Rich nations refuse to help the poorest

[IndianaGreen]

Rich nations refuse to help the poorest

Sunday 06 September 2009
by Paul Haste

Finance ministers of the world's richest nations have failed yet again to help the poorest countries deal with the devastating effects of a financial crisis caused by wealthy bankers.

The G20 meeting in London at the weekend brought together the rich nations' financial executives as latest UN figures revealed that 100 million more people around the world will be driven into extreme poverty of less than $1.25 a day this year.

But the only agreement that ministers could come to was a half-hearted promise to "claw back" the excessive bonuses that wealthy bankers have been awarding themselves - and then only if their money-spinning deals unravelled within three years.

There was no decision to introduce a tax on international financial transactions that charities and aid organisations had demanded and which, even at a minuscule rate of 0.005 per cent, would raise more than £18 billion to help the world's poor.

And there was no firm commitment to crack down on tax havens - most of them under the jurisdiction of the British crown on islands such as Jersey and Bermuda - which could also recover for government aid budgets as much as £98bn from tax-dodging corporations.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/britain/Rich-nations-refuse-to-help-the-poorest

[FreakinDJ]

1. WTO is a Scam - what did you expect?

[izquierdista]

2. Maybe that's a good thing

Some of their 'help' actually makes the situation worse: funding water privatization in Bolivia, funding oil pipelines in Nigeria, passing out FREE FOOD in Niger. If you have an hour to spare, here's a video on how FREE FOOD hurts more than it helps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4SYM8JsDg4 .

[Doctor_J]

3. Just as the richest individuals refuse to help the neediest

Our national debt could be paid off by a similar surcharge on stock transactions here, solving many of our financial problems while imposing very little burden on the hyper-rich. Yet the idea never gets off of the ground. Very bizarre how little impact lives of the poor and working class have on those of the rich, even though there are so many more of us. Also bizarre how thy don't even try to hide their oppression of us.

[AdHocSolver]

4. No need for corporations to hide their oppression of us, as most Americans are in denial anyway.

Remember the guy on Medicare who opposes health care reform because he doesn't want any government run health insurance?

Remember the millions who buy stock in a corporation and believe they "own" the company.

Half the country still believes in supply-side economics and the trickle-down theory (and many of them post on DU).

Large numbers of people still believe in "free trade", and blame the Chinese for not buying more goods from us. Why should they, considering that the Chinese can produce everything they need in their own country at a much lower cost, AND there is so little manufacturing done in the U.S. that there is not much still manufactured here that they could buy from us anyway.

There are many more examples. The bottom line is when a large part of the population has the intelligence of a rock, there is no need for a sophisticated cover up.