资本主义的原始理论主张增加生产,进而增加各国的财富。该理论还声称,生产的增长加上供求的动态变化和价格机制,将保证所生产的财富在社会成员之间得到最佳分配。在过去一百年里,资本主义下的财富生产持续增长,仅在世界大战期间有少数例外。与此同时,按照地方、国家和国际标准被归类为贫困的人口数量,却始终对财富增长无动于衷。这一现象是全球性的,既存在于美国这样极其富裕的国家,也存在于海地和撒哈拉以南非洲等极其贫穷的地区。

The original theory of capitalism calls for the increase in production and consequently the increase in the wealth of nations. It further claims that the increased production coupled with the dynamics of supply and demand and the price mechanism will guarantee the best distribution of the produced wealth to the members of the society. Production of wealth under capitalism has continuously risen over the past one hundred years, with few exceptions during world wars. In the meantime, the number of people who are classified as poor based on local national and international standards continued to be indifferent to the wealth growth. This phenomenon is a worldwide phenomenon which includes extremely rich nations such as the USA as well as extremely poor nations such as Haiti and the sub-Saharan Africa.

在粮农组织（联合国粮食及农业组织）某届世界粮食首脑会议上，各国元首和政府首脑发表的一份声明中，他们对饥饿问题的持续存在表示深切关注，认为这既威胁着各国社会，也威胁着国际社会自身的稳定。声明称：“全世界有八亿多人，尤其是发展中国家的人口，没有足够的食物满足其基本营养需求，这是不可容忍的。”领导人们确认，粮食供应已大幅增加，但贫困和饥饿依然存在。尽管他们承认粮食供应增加并未减少饥饿，却坚持认为解决办法仍是更多同样的做法，即“增加粮食产量”。

In a statement made by the heads of state and government at one of the World Food Summits of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), they expressed their deep concern over the persistence of hunger which constitutes a threat both to national societies and to the stability of the international community itself51. According to the statement, “it is intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, and particularly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs.” The leaders confirm that food supplies have increased substantially, but poverty and hunger continue to persist. Despite their recognition that food supply has increased without reducing hunger, they insisted that the solution will be more of the same “increased food production.”.

在这份宣言中,世界各国领导人确认了贫困与饥饿这一严重问题的存在。与此同时,他们仍坚持宣称,解决之道在于增加资源和产品。他们本应注意到,问题并不在于粮食的生产力,而在于其分配机制未能使每一个人都能适当地获得食物、商品和服务。资源的分配机制依然未变,最终的结果仍将如故。资源产量的增加只会使本已富有的人更加富裕,而无法惠及最需要这些资源的人。

In this declaration, the leaders of the world confirm the existence of a serious problem in poverty and hunger. In the meantime, they continue to declare that the solution is to increase the resources and products. They should have noted that the defect is not in the productivity of food; rather it is the mechanism of its distribution that fails to enable each and every person to have the proper access to food, commodities, and services. The mechanism of distribution of the resources remains unchanged. The end result will continue to be the same. The production of resources will increase the wealth of the already wealthy, but will not benefit those who need these resources the most.

事实上，几十年来，各国乃至全世界的国民生产总值（GNP）或国内生产总值（GDP）一直在增长。图3显示了美国自1929年以来GNP数字的增长情况。除了短暂的一段时期，GNP始终在增长。1970年之后，GNP开始以指数级速度增长；正是在这一时期，美国脱离了金本位制；关于这一点，稍后再谈。美国目前的GNP已超过十四万亿美元。

In fact, the gross national or domestic product of individual nations as well as of the world at large has been on the rise for decades. Figure 3 shows the increase in GNP figures for the United States since 1929. Except for a short period of time, the GNP has always increased. After 1970, the GNP began to increase at exponential rates; this is the time when the United States departed away from the gold standard; more on this later. The current GNP in the United States exceeds fourteen trillion dollars.

美国的贫困人口数量和贫困率见图4。需要注意的是，尽管自1970年以来全国财富以指数级速度增长，贫困人口的数量仍在持续上升。从1970年的1万亿美元增长到2008年的14.5万亿美元，财富增长极为惊人，而贫困率却依然徘徊在12.5%左右。

The poverty numbers and rates in the United States are shown in figure 4. Note that the number of poor people continued to increase after 1970 despite the fact that the total wealth in the country was increasing at an exponential rate. The poverty rates continue to average around 12.5% despite the tremendous wealth increase (from $1 trillion in 1970 to $14.5 trillion in 2008).

