Hedge, Credit Suisse had just released their yearly report on global wealth, and it shows that 45.6 percent of all the wealth in the world is controlled by just 0.7 percent of the people…
As Credit Suisse tantalizingly shows year after year, the number of people who control just shy of a majority of global net worth, or 45.6% of the roughly $255 trillion in household wealth, is declining progressively relative to the total population of the world, and in 2016 the number of people who are worth more than $1 million was just 33 million, roughly 0.7% of the world’s population of adults. On the other end of the pyramid, some 3.5 billion adults had a net worth of less than $10,000, accounting for just about $6 trillion in household wealth.
And since this is a yearly report, we can go back and see how things have changed over time. When Zero Hedge did this, it was discovered that the wealth of those at the very top “has nearly doubled” over the past six years, and meanwhile the poor have gotten even poorer…
Incidentally, we tracked down the first Credit Suisse report we found in this series from 2010, where the total wealth of the top “layer” in the pyramid was a modest $69.2 trillion for the world’s millionaires. It has nearly doubled in the 6 years since then. Meanwhile, the world’s poorest have gotten, you got it, poorer, as those adults who were worth less than $10,000 in 2010 had a combined net worth of $8.2 trillion, a number which has since declined to $6.1 trillion in 2016 despite a half a billion increase in the sample size.
If these trends continue at this pace, it won’t be too long before the global elite have virtually all of the wealth and the rest of us have virtually nothing.
Perhaps you are fortunate enough to still have a good job, and you live in a large home and you will sleep in a warm bed tonight.
Well, you should consider yourself to be very blessed, because that is definitely not the case for most of the rest of the world. The following 11 facts about global poverty come from dosomething.com, and I want you to really let these numbers sink in for a moment…
- Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day.
- 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.
- 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. Food banks are especially important in providing food for people that can’t afford it themselves. Run a food drive outside your local grocery store so people in your community have enough to eat. Sign up for Supermarket Stakeout.
- More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.
- In 2011, 165 million children under the age 5 were stunted (reduced rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition.
- Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment.
- As of 2013, 21.8 million children under 1 year of age worldwide had not received the three recommended doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.
- 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.6 billion people.
- 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day.
- Oxfam estimates that it would take $60 billion annually to end extreme global poverty–that’s less than 1/4 the income of the top 100 richest billionaires.
- The World Food Programme says, “The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.” Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
So how did we get here?
Debt is the primary mechanism that takes wealth from ordinary people like you and me and puts it into the hands of the global elite.
In my recent article entitled “Why Donald Trump Must Shut Down The Federal Reserve And Start Issuing Debt-Free Money,” I discussed how the Federal Reserve was designed to entrap the U.S. government in an endless debt spiral from which it could never possibly escape. And that is precisely what has happened, as the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.
In that very same year, the federal income tax was instituted, and that is a key part of the program for the global elite. You see, the income tax is how wealth is transferred from us to the government. And then a continuously growing national debt is how that wealth is transferred from the government to the elite.
It is a very complicated system, but at the end of the day it is all about taking money from us and getting it into their pockets.
And at this point more than 99.9 percent of the population of the world lives in a country with a central bank, and almost every nation on the planet has some form of income tax.
It is a global system that is designed to create as much debt as possible, and I recently shared with my readers that the total amount of debt in the world has hit a staggering all-time record high of 152 trillion dollars.
Interestingly, the Bible actually foretells of a time when rich men would hoard wealth in the last days. The following are the first five verses of the Book of James in the Modern English Version…
Come now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasures for the last days. 4 Indeed the wages that you kept back by fraud from the laborers who harvested your fields are crying, and the cries of those who harvested have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. 5 You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wayward. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
So much of the time we focus on the other great sins that we see all around us, but the truth is that one of the greatest sins of all in our world today is the sin of greed.
The borrower is the servant of the lender, and the global elite have used various forms of debt to turn the rest of the planet into their debt slaves.
As debt levels race higher and higher all over the planet, the elite are using the magic of compound interest to grab a bigger and bigger share of the pie.
Given enough time, those at the very top would have virtually everything and the rest of us would have virtually nothing. The middle class is shrinking all over the globe, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to grow at an astounding pace.
