Inequality also Relates to Education, Health & Illiteracy, not Wealth Alone

A health worker marks a boy’s finger with ink to show that he has been vaccinated against measles in India’s Gujarat State. Credit: UNICEF/UNI133530/PietrasikBy Bjorn LomborgCOPENHAGEN, Denmark, Feb 7 2018 (IPS)Antipoverty group Oxfam International got a lot of attention for claiming that there’s a global “inequality crisis,” but a far more important point is entirely neglected: globally, income distribution is less unequal than it has been for 100 years. The best data on this comes from Professor Branko Milanovic, formerly of the World Bank, now at City University of New York. His research shows that, mostly because of Asia’s incredible growth, global inequality has declined sharply for several decades, reducing so much that the world hasn’t been this equal for more than a century.Moreover, the conversation on inequality sparked by Oxfam fails to acknowledge that equality is about much more than money. Look at education and health. In 1870, more than three-quarters of the world was illiterate. Today, more than four out of every five people can read.Half of all of humanity’s welfare gains from the past 40 years come from the fact that we’re living longer, healthier lives. In 1900, people lived to be 30 on average; today, it’s 71. Over the past half-century, the difference in life expectancy between the world’s wealthiest and poorest countries has dropped from 28 to 18 years.Oxfam almost entirely glosses over this reality, and instead points to wealth lev...

Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - February 7, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Bjorn Lomborg Tags: Africa Development & Aid Education Featured Gender Headlines Health Inequity Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news