In Europe, as in America, the problem of abundance, of surpluses, especially of agricultural produce, has created some very real problems. Wheat, butter, milk, meat, vegetables and fruit have filled the warehouses. Producers are demanding that the government (which lacks a stomach) buy and pay for those products which the consumers are not buying. These surpluses are stockpiled away to deteriorate, or are dehydrated or simply destroyed. The order is sent forth from the government to raise fewer such crops, and the farmers are paid to leave their lands lie fallow.
There is, however, one very simple solution to the problem of excess abundance; distribute it. Distribute it where it is needed. Distribute it first of all to the nationals of the country in which such surpluses exist. Then let it be spread out to those countries where famine holds sway.
— But these nationals who are in need, and these hungry populations of other countries haven't the wherewithal to pay for these products!
— So it is a question of money? Well money is not a problem pertaining to mother nature. The end of products and produce is not to be sold, but to satisfy human needs. If the financial system is the obstacle then it is the financial system which should be changed or modified or corrected, not sacrifice human lives or human welfare.
Would you like some idea of the condition of those parts of the world which are under-nourished and which could so readily use the "excess" goods which are causing headaches to the governments of the rich countries? Here are a few figures taken from the Italian paper, L'Osservatore Romano, of July 14, 1961:
A third of humanity (the developed countries) possesses more than 85 percent of the world's revenues; another third has about 10 percent; and the final third has only some 5 percent. Thus, the average individual of the last-mentioned third, lives with 80 percent less goods at his disposal than does the average individual of the first-mentioned third. Yet both are brothers since they are children of the same Father, God.
The average annual income per head is 3,000 dollars in the United States, 700 to 1,000 dollars in European countries; only 100 to 200 dollars in the countries of South America, 100 dollars in Japan, 57 dollars in India, and 51 dollars in Pakistan (60 times less that of the United States).
Out of fifty millions of individuals who die each year in the world, 35 millions of these (almost two-thirds) succumb to malnutrition.
Out of 1,000 children who are born alive, there die, during their first year, 225 in Burma, 450 in Africa, while, in contrast, among the well nourished peoples, as in Sweden, only 10 die. The difference between 10 and 225 or 450 is a hecatomb due to privation, especially a lack of nourishment.
It is quite obvious from the above that there is room for vast improvement in the under-developed countries, especially in the techniques of agriculture — providing that the financial system does not throw up a barrier to such improvements. It is a little-known fact that out of the 350 million peasants who people the globe, 250 million (more than two-thirds) still till the soil by means of a sharp stick or a large nail. On the other hand, the iron plow was invented by the Romans about two thousand years ago.
How, then, can anyone possibly speak of overproduction in view of the world-wide picture? Modern transportation and communications would make it ever so easy to bring together world surpluses and world needs - if only the financial system were turned from an obstacle into the means of distribution which it was intended to be.