From: matus (matus@snet.net)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 01:29:48 MDT
> On Wed, Apr 09, 2003 at 02:56:04AM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > I've never seen a society getting richer that got (internally)
> > worse. I'd rather a country be run by rich hoodlums that by
>
> Define "internally worse". That rapid growth of GDP seems correlated with
> increasing inequality seems well-accepted (debate is over how much the
> inequality matters.) The US has kept on getting richer over the last few
> decades, but income in the bottom segment has fallen in absolute
> terms (module
> the existence of stuff which couldn't be bought before... but
> food and housing
> are basics.)
Do you mean to imply that food is more expensive, and getting more expensive
all the time? I find that hard to believe. Considering we make more food
now than ever before in the world, and fewer people are starving than ever
before, and fewer people are actually farmers, I think the evidence
contradicts your assertion. Even the UN acknowledges as much, as even the
poorest of the poor in the world consume 30% more calories today than they
did 30 years ago. And the sole reason for that is because food is so cheap.
Lester Brown, one of the most vocal 'were all gonna starve' doomsayers has
been insisting for 30 years that *now* food prices will start to increase.
In 1974 he said "Throughout most of the period since WWII, the world food
economy has been plagued by chronic excess capacity, surplus stocks, and
_low food prices_. But emergine conditions suggest this era is ending..."
In 1996, he said the same thing again, "Clearly we are entering a new era.
An age of relative abundance is being replaced by one of scarcity" By early
2001 wheat was cheaper than it had ever been and the IMF's food price index
had dropped to the lowest value ever. What is the evidence you have that
suggests food is getting pricier in an 'absolute' sense?
Michael Dickey
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