The Gap In Global Inequality In The United States

According to Branko Milanovic, the progress from poverty to affluence has been a very long and bitter struggle, and is something that has long divided the classes, as well as countries (Milanovic, 2011). In his paper he states that the division of the classes from poor to rich has long existed, and dates back to "Adam Smith," and "Francois Quesnay (Milanovic, 2011)." He also goes on to state that in his research of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, they both came to the conclusion that "people in all 'civilized' societies were divided into two large classes," that being the ones who owned the "means of production," and those who had to work for a living (Milanovic, 2011). Additionally, the division between the classes wasn't something that stayed …show more content…
Milanovic states that "not only is the overall inequality between world citizens greater in the early 21st century than it was more than a century and a half ago, but its composition has entirely changed," giving credence to the idea that though great strides have been made/attempted to eliminate this issue, there is still a huge gap between the countries (Milanovic, 2011). He makes the claim that on the global scale, "the poorest 5% of Americans have an income that places them at the 60th percentile," making them "better-off" than over 60 percent of the world's population (Milanovic, 2011). These inequalities can be attributed to the differences in wages earned, and Milanovic even states that "most of global income differences today depend on location," informing readers that those who live in richer "egalitarian" countries will earn more than those who live in "poor African countries (Milanovic, …show more content…
According to several researchers, compared with the level of extreme poverty of over a century ago, we have. The Economist mentions that one means of reducing global poverty, and increasing global equality could be "freeing trade between countries," and "within them," thus giving them a way to both earn money within their own countries, and without (The Economist, 2013). Another point is that most of the Western world, in its affluence has sought to "constrain markets and roll globalization back in their own countries, and they want to export these ideas to the developing world," which the author goes on to state isn't needed, but if the poorer countries were to "adopt the same economic principles that helped the developed world grow rich," it would help the rest of the world pull itself out of poverty (The Economist,