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[A-List] FW: New story Added to SRA Website



Title: Spatial Patterns of Capital

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: esavage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:esavage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent:
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:20 AM
To: esavage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: New story Added to SRA Website

 

 

Sanders Research Associates  Issues & Answers

Capital continues to generate obvious spatial patterns, as anyone can see on nightly satellite photos. Such images lend concrete, visual support, for instance, to statistics that say American consumes 330 times more energy than the average Ethiopian. When new parts of the world system succeed in attracting capital – that is, when they “develop” – it shows clearly in the satellite images, as in the strong contrast between the dark northern and luminous southern half of the Korean peninsula. It must be of relevance to world system theory that the United States’ share of world energy consumption is 25% while 20% of the world’s people do not have access to enough energy to successfully mainta in their own body metabolism. This obviously also has an environmental dimension. The richest 20% of the world’s population consume 86% of the aluminum, 81% of the paper, 80% of the iron, and 76% of the lumber. Per capita carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 were around five tons in the United States but only 0.1 tons in India. (Remarkably, however, many people in the industrialized North continue to believe that it is their mission to educate people in the South on how to live and produce sustainably, as if the North was setting a good example, and as if environmental problems in the South were the result of ignorance rather than impoverishment.)

            -Alf Hornborg, The Power of the Machine

It may have been James Gleick who said we don’t just measure patterns, we have to map them. I want, in a small way, to do just that by comparing the data between 20 differently representative countries to construct a tentative hypothesis that follows Hornborg’s assertions above. Hornborg is particularly concerned with the environment – as we’d all better be before it’s too late – but I’d also like to think about mapping energy, money, and the military against a number of other social indices, and even attempt a few creative calculations to stimulate the development of predictive models in the areas of class and gender mapped onto the world system.

Source: BP Statistical Review

A more encompassing theoretical framework

Robert Biel, Malcolm Caldwell, and other social critics have argued that systemic crisis has an impact on culture, ideology, financial exchange, social production, social re-production (emphasized by the left-feminist critique), and physical “resources”. All have argued that former empirical categories of study conceal more than they expose about social reality. What is needed is the merging of several social theories into a more complete socio-ecological theoretic framework.

It is clear that the underlying demand for energy is the basis for our current global and imperial conundrum – perfidiously called the war on terror. Our leaders seem to lack the interpretive tools to understand its rapid acceleration. That is why maps such as the one above can be so valuable. They help us visualize. This gives us a strong impression of the actual ‘metabolic’ flows of the current world system.

The interplay of forces

Economic evolution has forced systemic changes. We need only look back to the post-WWII era to see them broadly. Keynesianism predominated after the war in the core states. When social forces undermined Keynesianism, a period of crisis and stagnation ensued followed by the development of new elite strategies that came to be known as neo-liberalism. The warning bells went off with the 1998 Asian meltdown and the subsequent dotcom bust which demonstrated the instability of financial speculation. The absence of bipolarity in the aftermath of the Cold War created a single dominant core nation that has come to openly resist the multilateralism of the former system, which it perceives as constraining its ability to act unilaterally.

In the peripheries, reaction to the depredations of neo-liberalism demonstrates the inherent tendency of systems to try to stabilize themselves. This reaction has been progressive, as in the case of Venezuela for example, and reactionary, as in the case of certain strains of political Islam. These instances of resistance are complex and contradictory, distorted and even magnified in many cases by the attempt of the core states (particularly the USA) to manipulate them for short term geo-political advantage. Thus, we have former USA allies from the Afghanistan war becoming objectively (even if they are reactionary) anti-imperialist, and Hamas, that was partly a creature of Mossad in its inception, becoming the most powerful anti-Zionist actor in Palestine.

Ecological crisis

In step with development, ‘resource’ depletion is creating an incipient crisis that will likely trump other crises decisively within the next generation. This is not solely about energy depletion but embraces the destruction of fisheries, soil depletion and salinization, deforestation, the draining of fresh-water aquifers, carbonization of the atmosphere and resultant climate change. But the apparent cause of many of these problems, the use of fossil fuels, is absolutely central to the operation of the global economy as presently organized. This is an excellent example of physical power appropriating space and time in a specific way to advance an agenda that is necessarily parochial in its objectives. As Hornborg points out, there is an entropic dimension to all this. In fact, “entropy is profitable,” as Robert Biel has noted.1 It’s just that not everybody profits.

