Comment Comment by 11thEarlOfMar To me, income inequality means: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.But that is not the situation. In reality, the situation is: A rising tide raises all boats.The global pie is getting bigger because GDP is growing faster than the population:- GDP Growth since 1999 ~2.5% annually [0]- Population growth since 1999 ~1.3% annually [1]- % of world population living in extreme poverty has more than halved since 1999, 29% to 10%. [2]Meanwhile, the wealth of the top 10 wealthiest in the world has grown at a rate of ~4.5% since 2000 (not adjusted for inflation) [3]So perhaps a more accurate depiction would be: A rising tide raises all boats. But it raises some faster than others.[0] http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=xx&v=66[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/World_po...[2] http://ourworldindata.org/data/growth-and-distribution-of-pr...[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires#200... parent 11thEarlOfMar 11 years ago
But that is not the situation. In reality, the situation is: A rising tide raises all boats.
The global pie is getting bigger because GDP is growing faster than the population:
- GDP Growth since 1999 ~2.5% annually [0]
- Population growth since 1999 ~1.3% annually [1]
- % of world population living in extreme poverty has more than halved since 1999, 29% to 10%. [2]
Meanwhile, the wealth of the top 10 wealthiest in the world has grown at a rate of ~4.5% since 2000 (not adjusted for inflation) [3]
So perhaps a more accurate depiction would be: A rising tide raises all boats. But it raises some faster than others.
[0] http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=xx&v=66
[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/World_po...
[2] http://ourworldindata.org/data/growth-and-distribution-of-pr...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires#200...