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HomarusSimpson t1_iwqrvws wrote

A popular belief, but untrue:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

Year World Gini coefficients
1988 0.80
1993 0.76
1998 0.74
2003 0.72
2008 0.70
2013 0.65
Lower is less unequal. Each period has gone down.
> ..... a continuous decline since 1988. This is attributed to globalization increasing incomes for billions of poor people, mostly in countries like China and India. Developing countries like Brazil have also improved basic services like health care, education, and sanitation; others like Chile and Mexico have enacted more progressive tax policies

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butts_kapinsky t1_iws5ytc wrote

Honestly hard to think of anything more misleading than this comment. Income disparity on a global scale, it turns out, is pretty complex. Some places have increased inequality, some haven't.

Interestingly, China and India's development have brought down global Gini, while the in-country inequality has increased. Brazil is about as wildly disparate in it's wealth as it ever has been, though it's gini coefficient has risen slightly.

Mexico is one of the few places that has actually managed to reduce their inequality in the past decades, yet it remains among the worst offenders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gini_since_WWII.svg

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