Inequality

Now here is a term that has caused much chaos in the world ever since the industrial revolution with its attendant path to riches and emergence of the new and conscious middle class. The sudden migration to cities was so chaotic and the ghetto like living conditions so alarming that intelligentsia but had to rethink capitalism. Thus was born the idea of socialism which aimed above all for “equality”. However theory being what it is, in practice most of the socialist, communist and other variants of these revolutions did not work as eventually man is guided by personal motives and not sacrificial societal values. But quest for equality remains important.

While an equal society is perhaps impossible but greater equality has been achieved by some nations. Interestingly these are not the left leaning ones but countries that have managed to balance economic development with social objectives. Here I highlight some of these. There are also some dirt poor nations that have good degree of equality but it really means people are equally poor – or there is no wealth to be exploited. But there are several already developed as well as fast developing nations that top this list (no not the BRICS).

Gini coefficient is a measure of Inequality where Zero represents perfect equality and 100 perfect inequality. So lower the score, better you are.  Just to set a benchmark, the world average is 39, so really below that obviously is good and higher than that not so good. Some highlights:

As usual, on all things wholesome and good, Denmark always catches the top spot. It is not just environment protection, wind energy sort of things they have a lead on, they have the greatest equality in the world. Most Scandinavian nations are close behind.

Eastern Europe has remarkably good score on equality (those are the ones I referred to as the fast emerging ones) but do not attribute it to their communist past in haste because their original mother Soviet is far behind on this.

Several of the small, developed and homogeneous European countries do well. I have often heard that when people relate to each other, they do not mind contributing to social welfare programs etc. and class cohesion is greater.

Now here is the good news, Afghanistan makes it to the top 10 – that is really good. (I once heard a joke that when you say you are among the top 10 it often means you are the tenth..
…well is the case here)

And that is not the only surprise entry. Ethiopia has the best score in all of Africa and rank 15 at that. Kudos!

However the news is not so good for the better off African nations which seem to be at the bottom which means the development wealth has been cornered by a few.

A little better than that are most of the left leaning Latin American countries which does not surprise me. Socialism does not lead to equality, it just leads to economic instability and corruption. Now there may be some oddball nation that defies that but overall, this has been the history thus far.

But this is not to say that market or state driven capitalism automatically leads to equal societies either as the two largest economies – the US and China have scores above 45 – well above the world average.

I guess there is no magic formula to achieve equality as the list seems to have a lot of variety. But I think somewhere homogeneity, transparency, accessible education and market economy tend to play a larger hand.

It is not clear to me whether equality leads to greater social cohesion or it is a result of it (the chicken and egg story). But nevertheless, alongside development, equality is a good aim to work on. It would be easier being poor when everyone around you is also so. I guess it would be much harder and dispiriting when you are poor in a rich country as also the cost of living is higher.  So nations higher up on the development path would do well to focus on that objective. 

 Gini Coefficient - basis World Bank data

(Only the World average has been flicked from the CIA data)

I have color coded them also - Green is V good, Orange - Good, Blue - Not so good, Red - Oh well, you are in the "red"

Denmark	24
Sweden	25
Norway	25.8
Austria	26
Czech Republic	26
Slovakia	26
Ukraine	26.4
Belarus	26.5
Finland	26.9
Afghanistan	27.8
Serbia	27.8
Bulgaria	28.2
Germany	28.3
Kazakhstan	29
Ethiopia	29.8
Montenegro	30
Pakistan	30
Romania	30
Australia	30.5
Egypt	30.8
Luxembourg	30.8
Tajikistan	30.8
Armenia	30.9
Iraq	30.9
Netherlands	30.9
Hungary	31.2
Slovenia	31.2
South Korea	31.3
Timor-Leste	31.9
Bangladesh	32.1
Canada	32.6
France	32.7
Nepal	32.8
Belgium	33
Mali	33
Moldova	33
Burundi	33.3
India	33.4
Azerbaijan	33.7
Croatia	33.7
Switzerland	33.7
Indonesia	34
United Kingdom	34
Poland	34.1
Greece	34.3
Ireland	34.3
Togo	34.4
Albania	34.5
Niger	34.6
Spain	34.7
Algeria	35.3
Sudan	35.3
Jordan	35.4
Guinea-Bissau	35.5
West Bank and Gaza	35.5
Vietnam	35.6
Syria	35.8
Estonia	36
Italy	36
Bosnia and Herzegovina	36.2
Kyrgyzstan	36.2
New Zealand	36.2
Mongolia	36.5
Latvia	36.6
Laos	36.7
Uzbekistan	36.7
Maldives	37.4
Lithuania	37.6
Tanzania	37.6
Yemen	37.7
Cambodia	37.9
Bhutan	38.1
Japan	38.1
Liberia	38.2
Iran	38.3
Portugal	38.5
Benin	38.6
Cameroon	38.9
Malawi	39
Turkey	39
World	39
Israel	39.2
Senegal	39.2
Guinea	39.4
Burkina Faso	39.8
Chad	39.8
Djibouti	40
Thailand	40
Russia	40.1
Sri Lanka	40.3
Trinidad and Tobago	40.3
Mauritania	40.5
Nicaragua	40.5
Turkmenistan	40.8
Morocco	40.9
Qatar	41.1
Georgia	41.3
Tunisia	41.4
Côte d'Ivoire	41.5
Gabon	41.5
Sierra Leone	42.5
St. Lucia	42.6
Fiji	42.8
Ghana	42.8
Philippines	43
Macedonia	43.2
Madagascar	44.1
Uganda	44.3
Democratic Republic	44.4
Argentina	44.5
Guyana	44.5
Venezuela	44.8
United States	45
Uruguay	45.3
Jamaica	45.5
South Sudan	45.5
Mozambique	45.7
Malaysia	46.2
China	47
Mexico	47
Dominican Republic	47.2
Congo	47.3
The Gambia	47.3
Kenya	47.7
Peru	48.1
Singapore	48.1
El Salvador	48.3
Nigeria	48.8
Ecuador	49.3
Zimbabwe	50.1
Cape Verde	50.5
Costa Rica	50.7
Rwanda	50.8
Sao Tome and Principe	50.8
Papua New Guinea	50.9
Swaziland	51.5
Panama	51.9
Chile	52.1
Paraguay	52.4
Lesotho	52.5
Suriname	52.9
Belize	53.1
Hong Kong	53.3
Zambia	54.6
Brazil	54.7
Colombia	55.9
Guatemala	55.9
Bolivia	56.3
Central African Republic	56.3
Honduras	57
Angola	58.6
Haiti	59.2
Botswana	61
South Africa	63.1
Namibia	63.9
Comoros	64.3
Seychelles	65.8