Thread: Just 1% of the worlds population own 50% of worlds wealth

Originally Posted by weeds

Aussies don't really know how lucky we really are......

New Zealanders do.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYvMeT2GC14[/ame]

Yes though we don't feel particularly wealthy we are at the top by world standards.

Having lived and worked in a number of impovished developing nations has driven home this fact and made me so appreciative of living in Australia.

To illustrate... I was working in Niger in 2008 and the following true story was told to me. Mother and daughter both got malaria, but the family could only afford one course of drugs costing just $2. Mother was still of child bearing age and worked so she got the drugs and the daughter died.

Yes we are indeed lucky and wealthy.

Cheers

Steve

Was listening to a BBC radio 4 program where they do maths and statics. This came up and was interesting to hear them tear it apart due to the information used to base the report on not being reliable. Seems that while the world is still not equal (did not need a maths genius to tell me that one) is more equal now than had ever been.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

Only 4.5 billion of the 7 billion people on Earth have access to flushing toilets. Of the 2.5 billion who don't have proper sanitation, 1.1 billion defecate in the open, according to the UN.
I've got 3 toilets...feeling pretty darn rich and well off today. It's getting hard to choose which one I'll use next??? It makes my life so complicated.

Yes, I also have a choice of three toilets (in 2 houses) so I'm apparently also wealthy.
It's true though - the poorest Aussie is rich by world standards. Our former refugee friends live in pretty ordinary houses here by Aussie standards, but to them they are luxury compared with a bamboo hut with a banana leaf roof. Just being able to go to a doctor when you're sick is wealth. Having a fridge to keep food in is wealth. Having enough beds for everyone in the family is wealth. Being able to afford to buy a car is great riches, even if it is an old Camry or Tarago.
We are very fortunate in this country, which is why people who whinge about life in Australia annoy me. They have no idea what it's really like for most people in the world.

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I hate the way people think our lifestyle is all down to luck,luck my arse,we work for it.We pay tax,many of us nearly half our pay which is used to fund the medical system,Police,roads,education etc and that is not luck,we also don't shoot one another or set off car bombs if the other side wins an election and unlike that other ''biggest democracy in the world'' we don't have bought pollies,lastly we don't have the scourge of religion hanging over us,the last point is an important one. Pat

Hi,
Pehaps a year working in a third world country should be a part of our education?
It opened my eyes to Australia's benefits.
Cheers

My father who is 79 was born at home,a home that had a dirt floor,I'm 43 and our family home as a child didn't have a flushing toilet,a telephone and had only one bathroom for me,my parents,two brothers and eight sisters.I don't need to live in a third world country to educate me on how ''lucky'' I am. Pat

i didnt have a Nintendo as a kid.