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Why debt
matters
The world's 52 poorest countries owe $300
billion in unpayable debt. Much of this is due to reckless lensding and
the corruption and waste of previous regimes. Governments and rich elites
ran up these debts but it is their peoples, a billion of whom survive on
less than $1 a day, who are paying the price. The United Nations estimate
that 19,000 children die every day because of money spent on debt payment
is not spent on meeting basic needs - like water, healthcare and education.
It is immoral to continue taking payments
Poor countries receiving debt relief spend more on debt
than on healthcare, even as HIV/Aids wipes out a generation in Africa
and beyond
Debt means the poor subsidise the
rich - Nigerians will pay back £5 for every £1 borrowed
Much of the debt is the result of corrupt and unethical
lending - to dictators, Apartheid regimes, and to wasteful projects that
benefited Western firms but not the poor
A consequence of the debt crisis is that poor countries
are experiencing a modern form of slavery, in which they are forced to
satisfy the desires of the richest states regardless of the consequences
for their people.
They can never be paid anyway
Unlike individuals, there is no
international law of bankruptcy to draw a line under poor countries' debts.
Interest rates and currency devaluation
mean that debts are growing faster than poor countries' ability to pay.
Unfair conditions in the global economy, such as trade
barriers and collapsing prices for poor country exports, have meant that
even as countries work harder to pay their debts they are able to earn
much less. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank, bodies which
police the international finance system, have forced debtor nations to
accept advice which makes these problem worse.
These debts are bad for us
Countries facing destitution today
cannot give priority to safeguarding the environment. Deforestation adds
to global warming, and heavily indebted countries are chopping down their
forests the fastest.
Countries with heavy debts have little money to buy goods produced in
Western countries.
Debt drives down wages and removes
safeguards for workers in poor countries. Jobs in rich countries are lost
as a result.
Debt can make it impossible for
people in poor countries to survive by legal means, making production
of illegal narcotics for export to the West a necessity.
Commercial banks have suffered little from the debt crisis. This is partly
because Western taxpayers have helped to bail them out.
Debt creates poverty which in turn creates resentment
against the rich. Post September 11th 2001, cancelling debts and ending
poverty are vital to our security.
We can afford to cancel them
If the G8 countries (the elite of the richest states) were to fund the
write off of the World Bank and IMF's debts from HIPC countries, it
would effectively cost each of their citizens one dollar per year.
The story
so far...
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