January 02, 2008


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

LOOKING LIKE A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY

The jingoists among us like to wave the flag and chant, "We're number one!" But the United States isn't number one in the categories we'd like to be. We're number one in things like military expenditures, but we bear a disturbing resemblance to third world nations in inequality, poverty, and the size of our prison population. This article by Arthur Donner and Doug Peters is at www.commondreams.org:


What is usually meant by a Third World economy? A half-century ago, the term was associated with the economically underdeveloped countries of Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania. The common characteristics of these Third World countries were high levels of poverty, income inequality, high birth rates and an economic dependence upon the advanced countries. Third World countries were simply not as industrialized or technologically advanced as Western countries.

But what are some of the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary Third World countries? They go beyond these nations’ fiscal position or undue concentration on natural resource exports.

The glaring features today include poverty, lack of democratic institutions, controlling oligarchies and the unequal distribution of income and wealth. In other words, the few enjoy a rich lifestyle while the many share subpar incomes and poverty.

Another characteristic of Third World countries is that a major portion of their fiscal expenditures is allocated to the military. In many Third World countries, the military is controlled by an elite or a small collection of the wealthy.
Finally, in many Third World countries one finds that leadership is passed from one generation to the next, often via a close relative.

Guess what country we are talking about now?