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Dine, Janet --- "Using Companies to Oppress the Poor" [2006] ELECD 68; in Dine, Janet; Fagan, Andrew (eds), "Human Rights and Capitalism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Human Rights and Capitalism

Editor(s): Dine, Janet; Fagan, Andrew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845422684

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Using Companies to Oppress the Poor

Author(s): Dine, Janet

Number of pages: 32

Extract:

3. Using companies to oppress the poor1
Janet Dine

THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITALISM?
Using almost any statistics `we certainly know that the problem of world
poverty is catastrophic'.2 Of 6133 million human beings, in 2001 some

799 million are undernourished3
50 000 humans daily die of poverty-related causes4
1000 million lack access to safe drinking water5

This means that `the global poverty death toll over the 15 years since the end
of the Cold War was around 270 million, roughly the population of the US.'6
And the figures go on and on;

34 000 children under 5 die daily from hunger and preventable diseases7
1000 million lack access to safe drinking water8

Why?

Imagine some visionary statesman, in 1830 say, posing the question of how the
advanced states of Europe and North America can preserve and, if possible,
expand their economic dominance over the rest of the world even while bringing
themselves into compliance with the core norms of Enlightenment morality. Find
the best solution to this task you can think of and then compare it to the world
today. Could the West have done any better?9

This question is posed by Thomas Pogge explaining the ability of rational
humans to shape their thinking to suit their interests. Pogge does not believe
that any such grand plan existed or exists, but nevertheless believes that the
existence of extreme poverty and the reasons given for not tackling the issue
are a prime example of avoidance techniques by ...