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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:
*57 Asians
*21 Europeans
*14 from the Western Hemisphere, northern and southern
* 8 Africans
*52 would be female
*48 would be male
*70 would be non-white
*30 would be white
*70 would be non-Christian
*30 would be Christian
*89 would be heterosexual
*11 would be homosexual
* 6 would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
*80 would live in substandard housing
*70 would be unable to read
*50 would suffer from malnutrition
* 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
* 1 would have a college education
* 1 would own a computer
If you consider our world from this compressed perspective, the need for acceptance,understanding and education is clear.
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I find these two rather disturbing when put together:
* 6 would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
* 1 would have a college education
...Now, I don't mean to be rude and suggest Americans are stupid or something, heh heh, but when condensing the world's population down so much it means you got a lot of really rich, uneducated people all of a sudden.
Thanks for this little reminder though. These things are indeed something to think about.
-L
PS: Just FYI, I'm reading The Subtle Knife now, and enjoying it immensely.
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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It is interesting to break things down statistically, so let's take this a little further. For instance, if only 14 people were from the western hemisphere and 48% are male, then only 6 or 7 men would be from the western hemisphere. The 6 who possess 59% of the world's wealth are most likely men (though this wasn't one of your stats). This means of course that there are no women in the US (and probably no men in Canada, Mexico, and South America). This means there is only about a 50% chance that even one of these 6 wealthy men is gay and very little chance that there would be 2 gay men in the US. That would leave the US as a land of very sexually frustrated men with lots of power and money. Is it any wonder that the US seems to love to build big missles and is always threatening to explode them on everybody?
Just my 2 cnets.
Think good thoughts,
e
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mt
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: November 2002
Messages: 93
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No Message Body
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This set me wondering. Just how many people are there in the world these days? Well, here is an update on the current position from the Population Reference Bureau:
On Oct. 12, 1999, the United Nations announced that global population had reached the 6 billion mark, just 12 years after passing 5 billion. When will the world's population reach 7 billion? According to the United Nations Population Division's most recent projections, it could happen as early as 2011 or as late as 2015. The outcome depends greatly on birth rate trends in China and India, which are home to nearly 38 percent of the world's population. China's birth rate has been low for many years, with no apparent prospect of rising. In India, however, the birth rate's decline has ended, at least for now, as higher fertility and slower decline in India's populous northern states have begun to have a noticeable effect on national trends. But population trends remain difficult to predict, so it is impossible to say exactly when the world's population will reach 7 billion.
OK, so let's say there are currently 6 billion people. That means that each "person" in smith's list is really 60 million people. So the 6 who possess 59% of the world's wealth are really 360 million people. So, no, it's unlikely that they would all be men.
But you had me worried for a moment there, e.
Nick
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I'm not so sure I buy my theory that the world is dominated by sexually frustrated men who have erected large missiles that are ready to explode either. But you gotta admit, it sounded pretty good. I guess that's just further proof that statistics can be made to say most anything.
Think good thoughts,
e
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I've heard this same theory being spouted off by some feminists. The main difference from my theory to theirs is that they seem to believe that the sexually frustrated men in question don't have the large endowments of which I speak.
Think good thoughts,
e
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Of course, the good news is that you can sleep with 60 million people and still claim to be monogamous!
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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never forget the "http://" http://www.prb.org is the full link Yours got translated by the board software to something weird
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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The 10 Richest People in the United States according to the 2003 Forbes Report:
#1 Bill Gates $43,000 mil Microsoft Harvard dropout
#2 Warren Buffet $36,000 mil Berkshire/Hathaway college grad
#3 Paul Allen $21,000 mil Microsoft WSU dropout
#4 Alice Walton $18,800 mil Walmart widow college grad
#5 S.Robson Walton $18,800 mil Walmart heir college grad
#6 Helen Walton $18,800 mil Walmart heir college grad
#7 Jim C Walton $18,800 mil Walmart heir college grad
#8 John T Walton $18,800 mil Walmart heir college grad
#9 Lawrence Ellison $15,200 mil Oracle Uni of Ill. dropout
#10 Steven Ballmer $ 11,900 mil Microsoft college grad
America = Microsoft and Walmart
That made Ole Sam Walton worth $94,000 mil YeHaaaaaa !!