But the vast majority of people out there have no idea how money, debt, taxes and central banks really work, and so they have no idea that this is purposely being done to them.
So please share this article with as many people as you can. The truth is that we don’t have to have this much global poverty, and if we correctly identify the root causes of this poverty we can start working on some real solutions.
Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.
The earth is not a ball.
Please stop pushing this false narrative visually.
Time to be a men again.
You’ll either be one of your own accord, or we will drag you there kicking and screaming. It is unavoidable now so you’d better make up your mind soon.
If you haven’t looked into flat earth, I would suggest you start today and begin today. You might even ask yourself before investigating, why it is you believe you live on a ball.
This is not a small issue.
It is the reason you exist.
Unless you manifested to play monopoly.
Good Luck!
coupla typo’s – shows that I’m less a technocratic sell-out than you.
Whose language are we using anyway?
You follow?
Of course not, you’re wearing skinny jeans, ironic glasses and sporting a trendy beard.
There is hope for everyone thankfully.
You can thank me later.
hahahahaha!…Looney Toon FE Alert!…get out the butterfly nets….but I’ll be forever blowing bubbles (lol)…not squares triangles or discs…round glistening bubbles .
…..No matter how much they wiggle & dance, misdirect & deliberately distract … the gangsta-banksta’s Dept. of Obfuscation has had this psy-op up & running for nigh on two millennia!… as the same predictable three ring circus of the Babylonian $$$ Majik Show …brought to us all by ‘Usury’… with it’s attendant ‘Debt & Interest’ Monopoly Game of creating fictitious $$$ out of thin air with Fractional Reserve /Federal[sic] Reserve printing presses et al …an overt mendacity perpetrated by wickedly clever human parasites & so ‘in-yer-face’ that almost all of us can’t see the forest for the trees…. because of our innate trusting natures that these blod sucking vampires like bloated ticks are hiding among us within humanity & take advantage of us all every waking day…till their usurped privilege causes a permanent ‘Separation & Division’ from the global community…& after generations of living this lie …these inherently diseased socio/psychopaths… have gone from tribal chieftan’s to kings & queens…. & now we’re faced with a very few ‘self-appointed’ 0.01% of global oligarch & bloodline $Billionaire’s funded by Rothschild’s $Trillionaires et all along with the pyramid cap Old Black Nobility to premeditate & pre-plan a blueprint & have engineered a spider web right around the world to enslave us all.
…….& we keep falling for their one trick pony, over & over & over again….I’m glad people are finally waking up to the inescapable fact that we the 99% have become their slave-class as a direct result of of this $$$ manipulation that has culminated into this…their so far, successfully conjured Grand Illusion ….as the ultimate BIG LIE that all their other lies are spun from…(imho)
The unholy goat worshipers bring only misery and death to human every where.
Sacrifice the goat.
END the FED ‘Woodrow the treasonous’ Wilson should be exhumed and hung upside down for the traitor that he was.
USURY is unChristian.
Pitchforks, tar and feathers required.
The book of James brings a smile to my face.
Eddysachs always a pleasure to peruse your elucidations.
youareasleep – exactly.
Cheers Sally…just trying to keep the door open onto our real ‘reality’
May I add to Snyder’s excellent article the intentional overpopulation of the Earth. We have a situation where cheap labor is abundantly available in the past 10 years which is the foundation for the dramatic increases in wealth to the upper 1%. Massive levels of slavery are practiced in most of the world. In the past 50 years, another 5 billion humans were added to the Earth, net of all the deaths from disease and malnutrition and war, and the resulting lack of hygiene, the loss of clean water and the destruction of Earth’s woodlands, soils and air have come along hand in glove. I have worked and supported myself solely from my work for many decades. No one, no government and no organization has ever given me a helping hand or a hand out. I lost my savings when I was defrauded, and when I sued the defrauders, the courts helped the defrauders escape any justice. The system totally stinks. Those few that succeed are not even aware of all the assistance they are getting, nor do they realize why.
Sorry to hear this happened to you..I always read what you have to say & have noticed several up-votes for my commentary …cheers on that!……….but we still live like kings compared to most of the world’s population that was in fact created by wanton neglect forcing people to have as many children as possible as an insurance policy for old age …couple this with ignorance about contraception & we have this deplorable situation exponentially exploding.
