The world is doing a lackluster job of finding sustainable solutions to global inequality. This crisis is evident in cities like Lima, Peru, where a “wall of shame“ separates the wealthy neighborhoods from the poor shantytowns. It is disconcerting that the United Nations (U.N.) estimates that 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day, while Forbes reports that the world’s 1,810 billionaires hold a net worth of $6.48 trillion.
Solutions, Not Problems
Today many economists highlight growing middle classes in China and India as hope for the global poor and decreasing inequality. However, this is a false hope, as the U.N. and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines a middle class citizen as someone spending or earning at least $10 per day. This isn’t much money, so even if the “middle class” is technically growing, it isn’t making a big difference in balancing global inequality.
Plus, as OECD’s Director Mario Pezzini highlights, many middle-class citizens work in the unstable informal sector and lack a good education and knowledge to sustainably accumulate wealth.
