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I'm afraid the world is falling apart. Global inequality and poverty are growing. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the top 1%. Areas of the United States

I'm afraid the world is falling apart. Global inequality and poverty are growing. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the top 1%. Areas of the United States are even resembling the 3rd world now. The Middle East situation is a quagmire from which is hard to see a way out of and getting worse. A superpower confrontation seems possible either with Russia or China. Arms trade is really massive and the threat of nuclear extinction still hangs over us. Lastly we're destroying hope for decent survival with global warming.

nabla9 11y ago
>global inequality and poverty are growing. Global poverty has decreased dramatically (halved in 20 years). "Global income inequality peaked approximately in the 1970s when world income was distributed bimodally into "rich" and "poor" countries with little overlap. Since then inequality have been rapidly decreasing, and this trend seems to be accelerating. Income distribution is now unimodal, with most people living in middle-income countries." http://www.voxeu.org/article/parametric-estimations-world-distribution-income http://www.voxeu.org/article/parametric-estimations-world-di... http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/remarkable-declines-in-global-poverty-but-major-challenges-remain http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/re... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_inequality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_inequality
- Synaesthesia 11y ago
  Maybe because I live in South Africa, where poverty is really bad and has not really improved. In fact Africa Has actually regressed in poverty lebels since the 1970's. Yes there was massive improvement in poverty levels in Asia and the rest of the world too. However huge problems remain. Inequality has grown in the United States since the 1970's too and poverty has increased there since 2000.
  - hodwik 11y ago
    >"Inequality has grown in the United States since the 1970's too and poverty has increased there since 2000." Inequality is not a good metric for whether or not things are getting better. As Thomas Sowell said, “Now the history of the United States in the 20th century shows an incredible increase in prosperity over that century, and it was brought about not because [the poor]’s slice of the pie got bigger — the whole pie got bigger. And so everybody had an increase in prosperity.” And anyway, "income inequality" actually increases the more your government has subsidies for the poor. The more the poor are subsidized, the less incentive they have to work longer hours, the less they receive in income. It's not a coincidence that income inequality was lowest when countries had no government welfare programs at all.
    - Synaesthesia 11y ago
      But Europe has more subsidies for the poor and less inequality, whereas the USA has more inequality. Cuba has much less than the rest of South America.
      - hodwik 11y ago
        Do you have data on inequality across the EU? I would wager it is much larger than in the US, as you have very wealthy states like Norway and very poor states like Bulgaria. If you only look at inequality PER COUNTRY it will look lower than the US. Of course, the same would be true if you broke up Connecticut and Mississippi in your income statistics. Cuba is a totally different story, they have a maximum income law that says you cannot legally make more than $20 USD per month (except for doctors, who are allowed to make $30 USD per month). Can't really compare incomes in a country which artificially sets the legal income.
        dragonwriter 11y ago
        Actually, EU-wide measures of inequality (e.g., Gini coefficient) are lower than those for the US; the EU briefly reached US-like levels when some of the Eastern European countries first joined, but had fallen back to levels much lower than the US.
  - ef4 11y ago
    > In fact Africa Has actually regressed in poverty lebels since the 1970's. While you may be right about your particular area, you're not correct about Africa as a whole, nor about sub-Saharan Africa collectively. For the past decade, economic growth in Africa has been higher than in East Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, incomes are up by two thirds since 1998. Since 1960, life expectancy for women in sub-Saharan Africa is up from 41 to 57 years, and the fraction of children attending school is up from low 40s percent to over 75%. Almost any poverty indicator you care to measure shows improvement. This is not to say that the problem of poverty is solved -- far from it. But the problem is steadily getting smaller, not bigger.
bedhead 11y ago
People have never been wealthier or had more leisure time in spite of income inequality. If you genuinely think parts of the US resemble 3rd world countries, you clearly haven't been nor appreciate the meaning of "3rd world country." The mid-east has been fighting for centuries. Global warming is real but the alarmism about imminent catastrophe is and the effect of how the issue has become a pseudo-religion. In short, you're demonstrably wrong about everything. Frankly I don't know how folks like you make it through life with this constant misinformed dread.

nabla9 11y ago

>global inequality and poverty are growing. Global poverty has decreased dramatically (halved in 20 years). "Global income inequality peaked approximately in the 1970s when world income was distributed bimodally into "rich" and "poor" countries with little overlap. Since then inequality have been rapidly decreasing, and this trend seems to be accelerating. Income distribution is now unimodal, with most people living in middle-income countries." http://www.voxeu.org/article/parametric-estimations-world-distribution-income http://www.voxeu.org/article/parametric-estimations-world-di... http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/remarkable-declines-in-global-poverty-but-major-challenges-remain http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/re... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_inequality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_inequality

Synaesthesia 11y ago
Maybe because I live in South Africa, where poverty is really bad and has not really improved. In fact Africa Has actually regressed in poverty lebels since the 1970's. Yes there was massive improvement in poverty levels in Asia and the rest of the world too. However huge problems remain. Inequality has grown in the United States since the 1970's too and poverty has increased there since 2000.
- hodwik 11y ago
  >"Inequality has grown in the United States since the 1970's too and poverty has increased there since 2000." Inequality is not a good metric for whether or not things are getting better. As Thomas Sowell said, “Now the history of the United States in the 20th century shows an incredible increase in prosperity over that century, and it was brought about not because [the poor]’s slice of the pie got bigger — the whole pie got bigger. And so everybody had an increase in prosperity.” And anyway, "income inequality" actually increases the more your government has subsidies for the poor. The more the poor are subsidized, the less incentive they have to work longer hours, the less they receive in income. It's not a coincidence that income inequality was lowest when countries had no government welfare programs at all.
  - Synaesthesia 11y ago
    But Europe has more subsidies for the poor and less inequality, whereas the USA has more inequality. Cuba has much less than the rest of South America.
    - hodwik 11y ago
      Do you have data on inequality across the EU? I would wager it is much larger than in the US, as you have very wealthy states like Norway and very poor states like Bulgaria. If you only look at inequality PER COUNTRY it will look lower than the US. Of course, the same would be true if you broke up Connecticut and Mississippi in your income statistics. Cuba is a totally different story, they have a maximum income law that says you cannot legally make more than $20 USD per month (except for doctors, who are allowed to make $30 USD per month). Can't really compare incomes in a country which artificially sets the legal income.
      - dragonwriter 11y ago
        Actually, EU-wide measures of inequality (e.g., Gini coefficient) are lower than those for the US; the EU briefly reached US-like levels when some of the Eastern European countries first joined, but had fallen back to levels much lower than the US.
- ef4 11y ago
  > In fact Africa Has actually regressed in poverty lebels since the 1970's. While you may be right about your particular area, you're not correct about Africa as a whole, nor about sub-Saharan Africa collectively. For the past decade, economic growth in Africa has been higher than in East Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, incomes are up by two thirds since 1998. Since 1960, life expectancy for women in sub-Saharan Africa is up from 41 to 57 years, and the fraction of children attending school is up from low 40s percent to over 75%. Almost any poverty indicator you care to measure shows improvement. This is not to say that the problem of poverty is solved -- far from it. But the problem is steadily getting smaller, not bigger.

bedhead 11y ago

People have never been wealthier or had more leisure time in spite of income inequality. If you genuinely think parts of the US resemble 3rd world countries, you clearly haven't been nor appreciate the meaning of "3rd world country." The mid-east has been fighting for centuries. Global warming is real but the alarmism about imminent catastrophe is and the effect of how the issue has become a pseudo-religion. In short, you're demonstrably wrong about everything. Frankly I don't know how folks like you make it through life with this constant misinformed dread.