United Nations Millennium Declaration

“We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.” United Nations Millennium Declaration

On September 8, 2000, some 150 UN member states, in the millennium declaration, reaffirmed the action plan drawn up back in 1996 to halve extreme poverty. Using the base year 1990 as a starting point, the share of people suffering from poverty was to be halved by 2015.

A strange goal. In 15 (fifteen) years, the number of people suffering from hunger was to be only cut in half. Some 300 million people will starve to death in miserable conditions by the time the goal is reached, and then only 15 million a year. 

Those who find the UN millennium declaration good must have reasons why anything else would be unrealistic and overly ambitious. Simply organizing the development, production, and distribution of goods to ensure the supply to the people appears absurd. Why? Because “economy = market economy” just does not work that way. The market economy is efficiently controlled by doing business. It has to be worth it for someone so that things are produced and distributed and those who were thus far not very successful against the competition must sell successfully so that they have the necessary money to satisfy their needs. Those who think this is normal should not be surprised when in 2015 new goals are set because the old ones were unrealistic and overly ambitious.