Newsweek International Edition has a good piece about the decline of the middle class worldwide. I think the concluding paragraph hits the point home nicely:
Just as growth does not necessarily translate into greater equity, poverty does not always translate into impotence. If we allow the ranks of the most economically vulnerable to grow, then the pain will be felt all across the economic continuum. And we among the privileged of the world need to recognize that even if, as Deng Xiaoping once said, "to be rich is glorious," giving others the chance to simply be comfortable and offer a better future for their children is the bedrock upon which our collective futures must be built.
So many of our current problems around the world really end up boiling down to the have-nots vs. the haves. We're obviously the "haves", and the ranks of "have-nots" in the developing world are growing. Improving global security is ultimately going to depend on economic prosperity and opportunity, not how many radical fighters we manage to kill or detain. In my opinion, addressing this worldwide slide of the middle class needs to be a part of the effort to stop terrorism.
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