Even if the Third World now had their own wealthy elite, such that the wealth of the Third World was closer to the richest countries, you could still have risin

Even if the Third World now had their own wealthy elite, such that the wealth of the Third World was closer to the richest countries, you could still have rising inequality in BOTH the richest and poorest countries. Which, also, is what really matters most. Democracy and the rule of law both start to break down when a few people have orders of magnitude more money than the median for that country; they can use their wealth to influence their own government in a way that the masses of that country cannot. That the gap between countries might have narrowed, is no help, if the inequality of both rich and poor countries goes up.