Have you ever heard of the GINI coefficient? (Pronounced Genie) This is a complex math formula developed by the Italian statistician Carrado Gini. His formula is then used to create the index that measures income disparity between countries in the world. a value of 0 represents absolute equality, and a value of 100 absolute inequality. The basic idea is that the higher the income disparity is, the less egalitarian a country will is. So where does the U.S. stack up in this income equality shuffle?
Japan 24.9
Finland 26.9
Germany 28.3
Austria 29.1
South Korea 31.6
Canada 32.6
Greece 34.3
Russia 39.9
United States 40.8
Mexico 46.1
These are only a few of the countries in the overall index, I used the U.N. index numbers, but the C.I.A. factbook and other organizations keep their own. I chose the U.N numbers as they were more conservative, for example the US is a 45 by the C.I.A. numbers.
How is it that the so called "greatest country in the world" has so many poor and such an unequal allocation of wealth?
Ok so the rich get richer, we all know that, but we all are getting a good education and have an equal chance right? In a future post I will focus on the numbers for educational equality and an emerging idea for an index of opportunity equality.
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