Surprisingly, the World Is Becoming More Equal

Chelsea FollettReading the news or listening to politicians and pundits speak, one could easily get the impression that global inequality is getting worse. But is the widely held belief that the world is becoming less equal true, or is it mistaken? The overwhelming majority of long ‐​term trends regarding living standards—ranging from rising life expectancy to declining rates of poverty and hunger—show considerable improvement, even accounting for recent pandemic‐​related setbacks. You can explore the evidence for yourself on websites such asHuman ​Progress​.org. Have those improvements been widely shared, or have they accumulated mainly to a  small population while much of the world is left behind?That ’s what George Mason University economist Vincent Geloso and I set out to discover. What we found is that while global inequality unquestionably still exists, it is in factshrinking.OurInequality of Human Progress Index offers a  new way of measuring global inequality. It is more comprehensive than any prior international inequality index, taking into account a greater number of dimensions. We found that in addition to a global decline in income inequality, there have also been declines in lifespan inequality, nutritiona l inequality, educational inequality, internet access inequality, and political liberty inequality. Around the world, gaps in these areas are shrinking.Most importantly, there has been a  decline in overall global inequality. That resul...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs