WRONGS THAT NEED CORRECTION

ECONOMIC WRONGS (cont.)

It is a well known and oft-demonstrated fact that economic ills feed unrest in the underdeveloped world.  We are thereby warned that the continuation and expansion of poverty, along with its consequent accompanying condition of undernutrition, is cause for a backlash from the suffering victims of such a tragic situation.  Prosperous nations do occasionally make promises, and swear to having good intentions, to render assistance to the poor masses living within these countries (that were, ironically, often formerly colonies of theirs).  But, somehow, it seldom seems to amount to much; and usually little or no progress results therefrom.  Thus, there is good reason behind calls for concerted efforts to effect remedies and changes on a worldwide level, such as are contained herein.

It is submitted that the disparity of which we speak is at least prtly a result of the existence within our world of a myriad of independent nation-states.  Many of the poorer nations, locked as they are within their own boundaries, with their particular natural, geographic, economic, and/or political deficiencies and vulnerabilities, are simply incapable of generating any improvement in their own respective conditions; and their respective populations are thus condemned to eternal poverty.

Production is a key to reduction of poverty.  An increase of gross domestic product within a region usually effects a significant reduction of want and need in that region as well.  But production is dependent upon many things, such as capital formation, a competent labor force, and import of necessary raw materials; together with the availability of hospitable markets for the goods thus produced.  Some or all of these necessary ingredients are often absent within, and/or out of the reach of, many areas of our earth as they are presently situated, bounded as they are within four border lines.  If I reside within Mali, and have only the politics and resources of Mali at hand, I cannot help but live a probable life of extreme poverty.  This is not meant to serve as a predeiction that a unified world order would "open the floodgates," and permit the poor folk of Mali to come to New York to seek their fortunes.  Rather, the existence of a single unified world would put the resources and expertise, economic and otherwise, of the world, at the disposal of the people of Mali, and the people of the rest of the world as well, so as to effect a measure of leveling of opportunity for all.  Moreover, thus freed--economically, politically, and militarily--of the burdens, distractions, and conflicts that accompany the defense of useless national borders, a worldwide economy could and would probably develop, to the benefit of all of mankind.

Nor is it likely that a result of what is herein sought would be a reduction in prosperity for the more wealthy regions of the world.  Fore even if such a reduction were theoretically inevitable because of this, it would be more or less set off by the increase in prosperity for what had been the already-prosperous nations that an end for the need for armies and weapons would bring about.  Moreover, I am confident that the ingenuity and resourcefulness of mankind would further operate to diminish or avoid any such happenstance; and that, instead, the result would be an increased opportunity for achievement and prosperity for the residents of these wealthier regions, as well as an overall improvement in economic conditions everywhere.

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In years gone by, and to this day as well, crops and livestock have been withheld and destroyed within a nation in order to boost prices for the remainder of such products, to assist that country's economy.  Governments have paid subsidies to farmers in such cases as reward for such practices.  At the same time, the poor within these very nations, and in other regions of the world in addition, have gone hungry, as abundance was thus permitted to rot in silos, or was put to the torch, for the sake of applying a band-aid to a faulty economy.

Another grievance regards protectionist measures as practiced by the governments of the more advanced industrial nations.  Such national tariff barriers to foreign goods are said to have the effect of enabling well-paid workers in inefficient industries to continue to so function, and to thus burden consumers with high prices for inferior goods.  At the same time, producers in other parts of the world experience consequent difficulty in marketing their sometimes superior products within these protected industrial nations, which leads to unemployment and poverty in their own countries/.

If there were a single unified world, freed of division into bounded nation-states, agricultural as well as industrial products could be produced and distributed without concern for the effect upon a national economy.  Instead, a worldwide economy would enable farmers as well as industries to compete openly on a worldwide level.  In such an atmosphere, products and goods would be available everywhere at more or less uniform prices, expressed in a uniform worldwide currency.  Prices would be determined by logical standards, such as content, quality, demand in the marketplace, and cost of transportation--as opposed to degree of availability in certain nation-states as a result of protectionist measures such as subsidies paid to producers,r tariffs associated with import.  Quantities of production could be freely planned by producers via estimates of worldwide demand and consumption.  There would be no surplus within a particular country, because the "country" would comprise the entire world.  Should it occur, a surplus would be a worldwide surplus, and deal tith accordingly--perhaps conserved for later years; perhaps sold to consumers at lower prices, as the worldwide marketplace would dictate.

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