No. of Recommendations: 11
Below is from the reference in Jim's post. It may help explain some local issues.
While inequality has increased within most countries of the world...
And also, perhaps the biggest factor, inequality simply *hasn't* increased in a lot of places, if you measure in terms of what you can spend -- after-tax after-transfers income. A lot of folks see stories about rising inequality and think the government in question should DO SOMETHING. Well, a lot of them are.
Widest date spreads handy for each:
Income share of 10% after taxes and transfers has fell from 26.5% to 23.4% in France, 1970-2020.
Income share of 10% after taxes and transfers has fell from 30.3% to 29.4% in China, 2002-2018.
Income share of 10% after taxes and transfers has fell from 43.1% to 34.5% in Brazil, 2001-2022.
Income share of 10% after taxes and transfers has fell from 23.0% to 22.8% in Canada, 1971-2019.
It's even down in a lot of places you might not expect, like Russia, Chile, South Africa.
A lot of countries are basically flat over time on that metric, a few little squiggles but no real trend. Some others are higher than at the start of the data, but peaked around 2000 and have fallen since, like UK. Some others have seen it rise a bit, but it's a pretty low value, like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany.
All in all, the story of rising inequality, even within countries, is mostly just...a story.
Jim