How these tensions will interact is fundamentally unknowable because they are affected by more variables than we can readily analyse; but we can be relatively sure that the result will be higher and higher degrees of social disorder. The so-called war on terror is an attempt to preempt this, but it is not a competent, well-planned attempt. It is a panic move. This creates special opportunities for popular movements, as well as special dangers. To understand these opportunities and dangers more clearly, we need to find ways of describing our evolving conditions concretely.2 One simple way of doing this is to quite literally map the variables and I shall give some examples in what follows beginning with a rapid look of the United States that places part of its populat ion in a comparable light to other countries in this survey.

Minorities in the USA

African America

Infant mortality rates inside the US are 6.63 per 1,000 live births, for example. Infant mortality rates for whites in the US are 5.7 however. Indigenous Americans in the US have almost twice the infant mortality rate, and African Americans have a rate of 13.6. This is an indication of a spatial pattern indicative of a colonized society rather than merely an “ethnic” fraction of a whole and singular society. This pattern is mirrored in African American debt loads as well. Average white debt is 11% of income, while African American debt is 30% of total income. The percentage of African Americans who have a negative net worth is twice that of whites.

In addition to these disparities is the grossly unequal incarceration rate for blacks.[3] Even in the United States, which has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world these numbers provide—with the statistics about the social and economic health of African America—a stunning account. In conjunction with this mathematical report, there is a definite spatial dimension to African America that corresponds to the spatial pattern of economic flows globally. That spatial dimension is apparent in the map below.

Source: US Census Bureau

So in a real sense, the old American Communist Party thesis about a black nation in the Black Belt, which is clearly depicted in the former plantation areas between Virginia and East Texas above, continues to be valid. It is the existence of this “colony,” in fact, which largely accounts for the generally lower indices of economic and social health in black belt states. When African America is subtracted from those regions, per capita spending on education, net worth, infant mortality, incarceration rates, etc., all tend to be the same as the national averages.

Native America

First Nations (American Indian) populations, on the other hand, as shown below, reflect both the generalized destruction of these nations that formerly populated the continent and the official drive to contain and shrink their living spaces.

Source: US Census Bureau

Hispano-Latinas

Hispano-Latinas, while not monolithic, are shown to be both the populations that remained after the US expropriation of today’s Southwestern United States during the Mexican War and the result of economic pressure from the underdevelopment of Meso-America. An appropriate old joke is that “most of the Mexicans in the Southwest did not cross the border; the border crossed them.”

If one then looks at a US map that shows concentration of poverty (below), it becomes readily apparent that there is a strong racial component to the spatial patterns of capital. The single exception below is in ‘white’ Appalachia between Kentucky and West Virginia – not coincidentally a region with an enormous supply of fossil energy (coal). This racial component in social and economic disparity is clearly at work in the world at large where – with the exception of Japan that became Asia’s “Anglo-Saxons” – there is a decidedly “white” correspondence with the indices of relative privilege.

Source: US Census Bureau

New indices to create a framework for analysis

This digression into the internal core-periphery dynamic of the US is to illustrate that the same tensions that we detect elsewhere in the world are present in the US.  Identifying new indices is a first step to establishing a better understanding of a more complex reality. These indices are multi-layered from the most physical to the most abstract; they are the product of internal and external factors which are fundamentally temporal and therefore dynamic.

Sources

The following data was derived from the 2004 CIA World Factbook, and from the Earth Trends Searchable Database. At the very beginning, it is important to note that many of the economic figures are based on arbitrary and sometimes misleading criteria. For example, unemployment figures in the US are derived from unemployment insurance claims and probably represent less than half the number of able-bodied adults not working, nor do these figures reflect underemployment.

With that caveat, this data is presented as a first step in mapping the spatial economic patterns suggested by Hornborg in my opening quote. Some listings combine two criteria, and some are mathematical manipulations of data that, while not achieving or pretending to a high degree of scientific rigor, nonetheless are very suggestive.[4]

Selected countries

The twenty countries selected for this sample are arbitrary and intended to represent a variety of geographical, economic, and political circumstances.[5]

Table 1 Population (2004 - figures rounded to nearest 100,000)

Country

Population

Country

Population

Argentina

39,100,000

Indonesia             

238,000,000

Australia

19,900,000

Japan                     

127,000,000

Botswana

1,630,000

Mexico  

105,000,000

Brazil

184,000.000

Nigeria                  

126,000,000

China

1,299,000,000

Philippines           

86,200,000

Colombia

42,300,000

Russia                   

143,000,000

Cuba

11,300,000

Saudi Arabia        

25,800,000

Germany

82,400,000

Turkey                  

68,900,000

Haiti

7,900,000

United Kingdom

60,300,000

India

1,065,000,000

United States

293,000,000

 

