Zeitgeist: Addendum

639 00:44:00,971 --> 00:44:10,180 In the case of Ecuador it wasn't an accident. The oil companies did it intentionally; they knew they were doing it to save money rather than arranging for proper disposal. 640 00:44:11,682 --> 00:44:18,989 Furthermore, a cursory glance at the performance record of the World Bank reveals that the institution, which publicly claims to 641 00:44:18,989 --> 00:44:24,995 help poor countries develop and alleviate poverty, has done nothing but increase poverty and the wealth-gap, 642 00:44:24,995 --> 00:44:27,631 while corporate profits soar. 643 00:44:27,631 --> 00:44:37,408 In 1960 the income-gap between the fifth of the world's people and the richest countries, versus the fifth in the poorest countries was thirty to one. 644 00:44:37,408 --> 00:44:40,978 By 1998, it was seventy-four to one. 645 00:44:41,779 --> 00:44:50,988 While global GNP rose 40% between 1970 and 1985, those in poverty actually increased, by 17%. 646 00:44:50,988 --> 00:44:58,996 While from 1985 to 2000, those living on less than one dollar a day increased by 18%. 647 00:44:59,997 --> 00:45:09,773 Even the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress admitted that there is a mere 40% success rate of all World Bank projects. 648 00:45:09,773 --> 00:45:19,983 In the late 1960's, the World Bank intervened in Ecuador with large loans. During the next 30 years, poverty grew from 50% to 70%. 649 00:45:19,983 --> 00:45:28,992 Under or unemployment grew from 15% to 70%. Public debt increased from 240 million to 16 billion, 650 00:45:28,992 --> 00:45:35,999 while the share of resources allocated to the poor went from 20% to 6%. 651 00:45:35,999 --> 00:45:43,974 In fact, by the year 2000, 50% of Ecuador's national budget had to be allocated for paying its debts. 652 00:45:46,977 --> 00:45:53,984 It is important to understand: the World Bank is, in fact, a U.S. bank, supporting U.S. interests. 653 00:45:53,984 --> 00:45:59,990 For the United States holds veto-power over decisions, as it is the largest provider of capital. 654 00:45:59,990 --> 00:46:06,997 And where did it get this money? You guessed it: it made it out of thin air through the fractional reserve banking system. 655 00:46:08,999 --> 00:46:19,977 Of the world's top 100 economies, as based on annual GDP, 51 are corporations. And 47 of that 51 are U.S.-based. 656 00:46:19,977 --> 00:46:32,589 Walmart, General Motors and Exxon, are more economically powerful than Saudi Arabia, Poland, Norway, South Africa, Finland, Indonesia and many others. 657 00:46:32,589 --> 00:46:41,999 And, as protective trade-barriers are broken down, currencies tossed together and manipulated in floating markets and State economies overturned 658 00:46:41,999 --> 00:46:47,971 in favor of open competition in global capitalism, the empire expands. 659 00:46:49,506 --> 00:46:59,983 You get up on your little 21 inch screen and howl about America and democracy. 660 00:46:59,983 --> 00:47:03,987 There is no America, there is no democracy. 661 00:47:04,721 --> 00:47:15,999 There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. 662 00:47:15,999 --> 00:47:19,970 Those are the nations of the world today. 663 00:47:19,970 --> 00:47:24,274 What do you think the Russians talk about in their counsels of state - Karl Marx? 664 00:47:24,274 --> 00:47:28,212 They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, 665 00:47:28,212 --> 00:47:33,984 min and max solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. 666 00:47:34,985 --> 00:47:38,989 We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. 667 00:47:39,623 --> 00:47:48,999 The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable 668 00:47:48,999 --> 00:47:51,969 bylaws of business. 669 00:47:53,670 --> 00:47:57,975 The world is a business, Mr. Beale. 670 00:47:58,976 --> 00:48:01,979 Taken cummulatively, the integration of the world as a whole, 671 00:48:01,979 --> 00:48:03,981 particularly in terms of economic globalization 672 00:48:03,981 --> 00:48:06,984 and the mythic qualities of "free market" capitalism, 673 00:48:06,984 --> 00:48:09,987 represents a veritable "empire" in its own right... 674 00:48:09,987 --> 00:48:12,990 Few have been able to escape the "structural adjustment" and "conditionalities" 675 00:48:12,990 --> 00:48:15,993 of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, 676 00:48:15,993 --> 00:48:18,996 or the World Trade Organization, those international financial institutions that, 677 00:48:18,996 --> 00:48:21,999 however inadequate, still determine what economic globalization means... 678 00:48:21,999 --> 00:48:24,968 Such is the power of globalization that within our lifetime we are likely to see the integration, 679 00:48:24,968 --> 00:48:27,971 even if unevenly, of all national economies in the world into a single global, free market system. 680 00:48:27,971 --> 00:48:33,977 The Wor