If present trends continue, economic disparities between industrial and developing nations will move from inequitable to inhuman. As we know, poverty and economic insecurity can have severe social consequences. Some people, feeling depressed, turn to drugs. Husbands abandon spouses and family responsibilities. Young men, not being able to find meaningful work, or feeling desperate, turn to gang violence.
Disenchanted adults are candidates for terrorist groups.
Ethnic groups, seeking a scapegoat, beat on each other, sometimes to the point of genocide, as in Bosnia. When economic injustice reaches the point of major economic, social, and political disruption, especially when open warfare breaks out, thousands of people are forced to run for their lives with what they have on their backs. The result is mass starvation and growing hoards of refugees in the world. Tom Paine Institute was established to address these issues. And its present offering, authored by its director, Alfred F. Andersen, is called, Challenging Newt Gingrich, Chapter by Chapter, It contains our latest findings and proposed solutions.