World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The US has experienced a steady worsening of income distribution over the last 40 years, but it is hardly alone.  Income inequality seems to be a byproduct of both globalization and technological change, and virtually every country in the world has also seen inequality increase.  China is a very interesting case:  it has been without question the most remarkable case of poverty reduction in the history of the modern global economy.  Over 660 million people have been lifted out of poverty in China over the last thirty years.  Yet, at the same time, China’s incomes have gone from one of the world’s most equal distribution to a distribution that is worse than in the US.  The Chair of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, highlighted the significance of income inequality in the US in a speech to the Boston Federal Reserve Bank:

The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me. The past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression. By some estimates, income and wealth inequality are near their highest levels in the past hundred years, much higher than the average during that time span and probably higher than for much of American history before then. It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority. I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation’s history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity

Of course, some would have us believe that income inequality is not an issue:

Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the Russian sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867.  The US bought Alaska for 2 cents an acre from Russia, which was afraid it could not hold on to the territory after the expenses of the Crimean War.  The dynamics were roughly equivalent to the US purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, when Napoleon needed money for his wars in Europe and because the slave revolt in Haiti led by Toussaint L’Overture persuaded him that the French presence in the Western Hemisphere was too precarious.  In both of these cases, the US added significant territory because of wars in other areas of the world.

Six months ago, the Islamic group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 200 school girls from the town of Chibok in the northeast of Nigeria.  Today, the Nigerian government announced that it had made a deal with the group for the release of the girls.  We do not yet know the details of the deal, nor has Boko Haram confirmed the deal.  If true, however, the deal would be a tremendous victory for the government of Goodluck Jonathan.  It follows the victory that the Nigerian government attained as the World Health Organization prepares to declare it and Senegal as Ebola-free.