This is the one big reason why I started my university study on economics. There is lots and lots to improve in this world. On the other hand if you compare the above values with the one before 500 years much has improved. Still there´s a lot of work to be done.
An example: Western Europe vs China.
In the year 1400 Europe had a GDP per capita of about 400$ and China of about 500$.
(calculated with the dollar of 1989, sorry data is a bit old). In 1989 Europe had more than 14000$ and China about 2500$. The difference in annual economic growth over these 589 years was far below 1%!!!
This indicates that little effort can create enourmous returns over the time.
Another theme is off course distribution. World´s wealth should be distributed more fair, but this is difficult to reach. Those wh have the wealth will not share it on a voluntary basis. If government, people or whoever tries to force them we will have war. (Usually very few can better their situation because of war). So the only option possible is to find solutions such as the rich stay on their level and the poor get more.
As you can imagine this is the ultimate goal for an economist. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
