Thursday, February 24, 2011

Some People here on Earth spend 90% of their income for Food

I realized I needed to write about this so more here on earth understand the present growing problem better. Since some people were already spending 90% of their income for food by last summer, when the average cost of everything worldwide went up in the last 12 months 28%, anyone of you can see the problem: Starvation for those already spending 90% of their income for food.

I went to look this morning for the latest Time magazine February 28th issue that came in the mail to quote percentages by country but I think my daughter or wife took it with them to read. However, I remember some of the percentages so I will try to quote them from memory. These percentages are how much the average person in a country spends of their income for food.

United States and Canada 7%
Great Britain 11%
Australia        11%

The average of the nations in North Africa like Egypt and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain mid-30s percent wise.

Highest in the world Pakistan at 46%

China mid 30s

And every other country on earth falls in percentage of income spent on food between the U.S. and Canada and Pakistan.

So, think about it, where are the revolutions based on percentages of starving people going to occur?

As the price of oil goes up to who knows where now this problem is only magnified. The average person on earth will revolt in the streets when without any food for about 2 days. We are in for it worldwide I'm afraid.

note: My wife just came back home and brought the Time Magazine with her, here are the accurate percentages worldwide. The article in the Feb. 28th 2011 Time magazine is "Economy" and under that is says "Food Fights" on page 19 of that magazine.
I will give the percentages of those countries listed that people  by country on average spend of their incomes for food:
On top is the U.S. and Canada and U.K and Australia:
U.S.         7%
Canada    7%
U.K.        9%
Australia 11%
Mexico    24%
Brazil      25%
Iran         26%
Russia     28%
China      33%
India       35%
Tunisia   36%
Egypt     38%
Nigeria  40%
Indonesia43%
Belarus   43%
Kenya    45%
Pakistan 46%

Depending upon what kind of social services each government has to allow for this kind of problem will depend whether there is eventual revolution because of too many people starving in that country.

Right now, it is just northern African Nations in the Middle East that are revolting and right now the percentage of revolt is above 30% in average payment for food. However, these revolts also are a factor now in the increase in the price of oil worldwide. So my question is: "When does this become a vicious cycle that causes most nations to auger in food wise? This might be the most important question the world needs to answer right now. Because right now the problem is weather, and the price of oil that will allow nations to be stable. However, if we add to that revolutions in the middle east it becomes a problem for the whole world. And right now the world appears to be a lot like it was in the 1930s just before World War II broke out.

However, we now have the United Nations. Never have we needed the United Nations to be more effective and efficient than now.

note: If your country is not listed above please see the magazine. For example western Europe is all below 15% as well as Japan and South Korea and New Zealand. Though the graph doesn't say exactly for nations other than the ones I mentioned they are all color coded within their range. Under 15% is yellow. 16 to 25% is orange. 26 to 35% is green and 36% and above is purple.

note 2: all figures are quoted from Time magazine's February 28th 2011 issue on page 19. If you are an investor the article below on page 19 called "Crash Test Bond Blues" is a must for the Muni Bond investor.

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