And note the 3 college dropouts.......
And where is Oprah? I thought she was worth like 78 ziggity dillion dollars????
Now, back to my homework
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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And where is John Boy Walton in all this?
Actually I really fancied Jim Bob!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Jim-Bob was my fav, too! I loved his slightly deeper voice and gangly, lanky good looks...
Sooo, who can name all of the Walton boys back thar on good ole Walton's Mountain??
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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No Message Body
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I didn't watch the show much, but when I did, I was watching Jim-bob. David Harper was about the same age as I was back then.
Think good thoughts,
e
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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Ok, smith's pissed at me for making light of it. But I saw so MANY Waltons. I had a vision of all the stores saying "Goodnight" to each other. Odd, isn't it, that no-one ever had sex in Walton's Mountain, but that they had so MANY children!
But that isn't really relevant. Interesting piece of research, and very strange that so much wealth gets concentrated in one family. If Warren were still posting I think he would have some additional facts to add to surprise us all.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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No Message Body
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warren c. e. austin
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Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
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... so here goes.
It's not the concentration of "wealth" within one family, or group of families, that troubles me most, but rather an emerging trend towards an apparent lack of accountability and fiduciary responsibility in the on-ward distribution of that largesse.
From my own experience, with Timmy, and one other here, alone knowing just what that might be, I have found that over the past half century, the disparity between those that have, or quite possibly will ever attain great wealth, and those that have none, is increasing diametrically to the apparent wider-spread, yet in truth diminishing, choices in the market-place that we as individuals are capable of making.
With that loss of choice, comes a responsibility on the part of those who control it, to dispense relief from the hardships and suffering they cause in their grab for ever increasing wealth.
Sadly, it is not happening. Never before in the history of mankind have so few controlled so much, with so little hope being generated for those that have nothing.
Forbes, and others of their ilk, through their "Top Lists" foster the myth that pursuit of great "wealth", or success, or beauty, or anything else for that matter, is something to be lauded, and much sought after; they being the mark, or measure by which we call calculate our fulfilment of self in relation to others.
I know personally of at least four families, here in Canada, who's wealth far outstrips that of Bill Gates, or the combined excess of the Walton Family, but because this wealth is now sheltered, and held solely by Foundations, and Charitable Trusts, they will never make a "Top List" at Forbes or anywhere else.
That is just as well, for countless Children's Aid Societies, Hospitals and Hospices, Institutes of Higher Learning, Relief Shelters to Women, Children, and others amongst the disaffected who would all suffer for that scrutiny; as would any number of other worthy causes in local communities across, not just Canada, but the Global Village itself.
These families, dynasties in of themselves, have chosen to completely divest themselves of their wealth, and have progressively been doing so, in at least two instances, so from more than 75-years. Do these families suffer for having done so. No. Many of their number hold positions of trust, either as Board Members, Counsellors and Advisors, and occasionally in a true operating capacity, within the largest of the world's multinational combines. They have learned that they need very little for themselves, and have more than they could ever otherwise spend, choosing instead to live on their earnings made through their being worthy of their hire, and not their pedigree.
This is a lesson yet to be learned by far too many, and probably given the climate of excess that is sweeping the world, never will be.
Warren C. E. Austin
"The Gay Deceiver"
Toronto, Canada
2003.01.28 11:44 Hrs EST
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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You'll never achieve it.
As for there being so much being controlled by so few....
Then I direct your attention to the Czar's of Russia, Ihe omnipotant Khans of China, The Sultain's of The Ottoman Empire, The Mogouls Of India.... And the list can go on and on....
There have always been "leaders" and "followers"....
The difference now is that they don't have along with control of the vast majority of wealth, the power of indiscriminate life and death over their subjects.
What it boils down to, in this day and age is that if you want to be at the top of the heap.....
Come up with a better mouse trap....
Just my opinion....
and histories....
Marc
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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You got it right, e.
I'm sure you've noticed that all weapons of any sort are, as a group, phallic symbols; so it would therefore follow that any land which is full "of very sexually frustrated men with lots of power and money...[who]...love to build big missles...and...[are] always threatening to explode them on everybody" would need them to substitute for the true and genuine manliness they have obviously (and sadly) lost.
