Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Apocalypse now or never?
- 2 Global interdependencies: Basic tools and principles
- 3 For our children's children
- 4 Global house
- 5 Architecture of institutions
- 6 Change we must: Evolutionary concerns
- 7 Equity among nations?
- 8 Near horizons
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
7 - Equity among nations?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Apocalypse now or never?
- 2 Global interdependencies: Basic tools and principles
- 3 For our children's children
- 4 Global house
- 5 Architecture of institutions
- 6 Change we must: Evolutionary concerns
- 7 Equity among nations?
- 8 Near horizons
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
This chapter, like the last, is speculative. Since 1960, income disparity among nations has increased worldwide: The richest nations have experienced an increase in their share of world gross national product (GNP), while the poorest nations have experienced a decrease in their share of world GNP. Between 1960 and 1991, the richest fifth of all nations had its share of world income rise from 70% to 85%, while the poorest fifth of all nations had its share fall from 2.3% to 1.4%. In a UN press release reported by CNN Interactive (16 July 1996), income disparity was indicated to have widened both within and among countries in the last few years. This trend toward greater inequality gives every indication of continuing into the next millennium as the underlying factors show no signs of abating. Will increasing world inequality worsen or alleviate global conflicts? Furthermore, will increased inequality make these conflicts easier or more difficult to address in the future? This chapter examines these questions. At the outset, I must emphasize that there are no simple answers. An increase in worldwide inequality may worsen some problems through its impact on international trade and development, while it may lessen other problems through the underlying incentives for the rich to provide crisis-averting public goods to the world at large. Some global challenges are better handled with increased global inequality, while others are not.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Global ChallengesAn Approach to Environmental, Political, and Economic Problems, pp. 182 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997