Predatory Lending

Economist Branko Milanovic analyzed global income inequality, comparing 1988 and
2008. His analysis indicated that the global top 1% and the middle classes of the
emerging economies (e.g., China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt) were the main
winners of globalization during that time. The real (inflation adjusted) income of the
global top 1% increased approximately 60%, while the middle classes of the emerging
economies (those around the 50th percentile of the global income distribution in 1988)
rose 70-80%. On the other hand, those in the middle class of the developed world
(those in the 75th to 90th percentile in 1988, such as the American middle class)
experienced little real income gains. The richest 1% contains 60 million persons
globally, including 30 million Americans (i.e., the top 12% of Americans by income were
in the global top 1% in 2008).
Jonathan Rothwell argues that there is a negative not a positive correlation between
trade and inequality when different countries are compared. Trade makes up a relatively
small part of the relatively unequal US economy, while Denmark and the Netherlands
have high levels of both equality and dependence on imports.
Gender
The gender gap in median earnings of full-time
employees according to the OECD 2015
In many countries, there is a gender
pay gap in favor of males in the labor
market. Several factors other than
discrimination may contribute to this
gap. On average, women are more
likely than men to consider factors
other than pay when looking for
work, and may be less willing to
travel or relocate. Thomas Sowell, in his book Knowledge and Decisions, claims that
this difference is due to women not taking jobs due to marriage or pregnancy, but
income studies show that that does not explain the entire difference. A U.S. Census's
report stated that in US once other factors are accounted for there is still a difference in
earnings between women and men. The income gap in other countries ranges from
53% in Botswana to -40% in Bahrain.
Gender inequality and discrimination is argued to cause and perpetuate poverty and
vulnerability in society as a whole. Gender Equity Indices seek to provide the tools to
demonstrate this feature of equity.
19th century socialists like Robert Owen, William Thompson, Anna Wheeler and August
Bebel argued that the economic inequality between genders was the leading cause of
economic inequality; however Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels believed that the inequality
between social classes was the larger cause of inequality.
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