图5对比了美国的财富增长与贫困率。请注意，财富持续增长，而贫困人口的数量却始终平均保持在约三千万人左右。这些数据涉及美国，它是世界上最富有的国家，也是资本主义的领袖。

Figure 5 contrasts the wealth increase in the United States with the poverty rates. Note how the wealth continues to increase while the number of poor people remains averaged around thirty million people. These figures pertain to the United States, the richest country in the world and the leader of capitalism.

资本主义对整个世界的影响更具破坏性。贫困的人数和比率令人沮丧。这一事实已被世界领导人、世界性机构和组织所认可，例如世界银行、粮农组织等。

The impact of capitalism on the world at large is more devastating. The poverty numbers and rates are disheartening. This fact is recognized by world leaders, world institutions and organizations such as the World Bank, the FAO, and others.

据说，当一个人所赚的钱少于满足其基本需求实际所需的钱时，就存在贫困。这一定义与资本主义对价格的看法相一致，即价格决定谁能够满足其需求、谁不能。一个所赚的钱（即其努力或交易所得的价格）少于满足其需求所需商品价格的人，就是穷人。

Poverty is said to exist when a person earns less money than he actually needs to fulfill his basic needs. This definition is consistent with the capitalist view of the price and its role in determining who would be able to satisfy his needs and who would not. A person who earns less money (price for his efforts or trade) than the price of the goods he needs to fulfill his needs is a poor one.

因此,衡量贫困的一种方法是收集每天收入低于一美元、两美元或更多美元的人口数据。世界银行的数据显示,1981年每天收入低于1美元的人口为18.99亿。到2005年,这一数字减少到13.74亿。当贫困线提高到每天两美元、三美元、五美元或十美元时,资本主义制度下的世界状况就显得极其可怕。

Hence, one way to measure poverty is to collect data on people who earn less than one, two, or more dollars per day. World Bank figures show that in 1981 there were 1.899 billion people whose income was less than $1 a day. This number was reduced to 1.374 billion in 2005. When the poverty line goes up to two, three, five, or ten dollars per day, the state of the world under capitalism becomes absolutely frightening.

图6展示了几条贫困线下的贫困数据。需要注意的是，除了1美元的数据外，贫困人口的数量始终保持在世界人口的40%以上。

Figure 6 presents poverty data for several poverty lines53. Note that except for the $1 data, the number of poor people continued to stay above 40% of the world population.

图7展示了1981年至2005年间贫困率的下降情况。减少幅度最大的是日收入低于1美元的人口比例：在二十五年间，每日生活在1美元以下的人口比率减少了一半（从50%降至25%）。而对于日收入为5美元或10美元的人群，改善微乎其微。1981年，除美国和西欧外的世界人口中，有95%的人每日生活费不足10美元；二十五年后，这一比例仅降至93%。与此同时，全球物价和通货膨胀大幅飙升。

Figure 7 shows the reduction of poverty rates over the years (1981-2005). The largest reduction is in the number of people who earned less than $1 a day; the rate of people living under $1 a day was reduced by half over twenty-five years (50% to 25%). Very little improvement was observed for people who earned five or ten dollars a day. In 1981, 95% of the world population excluding the United States and Western Europe lived under $10 a day; twenty-five years later, this percentage was reduced only to 93%. Over the same period, prices and inflation have soared worldwide.

换句话说，1981年每天收入1美元、后来升入2美元档次的那50%的人，并不一定过得更好。美国劳工统计局使用一个计算工具来计算消费者价格指数（CPI）的通货膨胀率54。利用这一计算器可知，1981年用1美元所能购买的东西，到2005年需要2.15美元。换句话说，1981年生活在每天1美元标准之下的人，到2005年即使有一半人如今收入达到每天2美元，他们仍然处于同样的贫困状态。1947至2009年期间的消费者价格指数如图8所示。请注意，1972年之后物价上涨得非常急剧（这正是美国脱离金本位制的时期）。

In other words, the 50% of those who used to earn $1 in 1981 and moved to the $2 bracket are not necessarily better off. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States uses a calculating tool to compute the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate54. Using this calculator, what $1 could buy in 1981 requires $2.15 in 2005. In other words, the people who lived under $1 in 1981 continue to be in the same poverty status in 2005 even though half of them now live on $2 a day. The consumer price index for the period 1947-2009 is shown in figure 8. Note how sharply the prices increased after 1972 (this is the time when the United States departed from the gold standard).

