Something to Think About

I had to take sociology this semester, which is the study of how different societies are created as well as their structure. In all honesty, it was probably one of the most boring classes I've ever taken, BUT once in a while our ancient professor gave an interesting lecture.

Via

He spent one lecture talking about the disparities between our urban society (Chicago) and the societies of the rest of the world. Some of the statistics he gave were truly shocking, and I think everyone should be aware of them. These statistics all come from the World Health Organization.

Via

• When you look at the world's population, 80% live in substandard living conditions
• 1/6 of the world’s population is unable to read and write
• 50% of the world’s population suffers from malnutrition
• Only 1% of the world’s population has a computer
• Over 1/2 of world’s population exist in relative poverty
• 1/7 of the world’s population (1.1 billion people) live in absolute poverty (meaning no food, just trying to survive)
• 7 million +  in US have no jobs
• The majority of world’s population live on less than $2 per day
• 6% of the world's population own 59% of the wealth in the world
• 1 million people in the world will not survive until the end of the week
• We are richer than 75% of the population if we have a roof over our heads and a place to sleep
• If you have money in the bank, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy

These statistics really put things into perspective for me. I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you have a computer. Therefore, you are part of the top 1% of the world. Next time I complain that I don't have something, I'm going to come back to this post and realize what a lucky person I am, compared to the rest of the world.

--Becky