 

 

 

 

Energy consumption per capita

These data are listed in metric tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) but represent all forms of primary energy consumption. The following map shows oil export flows as a means of reinforcing the global north-south divide in patterns of consumption. This per capita energy consumption index may be the closest thing we have to determining actual material benefits accruing to or being lost by nations in the world system. Having said that, it is important to note that there are a range of variables that skew these results such as heating required in colder climates; dependence on personal automobiles (as in the US); fragmentation of industrial production; and mechanized agriculture.[6]

As with all nationally aggregated data, these averages cannot account for disparities of consumption, income, etc., or the varying severity of class stratification; nor does it account for how much energy is consumed personally as opposed to industrially. This last point is particularly significant in Indonesia and China.

Table  2 Per capita primary energy consumption (MTOE)

Country

MTOE

Country

MTOE

Argentina

1,534.8

Indonesia             

710.5

Australia

5,974.9

Japan                     

4,091.5

Botswana

app 500

Mexico  

1,515.8

Brazil

1,063.5

Nigeria                  

810.1

China

886.5

Philippines           

546.3

Colombia

682.9

Russia                   

4,288.8

Cuba

1,214.7

Saudi Arabia        

4,844.1

Germany

4,263.5

Turkey                  

1,045.5

Haiti

257.4

United Kingdom

3,993.8

India

514.3

United States

7,920.9

 

Source: BP Statistical Review

Note, now, the export flows of oil as the predominant primary energy, and we begin to see how mapping clarifies the disparities of world consumption.

Per capita GDP of sample

The correspondence between per capital GDP and infant mortality is particularly striking. While there is a loose but consistent relation between higher per capita GDP figures and lower infant mortality, the reverse is startlingly true for one country: Cuba. Cuba is particularly anomalous due partly to the economic exile imposed on Cuba by the United States that in some respects – while causing hardships – also allows Cuba to operate outside the dominant world economic system.

The other anomaly, not quite as glaring until one realizes that the US infant mortality rate is higher than 40 other nations, including Cuba. The racial-national disparity for infant mortality in the US was highlighted above and points to incipient political tension.

Table  3 Per capita GDP of sample

Country

PC-GDP

IM*

Country

PC-GDP

IM*

Argentina

11,200

15.66

Indonesia

3,200

36.82

Australia

29,000

4.76

Japan     

28,200

3.28

Botswana

9,000

55.63

Mexico  

9,000

21.69

Brazil

7,600

30.66

Nigeria  

900

100.38

China

5,000

25.28

Philippines

4,600

24.24

Colombia

6,300

21.72

Russia   

8,900

16.01

Cuba

2,900

6.45

Saudi Arabia

11,800

13.7

Germany

27,600

4.2

Turkey  

6,700

42.62

Haiti

1,600

75.2

UK

27,700

5.22

India

2,900

57.92

United States

37,800

6.63

*Infant Mortality (per 1,000 live births)

The Goff Index

“Poverty lines” are politically fraught constructs, frequently established by criteria well below actual incomes required for basic necessities. They also vary from country to country. Given the wide variances in the costs from one society to another, no figure will be exact. Nonetheless, bearing these limitations in mind, these figures retain some residual value. Let us combine the per capita GDP (that reflects the degree of economic stress on a nation’s working class) with the public debt as percentage of national GDP.  By multiplying the two we arrive at what I immodestly call the Goff Index.[7] It is a suggestive index only, and one that tries to highlight where disparities of wealth will become sharper.

Table  4 The Goff Index

Country

% of population

below poverty

line

Public debt

as % of GDP

Goff Index

Country

% of Population

below poverty

line

Public Debt

As % of GDP

Goff Index

Argentina

51.7

65.7

3,396

Indonesia

27

72.9

1,968

Australia

NA

18.2

 

Japan     

NA

154.6

 

Botswana

47

7

329

Mexico  

40

23.1

924

Brazil

22

58.5

1,287

Nigeria  

60

28.6

1,716

China

App 20

30.1

602

Philippines

40

77

3,080

Colombia

55

51.9

2,855

Russia   

25

34.1

853

Cuba

NA

NA

 

Saudi Arabia

NA

94.6

 

Germany

NA

64.2

 

Turkey  

18

78.7

1,417

Haiti

80

NA

 

UK

17

51

867

India

25

59.7

1,493

United States

12

62.4

749

The Abner Index

As long as I am attempting a new index, I will throw in the Abner Index, using another family name since this is a family matter. That is, the family or domestic economy is connected to but in many ways distinct from the financial, production, and exchange economies.

