This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by [log in to unmask]
INDIVIDUALS CAN INDEED MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
[log in to unmask]
/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\
Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com.
http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015
\----------------------------------------------------------/
A Rich Nation, a Poor Continent
July 9, 2003
By JEFFREY D. SACHS
At a time when President Bush has lavished billions of
dollars in tax cuts on the richest Americans, his trip to
Africa presents him with the perfect opportunity to call on
them to take some responsibility for the dire state of the
world's poorest citizens. According to a recent report from
the Internal Revenue Service, some 400 super-rich Americans
had an average income of nearly $174 million each, or a
combined income of $69 billion, in 2000. Incredibly, that's
more than the combined incomes of the 166 million people
living in four of the countries that the president is
visiting this week: Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Botswana.
America's richest individuals could actually change the
course of Africa's history, and the president - who has
stressed the importance of personal responsibility - should
urge them to do so.
If President Bush gets beyond the typical rhetoric
concerning the plight of Africans, he'll discover that
poverty throughout the continent is a matter of life and
death - indeed, mainly death. While the average life
expectancy in the United States is now 77 years, it is less
than 50 years in most of Africa, and less than 40 years in
some of the AIDS-ravaged countries. Until the pandemics of
AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other killer diseases are
brought under control in Africa, economic development and
political stability will remain crippled. A breakthrough on
disease control, conversely, would help to unleash a
virtuous circle of rising productivity, better education,
lower fertility rates - and then lead to further increases
in health and prosperity.
Yet Africa's poverty makes this an unbeatable problem
without more help from the United States and other wealthy
countries. In the United States, annual public spending on
health care averages about $2,000 per person, according to
the World Health Organization. In Africa, public health
spending is around $10 per person per year - not enough to
keep the population alive. Countries throughout Africa are
desperately trying to do more, but simply can't afford to
when their citizens' incomes average less than $1 per day,
and when their struggling governments must repay foreign
debts to rich nations instead of tending to their sick and
dying.
Two years ago the World Health Organization's Commission on
Macroeconomics and Health, which I headed, made a stunning
finding: If rich countries contributed a total of around
$25 billion per year, the increased investments in disease
prevention and treatment could prevent around eight million
deaths each year in poor countries throughout the world.
The United States' share would be around $8 billion, given
the size of its economy in relation to other donors. Most
of this money is needed in Africa, where the countries are
among the poorest and the disease burden is the highest.
Projected spending by the United States on global health in
the fiscal year 2004, even with the president's new AIDS
initiative, is roughly $2 billion, or one-fourth of what's
needed from us. More money could, among other things, keep
AIDS patients alive through antiretroviral therapy, help
mothers survive the complications of childbirth and prevent
hundreds of thousands of children from dying from malaria
and vaccine-preventable diseases.
Here's where America's richest 400 could change history. In
1995, the top 400 income earners paid almost 30 percent of
their incomes in taxes. After the Bush tax cuts and other
factors, the proportion will be less than 18 percent.
Suppose the super-rich applied their tax savings toward
Africa's survival. That extra 10 percent of income - which
translates to nearly $7 billion based on the incomes in
2000 - would provide a huge chunk of the $8 billion that
the United States should contribute to the global health
care effort. This money could readily and reliably be given
to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,
which could then put it to spectacular use in saving those
eight million lives each year. For individuals who already
have all the earthly possessions that can possibly be
amassed, could there be a better way to give meaning to
vast wealth?
The notion that the super-rich might voluntarily rise to
the occasion is not preposterous, especially if President
Bush encouraged them to do so. Bill Gates has brilliantly
blazed the way with a donation of more than $20 billion
directed mainly at international public health. And many of
the super-rich opposed the recent tax cuts, saying the
needs of the poor were too great.
Of course, it's strange to rely on only the goodwill of a
few hundred super-rich people to save the lives of millions
of the poor. All Americans need to share responsibility for
such an effort, not only for humanitarian reasons, but also
for practical public health reasons. Yet given the huge tax
cuts that have gone to the wealthiest Americans, the moral
and practical obligations facing them are greater than
ever.
Our world is dangerously out of kilter when a few hundred
people in the United States command more income than 166
million people in Africa - with millions of the poor dying
each year as a result of their impoverishment. Perhaps most
remarkable of all is that such bald facts are rarely
noticed in this country. President Bush's trip to Africa
should open our eyes to these realities, as well as to the
possibilities they raise to help ease the pain in the
world.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute at
Columbia University.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/09/opinion/09SACH.html?ex=1058778355&ei=1&en=954c29eaae528097
---------------------------------
Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
[log in to unmask] or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
[log in to unmask]
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, visit:
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/aam.html
AAM Website: http://www.danenet.wicip.org/aam
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
