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| World Banks report on increasing Poverty in the Eastern Bloc | |||
| Re: Sep 20, 2000 -- Archive | Top of Thread | Archive | |
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Posted by: Carol ® 2000/09/20, 23:21:02 Author Profile |
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/eca/eca.nsf/General/40F8E9D019CE2E5C8525695800636022?OpenDocument
Poverty Jumped in Former East Bloc
The report, which is called "Making Transition Work for Everyone: Poverty and Inequality in Europe and Central Asia," says the poverty found in the former Soviet bloc is unlike most of the destitution elsewhere in the world. For starters, poverty in Eastern Europe was virtually nonexistent 10 years ago. In 1988, the World Bank says, the poverty level was only 2% of the population. Today, the figure is nearly 20%. In addition, it says, the economic dislocations brought on by Communism's collapse fell on a highly literate, well-educated population -- a status among whom the deeply impoverished are seldom found. "Many of the people who are poor today did not expect to be poor," says Johannes Linn, the World Bank's vice president for Europe and Central Asia. "This came as a shock to them." See the full text of the report on poverty on the World Bank's Web site.
The report cites several reasons for the region's drastic fall in living standards. Most notable, it says, is the dramatic decline in economic output brought on by the collapse of the old economic system. In the former Soviet Union, for example, most economies have shrunk by around 50% in the 10 years of reform. In response, most governments simply don't have the resources to pay for basic social services any more. The report says corruption has taken a toll, as well. Many doctors routinely require patients to pay them cash directly, because the state (which still owns most hospitals) pays low salaries to the doctors and nurses. As a result, medical care is becoming less and less adequate for many who cannot afford to pay for it, the report says. The poorest country, according to the report, is Turkmenistan, where 80% of the population lives below the poverty line. Because of its size, Russia has the most poor people; 60% of the region's poor are found in Russia, the report says. For the report, the World Bank set the poverty level at $2 (2.34 euros) a day -- a dollar a day more than the level the bank uses in other countries -- because of the region's extreme weather conditions. It says the harsh climate means additional heating costs in the winter. The World Bank says one way to fight the rising poverty would be for local governments to take more measures to spur economic growth. But, it says, even economic growth must be supervised by strong government and private institutions capable of insuring that wealth isn't simply stolen or misplaced. "It is important that all people participate in the growth," Mr. Linn says. The report also found that countries that had pursued reforms the most consistently often had the least amount of poverty. "Countries further on the reform path have lower inequality," says Ana Revenga, an economist at the World Bank and one of the report's authors. "The results [of reform] have a lot to do with how the reform is carried out." Write to Paul Hofheinz at paul.hofheinz@wsj.com
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| political adds, immigration, and stuff. | |||
| Re: Sep 20, 2000 -- Archive | Top of Thread | Archive | |
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Posted by: Anya ® 2000/09/20, 07:16:58 Author Profile |
I was watching TV the other night sort of with one eye (the other was monitoring math homework of 9 year old struggling with concept of long division). an add came on that caught my attention. This was clearly a political add, but it was not immediately apparent who it was in support of. We have a county here in the Washington subburbs in Virginia, which has been very fast grwoing, with new houses going up by the minute. it used to be a very rural county. "horse country". anyone see the movie "Giant" with Liz Taylor? well, this is where her character was from. lots of old money. but now it's lots of commuters in relatively cheap housing, and few roads to get them from there to their jobs in DC. OK, enough background. so this add starts out with a nice picture of horses on a farm, then cuts to a buldozer stripping the land, then cuts again to the horses, only now there is a housing development behind them (these developments the houses are on teeny-tiny lots, so the density is quite high--looks horrid). The add talks aobut how bad this development is. so far I'm right with them. I'm rather big on "smart growth", and that's what I assume the add is about. They never do say what they really support. but at the end of the add where they have to (by law) say who sponsors the add, a voiceover quickly says "sponsored by the Association for Immigration change" (or something very similar). WHAT???? so now the problems in Loudon country are due to those horrid foreigners? give me a break!!! That county is about the least diverse in the area. pale skins abound. I'd guess (and it would only be a guess, but I think an educated one) that of those people moving in to the county about 1 in 500 is an immigrant. what are they getting at? am I missing something here? Besides, even if the majority of the new residents of that county were immigrants, I can assure you that we're not talking ghetto here. this is NOT a poor county, even after all the commuters dilute the old money. Even one of those lousy little houses where you can spit from your window and hit your neighbor cost upwards of 200K. so if the new residents really are immigrants, they are relatively rich, productive, working immigrants wo hare benefiting the economy. if these people thingk that they can stop the over-development of the county by stopping immigration, they really are dreaming!!! Anyone else see anything this silly out there? is this purely a local problem or is the anti-immigrant sentiment growing nation wide? And who exactly do the sponsors of htis add think they will convince? the add, right up to the end, really attracts people like me, who are pro environment, pro smart growth--the same people who tend to be more liberal, thus more likely to be relatively pro-immigration (or at least not anti-immigration). I'll note that there is not a single actual human of any nationality that I could see in the add (I'll have to look for it again to make sure). it was just the horses, then the houses, and the buldozer, where you coudln't see the driver. This sort of thing makes me mad (not that I object to the add per se, since I think it does more to further things I support than the assumed goals of it's sponsors). |
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| Re: political adds, immigration, and stuff. -- Anya | Top of Thread | Archive | |
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Posted by: Anya ® 2000/09/20, 10:04:23 Author Profile |
seems that wasn't an isolated add. there is a HUGE add in the Washington Post by these same people (at least they have the same agenda). they call themselves "Negative Population Growth", which appears to be a rather liberal sort of name, making one think of the organization "Zero Population Growth" However, their goal is very different. in this print add (which takes up a quarter of a page in the "A" section--not a cheap add) Basically quotes a poll that this organizatin took where apparently most people polled are of the oppinion that immigration is the primary cause of our local overpopulation problem. they give a web page that I only just started to look at. it really tries to mix up the concept of world wide overpopulation with the idea of limiting immigration. two relatively unrelated concepts. overpopulation is a world wide problem. limiting immigratin does nothing to correct this problem on a worldwide scale. the clearly are using the feelings people have about one issue to promote a totally different issue. this really offends me, on multiple levels!!! their website is www.npg.org. |
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