Peter Rosset(彼得·罗塞特)是加利福尼亚州食品与发展政策研究所的主任,他明确指出,世界的粮食资源是充足的,而非匮乏的83。在他的书中83,他宣称:"认为增加粮食产量就能解决世界饥饿问题,这种观点是没有根据的神话。真正的问题是贫困。"

Peter Rosset, director of Institute for Food and Development Policy in California, clearly states that the food resources of the world are abundant rather than scarce83. In his book83 he declares that “the belief that world hunger can be solved by increasing food production is an unsubstantiated myth. The real problem is poverty.”

也许贫困最具毁灭性的后果是饥饿。人们常常只是从收入低于某个既定数额的人来谈论贫困。

Perhaps the most devastating result of poverty is hunger. Quite often people refer to poverty simply in terms of people who earn less than a predetermined amount of money.

当贫穷的人始终无法让自己的肚子吃饱，维持体面生活所必需的食物时，问题就变得非常严重了。资本主义作为一种制度，并未解决饥饿问题。事实上，资本主义的原则使得社会中的个人可能无法满足某些需求；这些需求很可能包括对食物的需求，而食物是消除饥饿所必需的。资本主义以似是而非的说法声称，资源（在此即食物）不足以养活每一个饥饿的人。针对资本主义之下的饥饿现象，人们设立了许多机构来对抗饥饿。资本主义社会中此类机构的存在，正是一个简单的证明：资本主义制度不仅未能解决饥饿这一流行性的问题，反而导致了这一问题。另一方面，伊斯兰（稍后将会讨论）呼吁消除饥饿，并将这一呼吁确立为伊斯兰的一项基本原则。据传先知穆罕默德ﷺ曾说：“若某个群体允许其中一人饿着肚子入睡，安拉和祂的使者都将与这个群体断绝关系。”

The becomes problem really serious when the poor actually remains unable to fill his stomach with the necessary food to sustain a decent life. Capitalism as a system does not address the issue of hunger. In fact, the principles of capitalism give rise to the possibility that individuals in a society will not be able to satisfy some of their needs; these needs could very well be the need for food, which is necessary to eliminate hunger. Capitalism speciously claims that there is not enough resources (in this case food) to feed each and every hungry stomach. In response to the phenomenon of hunger under capitalism, many institutions were created to fight hunger. The existence of such institutions within the societies of capitalism is a simple proof that capitalism as a system not only fails to resolve the epidemic problem of hunger, but in fact it causes this problem. Islam, on the other hand (as will be discussed later), calls for the elimination of hunger and makes this call a fundamental principle of Islam. Prophet Mohammad is reported to have said, “Allah and his Messenger will disown a community which allows one of its members to sleep hungry.

尽管美国的经济和财富都有了巨大增长，美国防治饥饿医师工作组（成立于1984年初）得出结论：饥饿在全国范围内已达到流行病般的规模；情况正在恶化，而非好转。他们还认为，现行政策并未缓解美国的饥饿问题56。许多人难以接受这一事实，正如阿迪斯·阿姆斯特朗·杨所指出的那样57。他提出疑问："美国人既然能够生产足够的粮食养活全世界，而且浪费的食物比饥饿者所能吃掉的还多，为什么还要任由人们挨饿？"全国饥饿与贫困中心主任拉里·布朗在其著作《美国的饥饿：不断蔓延的流行病》中总结了美国的饥饿问题，他写道：58

Despite the tremendous growth in the economy and the wealth of the United States, the Physician Task Force on Hunger in America (established in early 1984) concluded that hunger is a problem of epidemic proportions across the nation; it is getting worse, not better. They further concluded that present policies are not alleviating hunger in America56. This fact can be hardly accepted by many, as argued by Ardis Armstrong Young57. He raises the question “Why do Americans allow people to go hungry when they can grow enough food to feed the world and they waste more food than the hungry could eat?” Larry Brown, director of the National Center on Hunger and Poverty, summarized the hunger problem in the United States in his book Hunger in America: The Growing Epidemic58, where he writes:

我们是人类历史上最富有的民族，却仍有数百万人挨饿，为下一顿饭在何处而发愁，我们仍无法从社会中根除这一祸害。

We are the richest nation in the history of the world with millions of people going hungry and wondering where their next meal is coming from and we’re still unable to rid our society of this scourge.

