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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

More on Global Inequality

This video discusses the widening income gap in 22 countries, displayed using graphs and data. It is based on an OECD report from 2011, which you can find the press release for and more information about here.  The video shows the way the OECD measures the income gap, using the Gini coefficient, where 0 signifies total inequality, and 1 means that the richest person has all of the nation's income.  The possible solutions given at the end of the video to combat income inequality are: reforming tax and benefit policies, getting more people into the labor force, and making sure those people stay in jobs that pay good wages. Obviously, these are easier said than done, and it appears not much progress has been made in the two years that have passed since the report was completed.

 Clearly, the U.S. isn't the only one suffering from income inequality; it is a global issue that nations around the world are seeking solutions for. Hopefully world leaders can come together to find ways to solve this problem.


Here is a graph that shows the difference between the income gap from the mid-1980s to 2008 in 22 countries, from the same OECD report:


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