The ethics of reducing inequality

Even in older democracies such as the United States, economic marginalisation has led to a strengthening of chauvinist and supremacist identities and other social problems such as the opioid epidemic.

 These trends have been ongoing for some time. But, according to Branko Milanovic of the City University of New York, a big shift occurred between 1988 and 2008. During this period of “high globalisation,” the two segments of the world making gains were the wealthiest one percent in rich and poor countries and the middle class in a few Asian countries – namely China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Meanwhile, the World Bank has shown that 766 million people – around 10% of the global population – were still living below the extreme-poverty threshold of $1.90 per day as of 2013.