Rising Inequality in the Whole World is Alarming for Policymakers and Economists

In last 5-6 decades the whole world has witnessed a sea change in its shape, character, life and profile. Everything since 1950 has changed. There is hardly any colony in the world today. On average life of people has bettered during this period. The percentage of people having access to basic education, health services and other basis needs have increased significantly. Also according to an estimate the prosperity in world has increased by around 25 times during this period.

These achievements altogether are something about which world can appreciate in general. But once we look into particular regions and countries all the achievement seems to be of no use. And if we look at the world as two lots such the poor and rich, the scenario is even worse. Countries like China and India have seen huge economic prosperity but regions like Africa during this period seems have remained immune to the growth and development that has taken place. Country like Republic of Congo has poorer than what it was during 1950s. Country’s wealth is now half of 1950s level. Also if we look deeper into the developed and developing countries like the USA, the UK, China and India etc picture in these countries is also grim.

During this period of around 60 years, the world as whole has become richer and prosperous place but at the same time the inequality has increased significantly. The whole growth and development that has taken place has benefitted the rich and poor have been treated as lesser child during this era and this is true for individuals and countries both. Relatively the rich has become richer and the poor have become poorer. Reports suggests that most of the wealth of world is in hands of less than 100 individuals and this true for both developed, developing and least developed countries. In case of developed countries this inequality looks to be sharper than developing and least developed countries. Perhaps that was the reason why the USA had to face the movements like Occupy Wall Street and the rest of world also felt the heat of same.

This is an alarming situation because this increasing inequality is going to have impact on overall public discourse across the world. Also globalization seems to be a factor in increasing inequality as it provides opportunities to businesses to increase their wealth dis-proportionally. So this is the time for the policy makers to think to curb down the increasing inequality and theories working behind the globalization needs to be reviewed by the economists so that it is more beneficial for common man on the street than being tilted in favor of money power.