The British Medical Journal aspires to be global, and true globalisation would mean the rich accepting much more responsibility for the poor. Rich countries transfer a quarter of their gross national products within their borders in order to “fulfill the social contract”–providing education, health care, social services, income support, and the like. Yet the rich countries transfer only a fraction of 1% of their wealth to the poor world. There is no social contract between the rich and the poor world. The rich are willing to see those in the poor world starve, live on the streets, and die of treatable diseases in a way that is mostly unacceptable within the richer countries. A true global society would mean a global social contract between rich and poor.