如果饥饿在世界上最富有的国家美国已经达到流行病般的规模，那么它在海地、孟加拉国、肯尼亚以及其他发展中和欠发达国家又是什么样的程度呢？关于世界饥饿的统计数据令人震惊、触目惊心，也令人恐惧。问题的严重性可以从以下事实看出：世界上被浪费的资源和食物，足以养活所有饥饿的人。一次又一次地表明，失败的是分配机制，而不是资源的不足。

If hunger is a problem with epidemic proportions in the United States, the richest country in the world, then what proportions does hunger have in Haiti, Bangladesh, Kenya, and the rest of the developing and underdeveloped world? The statistics on world hunger are shocking, startling, and terrifying. The magnitude of the problem is signified when we know that the wasted resources and food in the world are more than sufficient to feed the hungry. Time and again, it is clear that the mechanism of distribution that is failing; it is not the insufficiency of the resources.

根据世界银行及其他机构公布的数据和饥饿统计资料，每两秒钟就有一人死于饥饿和营养不良，其中85%是儿童。在亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲的国家中，仍有超过13亿人生活在世界银行所称的绝对贫困之中（每天收入低于1美元），这导致各种疾病、营养不良，并可能导致死亡。联合国秘书长潘基文在《2009年千年发展目标报告》中发表声明时说道：

According to published data and statistics on hunger by World Bank and other organizations, one person every other second dies out of hunger and malnutrition, 85% of these are children. In the Asian, African, and Latin American countries, well over 1.3 billion people are still living in what the World Bank has called absolute poverty (below $1 a day)53, which results in various types of illnesses, malnutrition, and potential death. In a statement made by the secretary general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon to the Millennium Development Goals report 200959, he says,

我们一直推进得太慢，无法实现我们的目标。如今，我们面临着一场全球性的经济危机，其全面的影响尚未显现。

We have been moving too slowly to meet our goals. And today, we face a global economic crisis whose full repercussions have yet to be felt.

至少，这将使我们在一些关键领域偏离方向，尤其是在发展中国家。最坏的情况下，它可能使我们无法履行承诺，使数百万人further陷入贫困，并带来社会和政治动荡的风险。 Correction: the last phrase should be fully in Chinese. 至少，这将使我们在若干关键领域偏离既定方向，尤其是在发展中国家。最坏的情况下，它可能使我们无法履行承诺，让数百万人陷入更深的贫困，并带来社会和政治动荡的风险。

At the very least, it will throw us off course in a number of key areas, particularly in the developing countries. At worst, it could prevent us from keeping our promises, plunging millions more into poverty and posing a risk of social and political unrest.

报告进一步指出:“从1990年到2005年在消除极端贫困方面取得的重大进展,很可能已经停滞。到2009年,估计将有5500万至1亿人额外陷入极端贫困。”

The report further states that “major advances in the fight against extreme poverty from 1990 to 2005 are likely to have stalled. In 2009, an estimated 55 to 100 million more people will be living in extreme poverty.”.

在发展中国家,饥饿问题依然普遍存在。自1990年以来,由于贫困、饥饿、营养不良及相关疾病,一亿七千多万名五岁以下儿童已经消失。联合国粮食及农业组织(FAO)预计,到2015年,仍将有超过十亿人处于极端贫困和饥饿的状况之中。

撒哈拉以南非洲地区的情况最为严峻，该地区30%的人口每天都面临饥饿、营养不良以及可能死亡的危险。据世界卫生组织60的数据，每天有五万多人死于与贫困相关的原因。儿童是受饥饿影响最严重的群体，据联合国儿童基金会61的报告，每天有三万名儿童死亡。

Sub-Saharan Africa experiences the worst of such conditions, where 30% of its population faces the danger of hunger, undernutrition and potential death on a daily basis. According to the World Health Organization60, more than fifty thousand people die every day from poverty-related causes. The children are the largest segment hit by hunger with thirty thousand deaths daily according to UNICEF report61.

