JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum so who really controls the world??

Jim,

I don't doubt that what you say is correct but what you are ignoring is the time element. There was a time in my parents' or at least grandparents' lifetimes when people in the USA or the UK were just as poor as those Asians you describe. The industrial revolution occurred and people went to work making products that increased the wealth throughout Western society. Now, a hundred years later, most of us Westerners live relatively comfortably and have what we need.

Asia and Africa are just now starting their climb out of poverty and beginning to benefit from the industrial revolution. We had to learn a lot of hard lessons and are now benefiting from the experiences of our parents. The Asians and Africans are going to have to travel that same road or they will not appreciate or be able to manage their new found wealth. It may not take another 100 years, but it will not change overnight. When we attempt to give them stuff for free as is done by the Peace Corps for instance, it usually falls into disrepair within a short time because they do not have the wherewithal to maintain and operate it. Of course, those who get jobs in US owned factories are paid many times what their brothers and sisters are paid (even though it seems like peanuts to us), and they become motivated to move into the 21st Century.