Maria Mies, Nancy C. M. Hartsock, and Mike Davis have all written about the economy of “social reproduction,” as one that is not factored into classical economics – which scrupulously avoids theorizing even the creation of exchange values in the realm of production (for purely ideological and political reasons) – nor has it been much studied by radical economists, who have remained preoccupied with the valorization of capital in the production process. This is largely a reflection of male domination of business, the academy, and even radical movements.[8]

When greater levels of unemployment are combined with systemically low per capita GDP, we can reasonably expect the burdens placed on women to be more onerous. Imagine the Haitian housewife. She has no washing machine. She has no electricity, nor, for that matter, running water. The ability of people in a society to survive on as little as two dollars a day (unimaginable in the US of A) is based directly on this lack of development. This goes a long way toward explaining the connection between underdevelopment and the throw-away price of labor that corporations seek in the third world.

The Abner Index requires two steps. First, I have reverse ranked per capita GDP to assign a higher value to lower PC-GDP. In other words, a PC-GDP of $1,000 or less gets a value of 40, $9,001-10,000 gets 31, all the way up to $40,000, which gets a value of 1.

1,000  or less = 40

10,000 = 30

20,000 = 20

30,000 = 10

40,000 = 1

This corrects for the inversity of higher PC-GDP as indicative of social privilege and higher unemployment figures indicating social disadvantage. I then multiplied the assigned PC-GDP value by the actual unemployment rate to get the Abner Index number. A higher AI number should theoretically correspond to a higher proportion of social stress being borne by the women in a given country. This calculation will be sharply skewed in some respects by the customary gender division of labor in each society and by the legal status of women.

Table  5 Abner Index

Country

% Unemployment

GDP

value

Abner Index

Country

% Unemployment

GDP

value

Abner Index

Argentina

17.3

29

502

Indonesia

8.7

37

322

Australia

6

12

72

Japan     

5.3

12

64

Botswana

40

32

1,280

Mexico  

App 20

32

640

Brazil

12.3

34

418

Nigeria  

NA

 

 

China

app 20

36

720

Philippines

11.4

36

410

Colombia

14.2

34

680

Russia   

App 20

32

640

Cuba

2.6

38

760

Saudi Ar.

25

29

725

Germany

10.5

13

260

Turkey  

App 14

34

476

Haiti

68

39

2,652

UK

5

13

65

India

9.5

38

361

USA

6

3

18

Moving from the reproductive to the productive stratum, we can look at industrial production growth rates for each country. To spot the anomalies, we need to look at the financial stratum as well, before returning to energy consumption patterns, current accounts, and military spending. The first comparison in Table 6 below is between the industrial production growth rates for 2004[9]  and the external debt of each country. This is followed by external debt per capita and finally the per capita external debt as percent of per capita GDP. The last figure is an app roximation of the individual burden of each country’s citizen.

Table 6 The citizens' debt burden

country

Indust. Prod.

Growth Rate

External Debt in $US

p/c Ext. Debt

in $US

p/c Ext. Debt

as % of p/c

GDP

Argentina

16.2

145.60 billion

3,723

33.0

Australia

-0.1

233.50 billion

11,734

40.5

Botswana

7.3

392 million

202

2.2

Brazil

.4

214.90 billion

1,168

15.3

China

30.4

197.80 billion

152

3.0

Colombia

3.5

38.26 billion

904

14.3

Cuba

2.4

app 15 billion

1,327

45.7

Germany

.2

NA

 

 

Haiti

NA

 

 

 

India

6.5

101.70 billion

95

3.2

Indonesia

3.7

135.70 billion

570

17.8

Japan     

3.3

NA

 

 

Mexico  

-0.7

159.80 billion

1,521

16.9

Nigeria  

2.3

31.07 billion

247

27.4

Philippines

-0.1

57.96 billion

58

1.2

Russia   

7.0

175.90 billion

1,230

13.8

Saudi Arabia

7.7

39.16 billion

1,518

12.8

Turkey  

8.5

147.30 billion

2,138

31.9

UK

-0.7

NA

 

 

USA

.3

1.40 trillion

4,778

12.6

Debt and military spending

The Christian Science Monitor estimates that the actual military spending tab for US citizens is approximately $800 billion a year and rising. So on the military spending numbers below, I will include two figures for the US – one for the official military spending figures (O), and one for the unofficial (U). It should be noted that the figures for US military spending (below) are actually low.

