Test 3: Global Inequality

Question 1

Average Annual Income, by Country, 2011

Answer 1

• Blue = rich (North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia)
• Red = poor (Africa)
• Avg. income in blue is only $12,275
• Avg. income in red only $1005

Question 2

Where Do the 1% Live?

Answer 2

• 1/2 ppl have after-tax income below $1,225 a year
• after-tax income of US $34,000+ per year is in the world’s top 1 percent of income earners (= 60 million people).
• most in US

Question 3

Gross Domestic Product Per Person, Sub-Saharan Africa vs High-Income Countries, 1975-2010

Answer 3

• Dynamism in inequality
• Sub Saharan Africa: shrinkage of 11.6% in GDP, became poorer
• Blue countries 143% growth
• Rich become a lot richer, poor somewhat poorer

Question 4

GDP Growth in 2000 Dollars, 1969-2008

Answer 4

Chinese + Canadian economy bigger

•Upstarts

Question 5

3 Concepts of World Inequality: Inequality of income for each individual in the world

Answer 5

-inequality betw. Individuals
•Inequality extraordinarily high, it is increasing
•Even in rich countries there are poor ppl, in poor countries there are rich ppl
•Very few ppl make a lot, lots of ppl make very little

Question 6

3 Concepts of World Inequality: Inequality of average income for each country, weighted for population size

Answer 6

-letting bigger countries count for much more than tiny places, when we weight countries we find higher level of inequality + declining inequality
•Because of China + India effect, huge expansion of big countries makes inequality smaller

Question 7

3 Concepts of World Inequality: Inequality of average income for each country

Answer 7

find avg income for each country and see gap betw lowest + highest, comparing countries
•Inequality betw countries have increase

Question 8

Global Priorities, 2011 (in US$ billions)

Answer 8

• Instead of spending money on perfume, cocaine, strip clubs, adverts, we should spend in on providing world water, education, health care, nutrition
• These are our decisions, we decide to spend money on these stupid things

Question 9

Indicators of Gender Inequality

Answer 9

• Richer countries have more gender equality

* Industry needs W into paid labour force, so they require education, brings up literacy, education + higher wages

Question 10

Indicators of Gender Inequality

Answer 10

• Economic pull drives them from domestic to labour force

* More liberal mindset recognizes need for equality

Question 11

Modernization Theory

Answer 11

inadequacies in poor societies themselves, including lack of:
capital sufficient capital they can use in western agriculture
Western business techniques in finance, high profitability

Question 12

Modernization Theory

Answer 12

stable governments do not attract investment
Solve it by moving western culture + values into poor countries emphasizing savings, investment, innovation, education, high achievement, and self-control in having children

Question 13

Dependency Theory I

Answer 13

-most powerful countries impoverished the least powerful countries
•Ought to focus on relationship betw rich + poor countries, not on internal characteristics
•It wasn’t always the way it is, before industrial revolution

Question 14

Dependency Theory I

Answer 14

•Global south produced used to be industrial giants
•rest of world fallen productivity by 1/3 while richest countries have gone up existentially in production
-Industrial Revolution enabled rich to amass enormous wealth

Question 15

Dependency Theory II

Answer 15

-establish powerful armed forces to subdue + colonize rest of the world
•taxed ppl to build militaries, ships
•decided to go out to pillage, enslaved ppl, conquered, stole their things
•put poor countries in dependency of them

Question 16

Dependency Theory II

Answer 16

-Main exception: Japan
considered less valuable: no natural resources, resisted West
•started its own industrialization because it was left alone by the West became a superpower itself

Question 17

Dependency Theory III

Answer 17

Substantial foreign investment
•Multinational corps: invested in poor countries to get new markets for groups + cheap raw material, created blue collar work/labour
•Took raw materials back home, manufactured it then sold it back to the countries for a profit, providing profit of corps with HQs in West
•Create lousy jobs + little domestic industrialization

Question 18

Dependency Theory III

Answer 18

Support for authoritarian gov economically + politically managed to keep them quiet, relied on rich countries to help put rebels down
Mounting debt: after independent after WWII, struggled to create transportation, health care, had no one to tax, tended to loan from rich countries to create economic infrastructure
•Many of corrupt gov became rich while ppl stayed poor
•Interest payments were crippling, many tax
•Foreign aid is very small

Question 19

Main Determinants of Gender Inequality

Answer 19

GDP per capita: rich countries = low inequality
Percent Muslim: high muslim=high inequality
Former or current Communist regime: lower ineqaulity

Question 20

Core, Periphery and Semiperiphery (Wallerstein)

Answer 20

Semiperiphery: former colonies making considerable headway in attempts to become prosperous (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore; Israel, China, India, Brazil)
many at one time colonized by Japan, Japanese handled colonialism, built steel mills, transportation, involved creating local infrastructure which helped a lot after being freed

Question 21

How Semi-Peripheral Countries Differ from Peripheral Countries

Answer 21

having key position of Singapore that US liked gave it an edge in ship building
•Widespread fear of domino effect went to Vietnam in fear of countries becoming communists, opened up american market to south Korea + Taiwan
•Countries with strategic importance to US got benefits which helped them
Geopolitical position

Question 22

How Semi-Peripheral Countries Differ from Peripheral Countries

Answer 22

• Statist pro growth model like Japan, gov heavily involved in economic growth, crated policies to make sure you can’t buy outside country, huge tax on foreign goods, make sure not a lot of consumer goods to buy, so you put money in bank, high savings, make sure it is invested in export goods
• Labour unrest, labour cost, ruthless breaking up of strikes
• Grew economically quickly

Question 23

How Semi-Peripheral Countries Differ from Peripheral Countries

Answer 23

Social structure: ethnic homogeneity
•Agriculture broke up land gave it to small land owners, worked hard, birth rate declined, land reform increased productivity
•Took land away from enterprise owners
•Rich countries escaped homogeneous: tended to draw boundaries that included other ethnic groups, we want instability so we can be called in to make peace

Question 24

Core, Periphery and Semiperiphery (Wallerstein)

Answer 24

 Core: major sources of capital and technology (USA, Japan, Germany)
 Periphery: major sources of raw materials and cheap labour (most former colonies)

Question 25

Life Expectancy + Income

Answer 25

• Health outcomes improve: ppl are healthier + live longer

* Growing income: has many beneficial