..the ‘Separation & Division’ imposed by the 1% from the whole of mankind into their pyramid cap of luxury, has indeed created this miasma from the 7 Deadly Sins of those that could have been wise & benevolent working with the whole of mankind & this deplorable state of affairs would not have happened like this at all.
..Shame on these vulgar elitist parasite reptilians…my 2 cents
Thanks, Eddy, but in fact the New World was intended for this experiment in social equality as the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence spelled out. With freedom of religion, individuals and families were no longer the feudal serfs of the Religious Orders, having passed from feudal serfdom under the rule of Kings to the rule of priests. The open kidnapping of individuals and their sale into slavery, a marketplace that only ended in Europe and America in the 19th Century, is so recent as to be forgettable to the ignorant masses. By forcing women to bear children by depriving them and families of birth control options, the world created cheap labor in the past 25 years, not sufficiently grown to be sold into slavery through the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It’s all being done in the U.S. as well, but secretly. The “Diversity” and illegal immigration is one of the many covers for the practices in slavery. Every person who buys on Amazon or at Wal Mart where 70% of their products are made by slaves, in whole or in part, is contributing to slavery. Think about it.
Methinks we’re both right ….as I can find no fault in your logic train either…I’m 65 yrs old today & looking forward to leaving this floating insane asylum of abject iniquity asap is fine with me…I just can’t bear the horror & cruelty sometimes as this apocalypsing is coming to a head…like a boil needing to be lanced…especially reviewing the rouges gallery of detestable satanic minions in the Trump dump lineup to take us down the final stretch on this NWO Hellbound train into ignominy…wish my prognostication was more favorable…but it ain’t…just get your ‘spiritual’ house in order as we are eternal souls having a temporary experience on Gaia…Cheers in spite of it all.
So true, and the words I live by. Impossible to wake up the materialistic, hollow, empty, superficial, ignorant masses and their lawless leadership, who snigger and smirk as they harm with impunity. The corruption and sadism of elected and appointed officials is unforgivable.
Excellent example! And I have always felt that 90% of government employment is the biggest form of welfare.
You and many others. Need to revise Civil Service Act to facilitate “…employment at will…” to begin purging our government of ineffective employees and to make wholesale cuts in the size of government. We all know what agencies to cut and the rest could live with a severe cut in staffing proportionally so necessary services are not effected.
I’m in the same camp.
The ‘government’ is set up to ensure the plebes keep sending their labor back to those that do nothing.
as an example I was watching a socalled hearing (actually sitting in the balcony) a few years back and the senate was empty except for one guy arguing to send the taxpayer money to Africa.
They use the ‘tax’ system to keep the plebes/surfs from having anything, but ensure some will work. Though I feel everyone should just quit working. Return to the land and self independence. Of course then you would have the brown shirts wanting their two thirds.
This cometpizza is so vile as to be in human, but don’t look for the FBI to make any arrests. They are as Comey and Lynch have shown incompetent.
Taxation is another form of slavery and theft.
The unholy unfed does nothing but perpetuate the debauchery that all vermin migrate to the land of Isengaurd or rather D.C. where they perpetuate wars for death sakes and imply that they say there are too many as in the Georgia guidestones 500,000. This is the perfect slave number and shame on the guy that was paid to put them there but refuses to say who paid for them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say Usurped Ztates must be returned to the people that the idiocracy in D.C.claim to represent.
Sacrifice the goat.
A MORE ACCURATE PERCEPTION OF MOST IS “WE ARE ALL BROKE BUT AT DIFFERENT LEVELS”, EVEN THE RICHEST WANT MORE AND EVEN THE POOREST KNOW SOMEONE WORSE OFF. IN THE RICHEST AND POOREST COUNTRIES AND THE WHOLE GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF THE 21ST CENTURY WE ARE ALL BETTER OF WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER THEN WHEN WE WORK AGAINST EAST OTHER. THE MAJORITY OF OUR MILITARY AND NGO VOLUNTEERS AND EVEN MOST EMPLOYEES LIVE THIS TO GREATER OR LESSER EXTENT. IT IS THE CONTROL OF OUR NECESSARY SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS BY A VERY, VERY SMALL NUMBER OF SUBJECTIVE POWERS THAT BE GLOBALLY FOR SHORT TERM POWER AND MONEY GOALS THAT IS THE MAJOR EXACERABATOR OF THE PROBLEM.
