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In reply to the discussion: Gaddafi must surrender power now, says Hillary Clinton [View all]okaawhatever
(9,565 posts)research. Even less surprising, the author cited no source for his statistics.
Here's a dose of reality for you:
According to the United Nations, 40 per cent of Libya's population of 6.4 million live below the poverty line, with no benefit from Libya's oil reserves, which are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/poverty-persists-in-libya-despite-oil-riches
As for the Netherlands, they did face a sharp increase in poverty post-Housing collapse, but came nowhere near Libya.
The report uses two measures of poverty: the low income threshold, defined in 2011 as a monthly income of 960 euros for a single person and 1.810 euros for a family with two children, and the "modest but adequate" threshold of 1.020 and 1.920 euros, respectively.
Projections for 2012 predict that the percentage of people in poverty will rise further to 7,5%
http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/home/default.htm?Languageswitch=on
So in the Netherlands, 7.5% of people lived on less than 960 Euros per month.
In Libya, about 40% of people lived on less than $1.25 per day. That would explain all those Dutch people paying human smugglers to get them into Libya so they could live the high life.
Second:
Libya having the highest GDP per capita for the continent of Africa is bullshit.
1 Qatar 143,427
2 Luxembourg 92,049
3 Singapore 82,762
4 Brunei 73,233
5 Kuwait 71,020
6 Norway 66,937
7 United Arab Emirates 64,479
8 San Marino 60,664
9 Switzerland 58,087
Hong Kong 54,722
10 United States 54,597
11 Saudi Arabia 52,183
12 Bahrain 51,714
13 Ireland 49,195
14 Netherlands 47,355
Source IMF/World Bank