饥饿使人,尤其是儿童,无法获得成长所需的必要营养。饥饿对大量人口的影响,可以从五岁以下体重不足的儿童比例中看出。1990年,亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲五岁以下儿童中有31%(即每三个儿童中就有一个)体重不足。此后,儿童的状况并没有显著改善;到2007年,该地区仍有超过26%的儿童体重不足,而且由于当前的金融危机,这一比例预计还会进一步上升。

Hunger deprives people, especially children, from receiving the necessary nutrition for growth. The impact of hunger on large populations is visible on the percentage of children under age five who are underweight. Thirty-one percent of children under five (that is, one out of every three children) in Asia, Africa, and Latin America were underweight in 1990. The status of children has not improved a lot since then; in 2007 more than 26% of the children in this region were still underweight and this rate is expected to rise even more due to the current financial crisis.

贫困与饥饿的足迹在人类生活的许多方面都清晰可见。其中尤为值得关注的，是图9所示的孕产妇死亡率和新生儿（出生未满二十八天的婴儿）死亡率。世界卫生组织估计，每年有超过五十万名妇女在分娩过程中死亡。死亡人数最多的地区是撒哈拉以南非洲（占总数的50%），那里也是全球贫困率最高的地区。

Footprints of poverty and hunger are visible in many aspects of the human life. Of particular significance is the maternal and neonatal (newborn babies less than twenty-eight days old) death rates shown in figure 9. The World Health Organization estimates more than five hundred thousand women die every year in the process of delivering children. The largest number of deaths occur in the sub-Saharan Africa (50% of the total), where the poverty rate is highest in the world.

发达国家与发展中国家在母亲福祉方面的差距，说明资源分配存在失衡。以孕产妇死亡风险最高的国家尼日尔为例，每7例分娩中就有1例会导致母亲死亡；而在爱尔兰这样的国家，这一比例为每47,600例中才有1例。

The disparity between the well-being of mothers in industrial world and the developing world speaks for an out-of-balance distribution of resources. In Niger, for example, the country with the highest risk of maternal death, 1 out of 7 births will result in the death of the mother compared to 1 out of 47,600 in a country like Ireland.

同样地,新生儿死亡率(新生儿在出生后二十八天内死亡的概率)因极端贫困和饥饿而预计非常高。世界卫生组织估计,2004年约有370万婴儿在出生后死亡。图10展示了贫穷国家与富裕国家之间的巨大差距。在低收入地区,每1000名新生儿中有40人死亡,而在工业化世界,每1000名新生儿中只有3人死亡。

By the same token, neonatal mortality (probability of newborn dying within twenty-eight days of birth) is expected to be very high due to extreme poverty and hunger. WHO estimates that around 3.7 million babies died after birth in 2004. Figure 10 illustrates the wide disparity between the poor and the rich worlds. Forty out of every 1,000 newborn babies die in the low-income regions compared to only 3 out of 1,000 in the industrial world.

除了对生育子女的妇女和新生儿产生的直接影响之外,贫困和饥饿还通过妨碍教育而阻碍国家的进步。极端贫困会通过营养不良、健康状况差、缺少书籍、照明不足和缺乏做作业的场所,以及父母受教育程度低,来阻碍学习。贫困还会提高辍学率。缺乏教育则构成一种障碍,使人无法获得改善生活质量所必需的手段。

Besides the direct impact on the life of women who give birth to children and the newborn babies, poverty and hunger impede the progress of nations by inhibiting education. Extreme poverty obstructs learning through poor nutrition, bad health, lack of books, insufficient lighting and places to do homework and parental poor education. Poverty increases the rate of dropout of schools. Lack of education constitutes an obstacle which prevents the acquisition of the necessary means for improving life quality.

这导致了一个难以打破的循环:贫困阻碍教育,而缺乏教育又使贫困延续。极度贫困的人接受良好教育的机会更少,而良好的教育是与受教育程度更高的人竞争工作所必需的;没有稳定的工作,就几乎不可能摆脱贫困的泥淖。在资本主义的统治之下,人口中的贫困群体受教育程度最低;而受教育程度最低的人,也最为贫困。贫困和饥饿会影响在校儿童的认知能力。联合国教科文组织的报告显示,因营养不良而体重不足、发育迟缓的儿童无法在学校集中注意力,并且很可能辍学。61

This leads to a cycle which proves to be too difficult to break: poverty impedes education, while lack of education sustains poverty. Extremely poor people have lesser chance of getting proper education, which is necessary to compete for jobs with more educated people; without proper employment, it is almost impossible to get out of the poverty plunge. Under the dominance of capitalism, the poor segments of the population are the least educated; and those with the least education are the poorest. Poverty and hunger affect the cognitive ability of children in schools. UNESCO reports show that underweight and stunted children due to poor nutrition cannot concentrate in school and are likely to drop out61.

