'More inequality' in rich nations - OECD

[Filuwaúrdjan]

"...The gap between rich and poor in most wealthy nations has widened, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said.

Across the 24 OECD countries where data was available, the cumulative rise in inequality was 7% over the past 20 years, the Paris-based group said.

But this was not as large a rise as had been expected, it said.

Since 2000, income inequality had risen sharply in the US and Germany and declined in the UK, Mexico and Greece..."

Cont.

[afleitch]

"...The gap between rich and poor in most wealthy nations has widened, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said.

Across the 24 OECD countries where data was available, the cumulative rise in inequality was 7% over the past 20 years, the Paris-based group said.

But this was not as large a rise as had been expected, it said.

Since 2000, income inequality had risen sharply in the US and Germany and declined in the UK, Mexico and Greece..."

Cont.

I find that quite interesting, as just two months ago the TUC released a paper saying the gulf between rich and poor had widened in the UK and was the worst in Europe

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2585187/Gap-between-rich-and-poor-has-doubled-in-past-30-years.html

And the Joseph Rowntree Foundation saying it was the widest in 40 years in 2007

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/gap-between-rich-and-poor-widest-in-40-years-457609.html

Which goes to show, you probably can't measure it. Or is you can, you can choose what fits. Which is why 'anecdotal' experience of poverty is probably more accurate than official measurements.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Which goes to show, you probably can't measure it. Or is you can, you can choose what fits.

It's more a case of measuring different things (often very different things) and giving them all the same name. Though the second bit ("...you can choose what fits...") is often true as well. And often the period being measured matters as well. BBC did a little graph of the OECD's figures for the UK;



You can interpret the figures represented there in all sorts of different ways.

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Yes, but who's anecdotes? That's always the problem with measures of poverty (or whatever) that aren't based on very crude calculations (and the problems of very crude calculations are too obvious to have to point out...)

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Much better to live somewhere where everyone is poor.