MORE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE BETTER OFF THAN IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY. MORE PEOPLE ARE ALIVE TODAY THAN HAVE EVER LIVED IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY AND HALF OF ALL PEOPLE ALIVE ARE 25 AND UNDER. VERY FEW PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD THIS EVEN 40 YEARS AGO AND EVEN NOW MOST PEOPLE OVER 40 WILL NOT MAKE THE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND THE POSITIVE DISRUPTION OF THE 21ST CENTURY. THE UNDER 30 YEAR OLDS HAVE A MUCH DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDING THEN AT ANYTIME IN HISTORY.
MOST PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THE EDUCATION TO UNDERSTAND THE DUTY OF LIFELONG LEARNING TO BE MOTIVATED TO INVEST TIME TO ANALYZE THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AND BE A PART OF MAKING WISE CHOICES AS MEMBERS OF SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY, JUST AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AS THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO GET WHAT THEY NEED TO LIVE AND PURSUE HAPPINESS.
THERE ARE GROWING PROBLEMS BUT MANY PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN OVERCOME IN THE PAST 240 YEARS OR, TO THE PESSIMIST EVEN THE PAST 70 YEARS. THE SYSTEM CAN BE CHANGED FAIRLY EASILY TO CORRECT THE PROBLEMS OVER ABOUT THE NEXT 40 YEARS TO THE PAYOFF THAT WE COULD HAVE ABOUT 10 TIMES THE STANDARD OF LIVING AND SECURITY WORLDWIDE THAN WE HAVE NOW.
OVER THE NEXT 40 YEARS ALL PROBLEMS WILL NOT BE ERADICATED AND SOME NEW PROBLEMS THAT WERE NOT ANTICIPATED WILL APPEAR BUT AT DECREASING QUANTITY. THERE IS NO PERFECTION IN THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM WITHOUT ENGAGED CITIZENS BUT MOST PEOPLE, ATLEAST 85% WORLDWIDE, ARE GOOD PEOPLE, FAMILY, FRIENDS, BUSINESS OR GOODS AND SERVICES TRADING ASSOCIATES AND FELLOW FAIRLY REASONABLE HUMAN BEINGS WORLDWIDE ARE MOTIVATED TO WORK ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR POSITIVE CHANGE FOR THE COMMON GOOD.
I HAVE MET OR HAVE HAD CONTACT WITH MULTIPLE PEOPLE FROM MOST OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD AND I AND MOST BROADLY LIFE EXPERIENCED PEOPLE HAVE FOUND 85% ARE GOOD REASONABLE PEOPLE WHO I AND MOST OTHERS CAN GET ALONG WITH RATHER THAT GO BACK TO THE CITY STATE MENTALITY OF THE 18TH, 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES.
THERE ARE DOZENS IF NOT HUNDREDS OF IMPORTANT CHOICES THAT HAVE TO BE MADE EACH YEAR THAT WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER ON EACH COMBINING OUR TIME AND EXPERTIZE TO BE ABLE TO REACH THE BEST CHOICES AND CORRECT PAST ERRORS MORE QUICKLY. THE MOST EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE AND FASTEST WAY WE CAN EVOLVE OUR REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM OF SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS MANAGEMENT TO GOVERNMENT OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE IS BY ONE 6 YEAR TERM LIMITS FOR ALL OF OUR REPRESENTATIVES/MANAGERS WORLDWIDE STARTING WITH THE U.S. CONGRESS.. EVEN THE POWERS THAT BE WILL BE BETTER OFF BECAUSE FREE PEOPLE, ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, PRODUCE MORE, KEEP MORE AND SHARE MORE. http://WWW.ONE6YEARTERMLIMITS.ORG
Big hint…nobody reads ‘all cap’ …proven to be termed subliminally ‘offensive’ & the least effective way to communicate….for future consideration…cheers