The biggest and most important issue facing world politics today is the issue of income inequality.  While we may not think about it, income inequality both directly and indirectly affects many of today’s global problems.  Issues like crime, violence, drug use, education levels, overall well-being, and even revolutions can be attributed to the inequality of incomes in a state.  Modern issues, even, like the Mexican drug cartels are all a part of the large problem of inequitable incomes.  Even today in the PEPFAR office, we discussed the unfortunate truth that aid going to African nations to help fight HIV has been slowed due to corruption by the respective governments.  Corruption would not be a problem, or it would at least be less of a problem if incomes were more equal among citizens.

(Map from Andrew Price, GOODblog)

We see here that incomes are more egalitarian among countries that are generally associated with economic and social well-being, political stability, high life expectancies, etc.  These countries, however, particularly those in Northern Europe, are usually targeted by those on the political right as "socialist" (gasp).  However, a country that is, you know, actually economically socialist (and has not been afraid to hide it) on this map, China, has income inequalities rivaling those in Central and South America.  It seems as though the idea of Communism has come to a close in China, whether or not it says it on paper.  The trends of who owns the wealth have become more and more skewed in recent years.  

"China's income gap widened in the first quarter of the year, with 10 percent of the nation's richest people enjoying 45 percent of the country's wealth, state press reports said.  China's poorest 10 percent had only 1.4 percent of the nation's wealth" (China Daily, January 2005).

We also notice that the US is not infallible when it comes to this issue.  We, too, have our own problems with income inequality, and likewise we have massive problems when it comes to crime and violence, leading the western world when it comes to crimes committed (Nation Master).

Globalization has been suggested as a remedy to this issue.  While globalization has reduced income inequality over the past twenty five years (Global Envision), we can expect to see countries with a higher proportion of lower-skilled workers to higher-skilled workers begin to experience stagnating or even a rise in inequality, as capital flows out of nations except to those few at the very top (perhaps management or professional sector), the gap between incomes will begin to increase.  You could expect to see this in Central America, South America, Africa, and even the United States, considering our large base of middle to low-skilled labor.  What can we do?  My feelings are that our political leaders need to take a serious look at the education system in this country, and begin to increase funding for lower-income students, giving them a serious chance at an in-demand profession.  We can have all the peace we want in the world, first we just need to have some accountability.

http://www.globalenvision.org/library/8/1860
http://www.good.is/post/inequality-makes-me-sick-literally/
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20050621_2.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita