Inequality

Development history lesson: one country spending it's own money to develop another is something that has been going on a long time. In the 1970s, development was all about growth, getting a countries GDP higher, supposing that wealth would "trickle down" to the poor. While there is some truth to this in principle, it's often not the case. Check out this cool chart my sister made me aware of, it's worth understanding, read the quote below:

"Here the population of each country is divided into 20 equally-sized income groups, ranked by their household per-capita income. These are called “ventiles,” as you can see on the horizontal axis, and each “ventile” translates to a cluster of five percentiles.

The household income numbers are all converted into international dollars adjusted for equal purchasing power, since the cost of goods varies from country to country. In other words, the chart adjusts for the cost of living in different countries, so we are looking at consistent living standards worldwide.

Now on the vertical axis, you can see where any given ventile from any country falls when compared to the entire population of the world.

For example, trace the line for Brazil, a country with extreme income inequality.

Brazil’s bottom ventile — that is, the poorest 5 percent of the Brazilian population, shown as the left-most point on the line — is about as poor as anyone in the entire world, registering a percentile in the single digits when compared to the income distribution worldwide. Meanwhile, Brazil also has some of the world’s richest, as you can see by how high up on the chart Brazil’s top ventile reaches. In other words, this one country covers a very broad span of income groups.

Now take a look at America.

Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That’s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America’s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants.

Now check out the line for India. India’s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that’s right: America’s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India’s richest.

Kind of blows your mind, right?"

That's a really big quote I think, but necessary to start wrapping our minds around inequality in our world. If you were born in the US, you are at a huge advantage compared to the rest of the world. Period. Don't act poor - you aren't! I know there is poverty in the US, and suffering, and hurt, but most of the world experiences it on a whole different level.

After the 1970s, focus shifted to growth with equity, or equality. It is still a big question for what I think about and study - how can the poorest of the poor be lifted up? the small farmers, those on marginal lands, those with little access to health, education, credit, and many other services we take so for granted.

Is development of these people fighting the giant globalization? I don't think necessarily...but in some ways...more on this later, what do you think?