The numbers which reveal the fraud behind the entire global economy

The Global South does 90% of the world's work. And in return collects 21% of total income.It's the scam on which our modern economy has been build. High value, low effort tech and service jobs in Europe and the US versus dirty, intense agriculture and commodity production in Africa and much of Asia.

And a new study has dug into how the system perpetuates this inequality and exposed an even more chilling division - the environmental damage imbalance.

In terms of work, Low and Middle Income (LMI) countries need to invest more than 100,000 hours of labour to generate €1 million in exports, according to Osama Diab of the Catholic University of Leuven. That compares with 7,500 hours in wealthy nations, 13 times less. Prices of the commodities on which many LMI countries depend on are artificially deflated as a result of policies to depress local currency valuations, encouraged by the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions, Diab argues.

This creates the incredible situation where natural disasters such as droughts, crop failures or even conflicts can deliver an economic boost by depressing supply and forcing prices up. Because these commodities are essential to many global businesses, there is large scope for prices to rise without hurting demand, Diab writes in his paper The Monetary Dimension of Ecological Damage in the Global South in Third World Quarterly. He gives the examples of cocoa and copper, observing that a 30% drop in supply could lead to price rises of 88% and 70% respectively.

The environmental cost

The divide is not just about undervalued labour. Another feature of inequality in the global economy concerns the environment. A million euros of exports from poorer countries generate 27 times more environmental damage than the same value for richer nations, according to Diab's analysis. This is led by the poisoning of water supplies as well as pollution on land. Greenhouse gas emissions are 2.7 times higher.

Wealthy countries are essentially exporting their pollution and then taking advantage of price discrepancies to buy up the "cleaned" products they want. How long can this continue?

Image via depositphotos.com

[This article was corrected on 14/5/2026 to replace a reference to the World Bank with the International Monetary Fund]