By Swint Friday
Source: Caller Times
CORPUS CHRISTI — During the holiday break, my travels will take me from the wealthiest countries in Europe and Asia to some of the poorest. Always of interest is the striking juxtaposition of high rise hotels and office suites against the tenement housing below. Many of the poorer countries where the contrast is greatest remind me of American cities such as New Orleans and Corpus Christi where one can dine at the top of a high rise overlooking substandard housing projects few would live in by choice.
There are many different measures of a country’s wealth. One can look at the cumulative prosperity of the nation as measured by gross domestic product or per capital gross domestic product. However, these measures are aggregates and averages masking the individual prosperity of the inhabitants relative to each other. One measure of disparity in economic prosperity within a country is the Lorenz curve. The curve measures the percentage of wealth held by certain percentages of the wealth ranked population. Another commonly used measure is the ratio of income of the top 10 or 20 percent of earners to the bottom 10 or 20 percent.
Most of our poor are well off by global standards. However, when compared to other developed countries, the U.S. fares poorly in every category except for non-quality adjusted housing square footage. These metrics also show the U.S. has steadily declined in income equality as the poor have gotten poorer relative to both rich Americans and the global poor, many of whom are faring better through economic integration.
As this trend has continued so has the steady decline of the U.S. share of global wealth and productivity while countries such as China with the control of national wealth historically concentrated in a small group of autocrats are experiencing increasing global wealth rankings as they expand economic opportunities for more citizens. We are fortunate that our ancestors were more advanced in their economic policies and selected such a resource rich land. However, global competitiveness is a team sport where we are only as strong as our weakest link. Since all desire prosperity, one must question the current health of a system where a few are acquiring so much wealth while the vast majority are worse off economically despite similar endowments of intellectual and physical capabilities. We must ferret out the causes of this corrosive trend. It could be as simple as excessive government regulation, laws and policies that favor the wealthy or large corporations over individuals and small businesses. It also may be more complicated rooted in cultural or educational differences.
