- Capitalism and Alternatives -

What if the Third World were just like the First?

Posted by: Krasny ( Internationale, All Countries... ) on December 08, 1999 at 20:45:22:

In Reply to: Are you saying I cannot criticize my ancestors? posted by Farinata on December 07, 1999 at 22:33:18:

[Frenchy sputtered]


: : First you prattle on endlessly about the mean old capitalists and the misery and death and environmental destruction that they bring to the world, never once thinking that people that I happen to hold in high regard, maybe even people in my immediate family, are amongst those that you would classify as "capitalist's".

[Farinata replied:]


: And? My grandfather was Haile Selassie's bank manager during World War Two. It doesn't mean I have to think he was right. You just have to look at pollution figures to see that industrial capitalism destroys the environment in double-quick time.


*China and India are the two most populous nations in the world. Population figures for the two and the US (in thousands, 1997 est.):


China: 1243738

India: 960178

US: 271658


Yet Energy Consumption (1,000 Mt Coal equiv, 1995) and CO2 Emissions (10,000 Mt coal equiv, 1994) are as follows:


China: 976/828436

India: 386/236448

US: 11312/271648


The US comprises less than 4% of the world's population yet the US consumes 22% of the world's natural resources. Something else to take 'pride' in. (All figures from UNESCO)






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