the same time the hopes of millions of people in the Group of Seven countries. A truly democratic effort to organize world economy would not ignore economic and social realities. First, it is a fact that for most of the third world the past decade has been a lost decade. For Latin America it has represented a drastic decline of living standards in some countries to levels comparable to those existing forty years ago. The most recent United Nations' "World Economic Survey" recoqnizes that the Latin American economy has in 1989 the smallest qrowth amonq all world reqions and should show even bleaker results in 1990. In Africa this economic decline has already reached catastrophic social dimensions. For the poor and middle classes in the united States, the 1980's was also a lost decade. Averaqe real waqes of industrial workers dropped below their 1973 level and the proportion of income qoinq to the top and bottom twenty percent of the population became more unequal than in 1950. Second, the direction of flows of international resources drained the Third World in many ways. The tendency to concentrate wealth in the hands of the very few who control economic resources both in affluent societies and in E/CN.4/Sub.2/1990/NGO/ll paqe 3 the Third World has continued unabated. The external debt has created a system of new colonial tributaries. Latin America, for instance, has in the past decade transferred about 250 billion dollars abroad, vital capital for our development. In addition to these transfers, billions more are siphoned off by the Third World rich to bank accounts in the Group of Seven countries. Terms of trade consistently undervalue Third World exports. Current attempts to liberalize world trade, as it is proposed by the Group of Seven and now 
**Analysis**
The text primarily discusses the economic and social realities of the Third World, highlighting the decline of living standards, external debt, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. It also touches on the impact of international trade policies on the Third World. Given these themes, it is likely that the text falls under the category of economic development and international trade.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade