ECONOMICS

Global Economic Inequality

Global Economic Inequality

Introduction

The spike in poverty was attributed to continued economic weakness as the U.K. struggled to emerge from a 2007-09 recession. Minorities and children had been hit especially hard in recent years. For blacks, the povertyrate climbed to 27.4% in 2010, from 25.8% in 2009, while for Hispanics it was 26.6%, up from 25.3%. For whites, the rate climbed half a percentage point, to 9.9%. Overall, the children's poverty rate was 22% in 2010. The bureau said 39% of black children were poor, while the poverty rate of Hispanic children was 35%. The poverty rate for white children was 12.4%. Also, 14.5% of women were living in poverty in 2010, a figure equal to about 17 million women, according to an analysis of census data done by the National Women's Law Center (Yuri, 2005).

The Census Bureau September 13, 2011, reported that the country's poverty rate had hit 15.1% in 2010, the highest level recorded since 1993. About 46.2 million people were living in poverty, an increase of 2.6 million people more than 2009 level, and the most since the government began tracking such data in 1949. In 2010, the federal government had considered a family of four with an annual income of $22,314 or less to be living below the poverty line (Yuri, 2005). This paper presents an analysis whether world is more unequal today than it was thirty years ago or the notion has no implication in today's age.

Unequal Income Distribution

Since the 1970s, the gap has been widening for a number of reasons. One is the loss of certain middle-income jobs to cheaper labor overseas and to technological advances. That was accompanied by the decline of the U.K. labor movement, which had been a major advocate for low-income workers (Hunterwade, 2011). Other often-cited reasons are the passage of tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and an increase in single-parent households at the low end of the income gap. Supporters of narrowing the gap add that pronounced income disparity hurts consumer confidence, making people likely to spend less and harming the economy. In addition, economic mobility is less strong in the U.K. than is often believed, they say, and cannot be expected to erase the problems caused by the income gap. They advocate measures such as raising the minimum wage and adjusting the formula for funding Social Security, which currently falls disproportionately on lower-income workers (Ravenhill, 2011).

Poverty is the most significant element to explain and understand the inequalities in the world, for example, life expectancy in rich countries is twenty years older than the poor, and literacy is almost 100% in the first is 60.8% in the second. The inequality north / south there are the differences between women and men, ethnic groups, the marginalization of minorities or the persistence of dictatorships (Milanovic, 2011, pp. 85).

Most of the world population is poor. Poverty is measured at three levels: in the first level is the extreme, with less than $ 1 / day and 1,000 million people suffer, in the moderate level, with less than $ 2 / day, there are 1,500 million people and in relative poverty 2,500 million ...