- The incomes of North Carolina’s richest five percent of families have grown much faster than those of all other families over the past 20 years. Top families now earn, on average, 12 times more than the poorest ones and four times more than middle-income families. Growing inequality indicates that the benefits of economic growth have bypassed most families. In other words, the living standards of most families have languished in spite of overall economic growth.
- More than one out of three people (34.5 percent) in North Carolina under the age of 65 went without health insurance for all or part of the two-year period 2007-2008. The Urban Institute estimates that in the U.S., 22,000 adults between age 18-64 died in 2006 due to lack of health insurance. An estimated 3 working age North Carolinians died each day in 2006 simply because they lack health insurance. Uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely due to lack of health insurance.
- Uninsured children admitted to the hospital due to injuries were twice as likely to die while in the hospital as their insured counterparts. North Carolina ranks in the bottom 10 states for having the highest percentage of uninsured children, low birth weight babies and infant mortality.
- Globally, almost half of the world’s total population—over billion people—live on less than $2.50 per day.
- According to UNICEF, 25,000 children, under age 6, die each day due to preventable poverty-related causes. They “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
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In 2005, the wealthiest 20 percent of the world accounted for 76.6 percent of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5 percent.
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The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 poorest nations (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined. In 2006, the world’s GDP accounted as follows: richest nations (about 1 billion people) 76 percent (7 percent of which was held by the world’s 497 billionaires); middle income nations (3 billion people) 20.7 percent; poor nations (2.4 billion people) 3.3 percent.
- Business Week reported in August 2007 that Americans spent $41 billion on pet care, more than the GDP of all but 64 countries. Further, Americans spent $10.8 billion on movies and $11.6 billion on videogames.
- In 2006, Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water while 1 in 6 people had no dependable, safe drinking water source. Over 2.5 billion people, almost half the developing world’s population live without improved sanitation.
- Annual global military spending now stands at U.S. $1.34 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute figures for 2007. This corresponds to 2.5 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP) and $202 per head of population worldwide. Of this total, the U.S. accounts for around 45 percent. According to the UN’s Millennium Project, the reallocation of less than 10% of this total (i.e. $121 billion) would be sufficient to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In other words, enough money would be available to ensure the access of all human beings to the fundamentals of life: drinking water, basic food, health care and relevant quality education.
- In 2006, 900 million people still had to rely on water from what are known as unimproved sources, for example surface water or an unprotected dug well. Also, some 2.5 billion did not have access to improved sanitation and 1.2 billion had to practice open defecation.
- In 2007, $4.9 billion was made available for combating AIDS in low- and middle- income countries by donor governments.
Sources:
1 North Carolina Justice Center, www.ncjustice.org “Up, Up and Away: Incomes of North Carolina’s
Richest Five Percent of Families Pull Apart from all Others” NC Budget & Tax Center Brief, May 2008.
2 Families USA, http://www.familiesusa.org/ “Americans at Risk: One in Three Uninsured The Uninsured:
A Closer Look - State Reports” March 2009, “Dying for Coverage in North Carolina” April 2008; North
Carolina Institute of Medicine, http://www.nciom.org/ “Expanding Access to Health Care in North
Carolina: A Report of the NCIOM Health Access Study Group” March 2009;
3 Families USA, http://www.familiesusa.org/ “The Great Divide: When Kids Get Sick, Insurance Matters”
February 2007; Children’s Defense Fund, http://www.childrensdefense.org/ “State of America's Children
2008® Report - Child Health and Health Coverage”
4 Global Issues, http://www.globalissues.org/ “Poverty Facts and Stats,” source World Bank Development
Indicators 2008
5 Ibid., source UNICEF, “Progress for Children 2007”
6 Ibid., source World Bank Development Indicators 2008
7 Ibid., source World Bank Development Data and Statistics, 2008; Forbes “The World’s Richest People”
March 3, 2007
8 “The Pet Economy,” Business Week, August 2007;
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_32/b4045001.htm
9 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html.10 “The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008”
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf. The%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals%20Report%202008.pdf
10 International Peace Bureau, http://ipb.org/i/pdf-files/Call-for-Action.pdf
11 World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs290/en/index.html
12 The Kaiser Family Foundation, http://www.kff.org/hivaids/upload/7347_04-2.pdf joint publication with
the UNAIDS (United Nations AIDS Program)
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