A thought or three on smith's most intriguing and informative chart. For one, the 70 non-white/30 white ratio: whites sure do have a bloody nerve calling non-whites "minorities"; for another, the 70 non-Christian/30 Christian ratio: again, Christians of all stripes fancy themselves as being the majority religion (not to mention majority population) in the world (surprise, surprise!); but implicit in that "non-Christian" figure is that a fair number of those are not only "non-Christian" but "non-religious" (and have every right to be that way). And as for that "89 heterosexual/11 homosexual" ratio (and having the right to be whichever): more than a fair number of those "Christians" would dispute that ratio (and that claim), maintaining that the numbers are actually closer to "99 heterosexual/1 homosexual"; but what they forget (or, more accurately, refuse to acknowledge) is that "89/11" takes into account those who feel compelled by religiously-inspired hatred to keep themselves from being included in that number at all costs (and never mind that myth of being able to "change" homosexuals into heterosexuals, either!). Forgive me, but I just got finished watching a typical "Reverend Big-Mouth" on TV.
Just a few thoughts.
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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I never watched it much either, e; in my case, though, it was Jason Walton (Jon Walmsley), and for the same reasons.
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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Not so strange, really, Tim, when you consider the long history of moneyed dynasties in the United States. Their opulent lifestyles ultimately got the best of them; and the implosion of their world around them ultimately led to the Great Depression (an all too simple rehash of history, but a brief one).
As the saying goes, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"; and if the moneyed dynasties of today fail to learn that lesson, then the end result is inevitable.
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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Note, too, how most of the people on that list don't EARN their money, they HAVE their money. This, it seems to me, includes all the WalMart clan (Ole Sam especially), as well as those drop-outs. And let's not forget that recent expose' which showed that, in spite of all that wealth, WalMart still pleads poverty to their employees, successfully getting them to work "free" overtime.
And so where is Oprah? My guess is she EARNED her money, legitimately, and is therefore ineligible for inclusion on that list.
Before I close this posting, smith, I have an apology to make for something I had thought of doing. I was going to make some remark (with "winkie" [] attached, of course!) about a student taking time from his homework to read "Forbes" Magazine. I'd be a fine one to talk: when I was your age, I'd take time from my homework to read "Opera News" Magazine (how weird is that?!).
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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They may not be able to point a finger at somebody who displeases them and say, "Off with his head!", like those historical figures had the power to do. And yet their spirit lives on.
You only have to look at these mega-million mergers (like AOL/Time Warner, Exxon/Mobil and Chevron Texaco) to know that the wealth is indeed being controlled by fewer and fewer people. Further, you only have to look at the corporate shenanigans going on behind the boardroom doors at places like Enron and Worldcomm to know that, while they can't say "Off with his head", those corporate fatcats who are the spiritual descendants of those historical tyrants can literally destroy the financial well-being of millions (and, with their political connections, get away with it).
This brings to this agnostic heathen's mind that remark Jesus made about a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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The way I see it, all things considered, I am richer than them all....
Just my opinion,
Marc
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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I got all that from typing in 'richest people in America' on Google.......I am a cyberchild I watch my grandmom look stuff up in the encyclopedia and roll my eyes.
As for taking time from my homework.........give me an excuse....any excuse......Please !!!!!!!! I will happily watch paint dry or listen to pond frogs.....anything except this torture.
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tim...of usa
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Likes it here |
Location: buffalo, new york...USA
Registered: July 2002
Messages: 266
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its sort of like an ezine but back in the days when the KILLED trees to make paper and actually printed millions of copies of em so that old ladies could line brid cages with em.
does that help?
lol
tim...of USA
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"And a cyberchild shall lead them."
Oh yes, I remember encyclopedias! In fact, I have a set from 1955 (the year I was born): 20 volumes, taking up an entire bookshelf (no wonder my back aches!). You see, back then in the Stone Age, there was no Internet; and computers were these huge, noisy machines which occupied entire buildings and cost a king's ransom. Having been raised in barbaric times such as those, no wonder I still think of a magazine as something I can actually hold in my hands.
So please forgive us old fogies, smith; we're trying our best to keep up with the times, but sometimes old habits are just too hard to break. We're counting on you and your generation to bring us into the 21st century.
I must close now, because there's a youngster who needs my help with his arithmetic homework (now, where did I leave my abacus?).
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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