Bengaluru: Well known economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph E Stiglitz has said income inequality is rising across the world. In a discussion with leading economist Branko Milanovic, organised by Azim Premji University at NIMHANS Convention Centre on Thursday Professor Stiglitz cited the US example and said, “There is more money with the top one per cent (23 per cent of the country’s income) while 90 per cent of people were facing poverty There has been 40 years of total stagnation, mainly with the middle class, while those at bottom are worse off.”
He stated examples of median household income in the U.S, which is lower than what it was 20 years ago. While full time male workers as a demographic, earn same as what they used to in the 1970s.
As for Asia, he said inequality has increased after globalization. China suffers most inequality and India is not far behind. He concluded his speech by stating that inequality is a choice, as a result of policies of the country and not the economics forces at play.
The second part of the discussion by Professor Branko, focused on global inequality as a whole. He said that we need to look at inequality on a global scale as all countries contribute to the GDP.
