You thought income inequality is just an American problem? It's happening all over the world.
The Economist tells us that an OECD report has found it to be a global problem. Even in egalitarian societies, like Scandinavia, the rich have done better with minimum wages and unemployment benefits falling as countries everywhere continue to deregulate their labour markets. According to the OECD, there could be a whole lot of other reasons: more people working part-time; increases in investment-based income among richer households; and even rich folks marrying each other and doubling up on wealth accumulated at the top.
Writing in The Atlantic, Kentaro Toyama from the University of California says the yawning gap between rich and poor around the world is a failure of capitalism.
"Though the report never puts it this way, one interpretation of the data is that inequality naturally grows from unfettered capitalism,'' Toyama writes. "Marxists won't be surprised, but the report should be disturbing for centrists who believe both in free markets and social equality. If free-market capitalism works so well for every income level, why have so many people seen income pass them by with capitalism working more efficiently than ever before?"
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