|
Gamercube,
You are pointing out an interesting instance of the fallibilty of statistics. Many of the commonly used metrics for measuring things in economics have serious shortcomings(i.e. Purchasing Power Parity). In this instance you have pointed out that India's Gini coefficient is higher that that of the US and thus India has less of a problem with income inequality than the US. However, in reality it doesn't take Stephen Hawking to realize that income inequality is a relative thing. Poverty in the US is still an ugly thing and I would hate to have grown up on an Indian Res. in the Dakotas or in Eastern Kentucky, but that is not the kind of poverty that still exists in India or rural China. The distance from Lakshmi Mittal and co.(and I mean no criticism towards him) and impoverished farmers heavily in debt and about to sell their kidneys is further than the distance between Warren Buffett and poor Americans. India has serious work to do addressing that distance(as do most countries) if they are to deliver long term prosperity and development.
|