(Roughly) Daily

We use data from the Global Peace Index 2018 report, which tries to put a figure on the expenditures and economic effects related to “containing, preventing and dealing with the consequences of violence”.

According to the report, the economic impact of violence to the global economy was $14.76 trillion in 2017 in constant purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. This is roughly 12.4% of world gross domestic product (GDP), or $1,988 per person.

While those figures themselves are quite staggering, how it all breaks down is even more interesting…

More chilling data at “The Economic Impact of Violence.”

* Bayard Rustin

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As we pine for ploughshares, we might recall that it was in this date n 1914 that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo… which precipitated Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia… which triggered a series of interlocking alliances (that’s to say, which led the Central Powers, including Germany and Austria-Hungary, and Serbia’s allies to declare war on each other)…  starting World War I.

Franz Ferdinand, ca. 1914

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