  • Research and development of nuclear munitions and multi-use delivery systems are hidden in the Department of Energy’s budget, where (conservatively) over half of the $24 billion budget is devoted to
    • nuclear weapons research and production,
    • R&D that is shared with other weapons manufacturers,
    • storage and transportation of weapons grade nuclear material,
    • and clean-up of past nuclear weapons research and testing activities.
  • An estimated $282 billion is spent as interest paid on military spending debts.
  • Billions more are spent on foreign military financing that is disguised as foreign aid and not part of the “pentagon” budget, and
  • “Non-Defense” subsidies to arms manufacturers create additional military spending costs that are  hidden.

The columns in table 7 represent the following:

  • per capita primary energy consumption,
  • current account (total exports vs total imports, negative figures mean more is imported than exported),
  • annual national military budgets, and
  • finally the combined actual per capita cost of military spending – slash – per capita military spending as percent of per capita GDP.

We might note that military spending that breaks the 3% threshold of p/c military spending as % of p/c GDP is a red flag for the militarization of a society. Whether this is a core over-developed or peripheral under-developed state will generally determine whether that militarization is intended for foreign operations or internal population control, civil war, etc. Also note that low numbers in the last category that correspond to a high Goff Index might indicate a higher probability for the success of social rebellions in the event of an economic-political crisis.

Table  SEQ Table \* ARABIC 7 The real costs of military spending

country

p/c Energy

Consumption

in MTOE

Current Account

in $US

Annual Military Spending $US

p/c Military Spending/

% of p/C GDP

Goff Index

Argentina

1,534.8

7.855 billion

4.3 billion

110  /  1.30

3,396

Australia

5,974.9

-30.140 billion

14.1 billion

708  /  2.80

 

Botswana

app 500.0

539 million

299 million

183  /  3.60

329

Brazil

1,063.5

3.520 billion

10.4 billion

57  /  2.10

1,287

China

886.5

31.170 billion

60.0 billion

46  /  4.25

602

Colombia

682.9

-1.417 billion

3.3 billion

78  /  3.40

2,855

Cuba

1,214.7

-237 million

572 million

51  /  1.80

 

Germany

4,263.5

57.240 billion

35.0 billion

425  /  1.50

 

Haiti

257.4

-48 million

26 million

3  /    .90

 

India

514.3

3.410 billion

14.0 billion

13  /  2.40

1,493

Indonesia

710.5

7.336 billion

1.0 billion

4  /  1.30

1,968

Japan     

4,091.5

135.900 billion

42.5 billion

335  /  1.00

 

Mexico  

1,515.8

-9.150 billion

5.2 billion

50  /   .90

924

Nigeria  

810.1

1.439 billion

470 million

3.7  /   .90

1,716

Philippines

546.3

3.349 billion

995 million

12  /  1.50

3,080

Russia   

4,288.8

35.910 billion

7.3 billion

51   /   .50

853

Saudi Ar.

4,844.1

22.270 billion

18.0 billion

697  /  10.0

 

Turkey  

1.045.5

-6.806 billion

12.2 billion

177  /  5.30

1,417

UK

3,993.8

-7.556 billion

42.8 million

.7  /  .003

867

USA (O)

7,920.9

-541.8 trillion

400.0 billion

1,365  /  3.40

749

USA (U)

7,920.9

-541.800 billion

800.0 billion

2,730  /  6.80

 

With the exception of the United States, it is reasonable to assume that a high current account deficit combined with a high external debt creates latent instability that could translate into just such a crisis. The US is the exception because of the treasury-bill standard and its oversized military, which are the bases of its global power. It is apparent from the tables above that the US is no longer capable of challenging anyone for industrial output. Its worldwide economic function is that of dangerously dominant consumer. In the event of any form of financial collapse in the US, many net exporters as well as holders of US treasury bonds (banks, for example) will be in trouble.

Another note is that countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia, who largely export petroleum, have been given a current account bump by high oil prices in 2004 – and conversely, those high energy consumers are facing the greatest threats of economic disruption and stagflation from energy price spikes and interruptions.

