The Planet of 100 People

This comes from a book I checked out at the public library called Soulution by William Bloom. I forgot to see when it was published so a few statistics may be slightly out of date (this is the sort of thing my dad would have instantly known --how I wish he were here to tell me) but you can still get the feel for what it is trying to say.

The Planet of 100 People

If we could shrink the earth to a village with a population of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

57 Asians--21 Europeans--8 Africans--14 from the Western hemisphere (both North and South)

52 would be female--48 would be male

70 would be non white--30 would be white

70 would be non Christian--30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual--11 would be homosexual

6 would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and would be from the United States

80 would live in sub-standard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would have a college education

1 would own a computer

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation the you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and a spare change dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.