在资本主义制度占主导地位的当前政策，未能打破这一循环。过去几十年间，穷人在教育上持续落后，贫困率也居高不下。2007年，发展中国家有七千七百万学龄儿童未入学，其中57%为女童61。进入二十一世纪时，近十亿人既不能阅读书籍，也不会签自己的名字。

Current policies under the dominance of the system of capitalism have failed to break this cycle. Over the last few decades, the poor continued to lag behind in education, and the poverty rates continued to persist. Seventy-seven million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2007, 57% of them were girls61. Nearly a billion people entered the twenty-first century unable to read a book or sign their names.

联合国教科文组织《全民教育全球监测报告》61指出："最需要帮助、也最能从中受益的幼儿，不太可能获得教育改善项目的服务。"在发展中国家的大部分地区，覆盖率仍然很低，针对三岁以下儿童的项目更是寥寥无几。贫困和饥饿是教育面临的主要障碍。

The UNESCO Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report61 shows that “young children in greatest need, who also stand to gain the most, are unlikely to have access to education improvement programs.” Coverage remains very low in most of the developing world and few programs exist for children under age three. The main barrier for education is poverty and hunger.

图11至14显示了根据联合国教科文组织报告得出的125个国家的教育指标。所有指标都表明，最贫穷的国家在成人识字率、净入学率以及学生升至五年级的存活率方面落后。因此，世界上三分之一国家的教育发展指数（EDI）低于80%，其中乍得、尼日尔、布基纳法索、马里、几内亚和莫桑比克等国的教育指数低于60%。乍得和尼日尔的识字率不足总人口的30%。鉴于贫困与教育之间存在密切的相关性，除非世界财富分配的方式和模式发生根本性变革，否则很难看到这些非洲国家人民生活福祉的改善。

Figures (11-14) show education indicators in 125 countries based on UNESCO report61. All of the indicators show that the poorest countries lag behind in adult literacy, net enrolment ratios, and survival rate of students to grade 5; as a result, the education development indicator (EDI) for one-third of the nations of the world is below 80%, with countries like Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Mozambique having lower than 60% education index. The literacy rate in Chad and Niger is less than 30% of the total population. Given the strong correlation between poverty and education, it is very difficult to see an improvement in the well-being of Figures (11-14) show education indicators in 125 countries based on UNESCO report. All of the indicators show that the poorest countries lag behind in adult literacy, net enrolment ratios, and survival rate of students to grade 5; as a result, the education development indicator (EDI) for one-third of the nations of the world is below 80%, with countries like Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Mozambique having lower than 60% education index. The literacy rate in Chad and Niger is less than 30% of the total population. Given the strong correlation between poverty and education, it is very difficult to see an improvement in the well-being of the life of people in these African nations unless a serious change occurs in the method and style of wealth distribution in the world.

在美国这个最大、最富有的资本主义国家，文盲率仍高达14%，也就是说，每七个人中就有一人缺乏基本的阅读技能。统计数据显示，辍学率最高的群体是美国最贫困的社区，即西班牙裔和黑人群体。在过去三十五年里，白人、黑人和西班牙裔之间的辍学比例保持不变：西班牙裔的辍学人数平均是白人的3.6倍，黑人的辍学人数是白人的1.5倍（见图15）。另外，美国领取福利救济的人群中有75%不识字，这一点进一步说明了这一问题。

In the United States, the largest and richest cpitalist country, illiteracy continues to be as high as 14%, that is, one out of seven people lack the basic skills for reading. Statistics show that the highest dropout rate from schools has been with the poorest communities in the United States, the Hispanic and black population. The ratio of dropouts between white, black, and Hispanics remained the same over the last thirty-five years, with Hispanics averaging 3.6 times more than whites, and the blacks are 1.5 times more than white dropouts (figure 15). This is further signified by the fact that 75% of the people receiving welfare aids in the United States cannot read.