I will close with the suggestion that we think about how to combine the view of the world economic system as an unequal appropriation of time and space with “standpoint theory” where we assume a different standpoint within the system to view relations of power. These heterodox ways of ‘seeing’ might shed light on questions which have hitherto enjoyed immunity from mainstream scrutiny. Robert Biel suggests, for example, a case study of the Enron debacle where derivatives trading, physical energy, international relations, and political economy came together in a kind of train wreck.

This article is merely an invitation to enter into a discussion on these questions that beg our collaboration.[10]


[1]See Biel, Robert. 2000. The New Imperialism – Crisis and Contradictions in North-South Relations. Zed Books, 20.

[2]It is important to note here that the inter-national mapping indices below do not account for internal contradictions for each country, and in particular they fail to account for the core-periphery dynamic inside the US.

[3]According to Human Rights Watch:

The disproportionate representation of black Americans in the U.S. criminal justice system is well documented. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the national population, but 30 percent of people arrested, 41 percent of people in jail, and 49 percent of those in prison. Nine percent of all black adults are under some form of correctional supervision (in jail or prison, on probation or parole), compared to two percent of white adults. One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 was either in jail or prison, or on parole or probation in 1995. One in ten black men in their twenties and early thirties is in prison or jail. Thirteen percent of the black adult male population has lost the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws.23

[4]The author hopes that others will consider ways of refining these data and indices to move them from the realm of suggestion into the realm of evidence.

[5]Census figures are variable in reliability because in the more underdeveloped nations scientific census is not possible. Similarly, in the US, many people are uncounted based on incomplete collection methods and refusal to participate — thus skewing assumptions about the population.

[6]What is not represented here, and further distorts the data is a factor like food consumption, which does not show up as primary energy. Energy inputs into Mexican agriculture, for example, will be counted in Mexico’s numbers, though the majority of that embodied energy is consumed in kitchens, restaurants, and fast food eateries in the US.

[7] While I fully acknowledge that some readers will see this as an absolutely arbitrary exercise,  please accept that I propose this as a tentative first step in finding a way to measure regressive tax burdens on national working classes.

[8]See Hartsock: 

Marxian theory holds that accounts of power based as the level of circulation or exchange provide inadequate accounts of systematic domination and inequality. In contrast, Marx argues that the social relations of capitalism generate two epistemological systems, the one at the level of appearance, and rooted in the activity of exchange, the other at the level of real social relations, and rooted in the activity of production. Yet if the institutional structure of human activity generates an ontology and epistemology, and if the activity of women differs systematically from that of men, we must ask whether epistemology is structured by gender as well as class. If the reality of systematic class domination only becomes apparent at the epistemological level of production, what epistemological level can allow us to understand the systematic domination of women?I argue that the domination of one gender by another can only be made visible at a still deeper level, an epistemological level defined by reproduction. Thus, rather than argue, with Marx, that reality must be understood as bi-leveled, I am suggesting that it must be understood as three-tiered. And if at the level of production, as Marx argues, one can only see the real relations between human beings but also understand why theories at higher levels of abstraction fail, then at the level of reproduction we should expect to develop not only a more comprehensive account of the totality of social relations but as well understand why it is that neither the level of exchange nor the level of production provides an adequate and complete epistemological ground for the theorization of power. Hartsock, Nancy C.M. 1985. Money, Sex, and Power. Northeastern University Press, 7-8.

See also Mies, Maria. 1986. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale. Zed Books, 35. For the impact on women in the underdeveloped world, Russia and China see Davis, Mike. March/April 2004. Planet of slums. New Left Review.

[9]Note that these are transient and do not perfectly reflect long term trends in industrial growth.

[10]Here are the links to the country overviews in the 2004 CIA World Factbook. I include with each the life expectancies in each country as a final index of global disparity:

                                Life

                                Expectancy

Argentina              75.7         http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ar.html

Australia                80.26       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/as.html

Botswana              34.19       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bc.html

Brazil                      71.41       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/br.html

China                      71.96       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html

Colombia               71.43       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/co.html

Cuba                       77.04       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html

Germany                78.54       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gm.html

Haiti                        52.63       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ha.html

India                       63.99       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html

Indonesia              69.26       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html

Japan                      81.04       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html

Mexico                   74.94       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html

Nigeria                   46.47       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ni.html

Philippines            69.6         http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rp.html

Russia                    66.8         http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.html

Saudi Arabia         75.23       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sa.html

Turkey                   72.08       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tu.html

UK                          78.27       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html

United States        77.43       http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html

 

 

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