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only half the proportional size of rich country governments, with LDCs devoting only 3.5 percent of their national economy (GDP) to state administrative services.
17. Between 1991 and 2004, only 20 U.S. patents were granted to citizens from LDCs, compared with 14,824 from other developing countries, and 1.8 million to citizens of rich countries.
18. Labor productivity in LDCs is one-ninety-fourth the level of rich countries.
19. There are 3 percent as many phone lines per person in LDCs as in rich countries.
20. LDC energy consumption is 1.6 percent the level of rich countries.
Not all the news is so bad. Malnourishment is declining quickly in about a third of LDCs. Globally, infant mortality is at a record low -- although gains are coming very slowly in the poorest countries. (Only four LDCs are on target to meet the Millennium Development Goal target of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015.) Bicycle production is rising rapidly, with 101 million bikes manufactured in 2003 (the latest year for which data is available), nearing record levels. Global production of photovoltaic cells -- which generate electricity from sunlight -- increased 45 percent in 2005, with current levels six times the amount produced in 2000.
Overall, however, there's no way to look at the data in these two books and conclude anything but that the current way of doing things is not working.
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