Is it fair, is it just, that a relatively small population of fortunate people (primarily in America, Europe, and Japan) live in such affluence and abundance while most people on earth live in poverty?

Religious and moral leaders have often sought to make us more aware of these issues of social justice. Pope John Paul II, for example, made this forceful plea:

"The needs of the poor must take priority over the desires of the rich, the rights of the workers over the maximization of profits, the preservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion, production to meet social needs over production for military purposes."

Thus far, neither capitalism nor socialism have solved the basic problems of production and distribution of goods. After the 1989 collapse of the eastern European socialist systems, one commentator noted that while Western economists focused too much attention on production, ignoring the fair distribution of goods, the Soviet economists spent too much attention on fair distribution, ignoring the production of enough goods.

Change is inevitable, but principles and priorities must precede policies and programs.

In America today, for example, we accept our abundance as normal. But, most middle-class Americans seldom see themselves as the "Haves" because ads keep stressing the things we don't have. In fact, in relation to others within our own society, we may even feel deprived. Yet, in the context of the world population, we are indeed the "Haves."

By 1990, worldwide television had become a reality. Billions of poor people now see glimpses of an affluent "American life style" in the background details of our movies, our TV shows, CNN news, MTV, and in ads.

This is changing the aspirations of the whole world. Most people on earth, legitimately, want the same kind of material goods we have. In comparison to our wants, the desires of these people are very modest.

Social justice issues are also tightly related to environmental issues. For example, in India, when advertising targeted the growing affluence of a middle-class, this created a demand for small refrigerators (a modest desire in a hot country); but, the nation's whole electrical generating capacity was soon overwhelmed (blackouts, brownouts) and now a hasty dam-building project is threatening the ecosystem of a sub-continent.e.g. "India Accelerating" deals with the impact of cars and roads.

Clifford Krauss (New York Times, Jan.15,2008) noted how new consumer demands impacted the cost of basic commodities: "The price of copper has tripled in five years. Zinc has doubled. Wheat and soybeans rose 70 percent in 2007. Futures prices of crude oil, gold, silver, lead, uranium, cattle, cocoa and corn are all at or near records. A global boom in the cost of commodities, the staple ingredients of a modern economy, is entering its sixth year with no end in sight. Commodities have always been subject to boom-and-bust cycles, but many economists see a fundamental shift driving the markets these days. As development rolls across once-destitute countries at a breakneck pace, lifting billions out of poverty, demand for food, metals and fuel is red-hot, and suppliers are struggling to meet it. Prices are spiraling, and Americans find themselves in what amounts to a bidding war with overseas buyers for products as diverse as milk and gasoline."( “It is absolutely a fundamental change in the global economic structure....”)

As corn prices rise, for example, because of the new demand for ethanol, it puts greater stress on poor people in Mexico and elsewhere who rely on corn as their basic food staple. Wheat is also in short supply as a new middle-class is developing in India and China: "Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe." But this runaway demand increases prices for all, putting a greater squeeze on the poor.

- - Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies.