The basic force shaping the world - by Mahfuz R. Chowdhury
ALTHOUGH Adam Smith, who published "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776, is regarded as the father of modern economics, its subject matter is as old as the human race itself. It was not by any choice that people started to practice economics; their very survival practically forced them to engage in economic activities. The main difference between ancient and modern economics is that people have learned to practice economics in a more scientific and organised manner.
From the World Bank and the United Nations data one can see that about 75 per cent of the total world gross domestic product (GDP) is concentrated in 20 per cent of the richest countries of the world whose average annual per capita income is about $30,000, while the average income of the poorest 20 per cent of the countries is hardly $1,000. Nearly three billion people of the world live on less than $2.0 a day, and approximately one billion of them live on less than $1.0 a day. These one billion people in the lower income group are deprived of even clean drinking water let alone other necessities of life. What is more amazing, the gap in the ratio of income between the top 20 per cent and the poorest 20 per cent of people in the world is not shrinking, but widening.
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