Dying For Growth. - Review - book review

GLOBAL INEQUALITY AND THE HEALTH OF THE POOR

Edited by Jim Yang Kim, Joyce V Millen, Alec Irwin and John Gershman

COMMON COURAGE PRESS 2000 $22.00

When the wisdom of medieval mercantilism was first questioned, and the practice of protectionism gave way to free trade more than three centuries ago, it was generally believed that applying the theory of 'comparative advantage' to international trade would eventually benefit everybody. But, as the editors of this well-written and meticulously documented work set out to prove, this holds true only if the trading partners start Out on an equal footing. Citing numerous contemporary examples, they convincingly demonstrate that economic development tends to exacerbate existing inequalities, rather than bringing about greater economic and social equality.

To cite just a few examples from their text:

* 100 countries have suffered serious economic decline in the past three decades.

* About 3 billion people -- half the world's population -- earn less than US$2 a day, 1.3 billion of them less than $1, and every day some 840 million people go hungry.

* Three billion people lack basic sanitation, and one-third of them have neither adequate housing nor access to safe drinking water.

* In 1960, the poorest 20 per cent of the world population received 2.3 per cent of global income; today their share is less than half of that.

These and other figures reveal that, in many parts of the world, poverty and inequality are growing worse, 'despite decades of effort to stimulate economic growth'. GDP growth is still the standard yardstick for measuring progress toward the avowed goal of reducing poverty and improving the overall economic and physical health of a society. But, as the authors have concluded, 'growth is not a miracle drug' capable of curing all social ills. Or, as the late American writer and conservationist Edward Abbey put it so succinctly: 'Growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell.'

One manifestation of the belief in growth as a panacea for all social ills is the 'trickle-down' theory, which gives solace to the souls of self-proclaimed 'compassionate conservatives', while serving as justification for all the abuses committed on a daily basis by transnational corporations (TNCs). But in a recent campaign speech, the deceptively mild-mannered but intellectually astute US vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman gave short shrift to this leftover cliche from the glory days of Reaganomics with the following aphorism: 'It's like feeding the pigeons by giving the horse more oats.'

Dying for Growth is replete with specific examples illustrating the editors' thesis, and taken from case studies conducted in numerous countries. The lead-in to a chapter about how global trade under the aegis of the TNCs adversely impacts the health of the poor is a quote from the economist J K Galbraith from 1977: 'The institution that most changes our lives [but] we least understand is the modern corporation. Week by week, year by year, it exercises a greater influence on our livelihood and the way we live than unions, universities, politicians and the government.' Prophetic words indeed.

More than 30 pages of Dying for Growth are devoted to the sham known as 'the war on drugs'. As any first-year student of economics can tell you, it is impossible to stop demand by cutting off supply. Reduced supply = higher price = bigger profits for dealers = greater incentive for growers. You fight the narcotraficantes or eradicate the poppy fields or coca plants in one country, only to see the action move across the border to one of its neighbours.

Hence the $300 billion which the US government has spent to date - ostensibly to stem the flow of illicit drugs across its permeable borders - would seem to be a total waste. A study by the RAND Institute concluded that the same amount invested in drug treatment programmes would be seven times more cost-effective. But if we are to believe the authors - and their claims are well documented - 'the war on drugs' serves another, more sinister, purpose: supporting despotic governments friendly to the US (read: valued clients of the TNCs) in their efforts to suppress political opposition. For the footsoldiers of such opposition are usually the same poor peons whose livelihood derives from cultivating cannabis or coca. What better way to disarm them than depriving them of their income and thus the wherewithal to buy arms? This explains why a substantial part of the drug war budget is allocated to the Pentagon.

If any fault is to be found with this expose of the destructive side-effects of globalisation, it is that the editors are reluctant to draw the logical conclusions from their own advocacy of improved living conditions for the 75 per cent of world population now struggling to survive. In the last half century, infant mortality was reduced by 60 per cent and life expectancy increased by almost 40 per cent, resulting in a yearly net increase in world population of some 80 million. If concerted action -- as outlined by the authors - were taken to further improve these statistics, the annual increase would be half again as high. And while huge numbers of people - whether in so-called underdeveloped countries or in the American prison system (largely run by for-profit companies who 'farm out' their inmates to industrial sub-contractors for as little as 17 cents an hour) - provides the TNCs with a virtually inexhaustible pool of cheap labour, it also strains our planet's finite resources beyond all reasonable limit s.

Evolutionary history shows that it may take thousands of generations for an animal to adjust to a new physical environment. And while homo sapiens has made great strides in the past century toward improved health and longer life expectancy, no commensurate effort has been made to reduce the procreative urge of the human animal, which was calibrated for survival in an environment far more hostile than the one most of mankind faces today.

Therefore, laudable as the authors' attempt at reducing human suffering may be, it can never succeed unless we are prepared to take an equally honest look at the obverse side of the coin: the population explosion, largely rooted in religious and cultural taboos, originally designed to safeguard the survival of the human race.

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