In Reply to: The factsheet posted by Hal Scoggins on September 19, 1996 at 18:14:06:
> I've just been reading the "fact"sheet which apparently started
> all this nonsense. Personally, I find it to be absolute nonsense.> Besides generally being a load of bleeding-heart whining about
> rich people having more than poor people, some of the assertions
> it contains are total rubbish.> For example, the first sidebar, titled "GROSS MISUSE OF RESOURCES",
> asserts that the alleged waste of the equivalent of $20 billion
> would be enough to "feed, clothe and house the world's entire
> population for one year." Let's see now... Total world population
> now exceeds 5 billion. So it would only take $4 per person per year
> to feed, clothe and house the world's entire population, right?
> Give me a break!!Unlike in the US, where a billion means 'a thousand million', the
traditional UK definition of a billion is 'one million million
i.e. 1,000,000,000,000 (should be 12 0's) (check the Oxford dictionary
if you don't believe this). In 1987 world population reached
5,000 million (this site says the factsheet was written in 1986).
20,000,000,000,000 divided by 5,000,000,000 = 4,000. In other words
not $4 per person per year, but $4,000 per person per year. Sounds to
me like it would be quite possible to feed someone for a year on
that amount.> The second sidebar, titled "FIFTY ACRES EVERY MINUTE", asserts
> that global deforestation "causes at least one species of
> animal, plant or insect to become extinct every few hours." Now
> I don't pretend to know exactly how many species there are in the
> world, but this would suggest that the entire planet will be
> totally lifeless by the end of the decade, if not sometime next
> year.The Worldwide Fund for Nature's 'Atlas of the Environment' (1990)
gives an world estimate of 5-30 million species, of which it says
less than 1.5 million have been 'scientifically described'.
If you take 'every few hours' as every 3 hours, that means 8 species
a day or 2920 species a year become extinct. Or 29,200 species since
the factsheet was written. That means there's still a lot of species
left. But that doesn't mean we should get complacent. We still need to
challenge the multinationals that are destroying our planet in their
endless quest for profits.> Come on, people! Sure we need to watch our use of resources and
> guard against becoming needlessly wasteful. But we are part of
> the environment, too. If we don't make of of our natural
> resources, then they're not resources.It's one thing to make use of resources, its another to destroy
them, and that's what's going on right now.> And stop all this whining about rich people having more. They
> have more because they've done more - period! People who are more
> well off than others have done what the others weren't and aren't
> willing to do. They got off their butts, turned off the television,
> and built themselves the lifestyle they wanted. They don't owe a
> bit of it to those "less fortunate", although they do, as a group,
> give tremendous amounts to charities around the world. Remember,
> poor people can't help poor people! The people who have worked
> to have more should be applauded for their accomplishments, not
> criticized. Anyone can criticize. It takes no particular talent.I can't believe this. I feel sick anyone can think like this. So
poor people are poor because they spend too much time watching TV
(what about the ones who are too poor to afford a TV - or too sensible!)
And the McDonald's crew member who works 40 hours a week and only gets paid
about £140 or $140 (seems to work out about the same
according to Trial News 2) a week (and that's before tax) it's just their
own fault is it? RUBBISH. McDonald's presidents and directors (like other
multinationals' directors) have got rich off the backs of the thousands
of crew members who work there. You should read Trial News 1 on this
site - during the McLibel trial, Paul Preston, McDonald's UK president
admitted that crew members worked hard and that their job was more
physically demanding than his own. Yet they get paid just over
the minimum wage, whilst he gets paid hundreds of thousands. He
didn't even have the guts to admit what his own salary was, but
in 1993/4 Michael Quinlan, then CEO and Chairman of the Board of
McDonald's Corporation, got paid $2,500,000. These people are a
bunch of greedy parasites, and McSpotlight is doing a great job in
exposing what they stand for.It's up to all of us reading this site (and lots of other people too)
to use this information about multinationals and to fight for a better
world. We don't want charity. We want what is rightfully ours. This
world belongs to all of us, and we should all be sharing its resources,
and working together to have a society where people help and support
each other rather than trampling over others in their lust for power
and wealth.LET'S GET OUT THERE AND DO IT!