Posts Tagged ‘ inequality ’

The religion of capitalist economics

February 24, 2014
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In earlier posts we mentioned the Oxfam report entitled “The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all,” which outlined how the annual income of richest 100 people is enough to end global poverty four times over (i.e. while the annual net income of the world’s richest 100 billionaires is about $240 billion, the estimated cost of raising everyone worldwide above the $1.25 a day poverty line is about $66 billion). Recently Oxfam released another report, “Working for the Few: Political capture and economic inequality,” which maps the the general distribution of wealth on a global level.…

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Why Poverty? (a documentary series)

May 31, 2013
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Steps is a partnership of two non-profit organisation (one in Denmark, the other in South Africa) that commissions documentaries to raise awareness about important social issues. For it’s most recent project, called Why Poverty?, it commissioned eight documentaries and 30 short films on the topic of poverty. These are powerful and thought-provoking films that really help to shed light on the issue of poverty. One of the great documentaries in this series, Park Avenue: money, power, and the American dream, is a fascinating look into the lives of the people living at 740 Park Ave., the most exclusive address in New York City.…

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Wealth inequality in America

April 24, 2013
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The following short video recently went viral and received more than 5.5 million views on YouTube. Using accurate and easy to comprehend graphs, it showcases the full scope of U.S. income inequality. The video is mostly based on a paper written and published by Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely, titled “Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time.” It also references other data provided by a number of mainstream and progressive websites such as CNN, Motherjones and ThinkProgress. The video is receiving interesting responses from conservative and neo-liberals, who either challenge the accuracy of the video or attempt…

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Inequality and conservatism in Korea

January 15, 2013
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Individual income in relation to gross national income (GNI) is declining everywhere in the world but recent data from the Bank of Korea (reported in the Korea Herald) indicate that it is falling faster in Korea than in just about any other country. Since the 1990s it has declined at twice the average rate of OECD countries. Meanwhile, the profits of Korean corporations are exceeding all expectations. Samsung recently projected record profits of 8.3 billion for the quarter ending December 2012, which gives it a run of five consecutive record-breaking quarters.  So, as was recently pointed out in the Chosun Ilbo of all places,…

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