The world has seen a dramatic rise in inequalities of income and wealth over the last three decades, making extreme economic inequality one of the defining issues of our time. The 80 richest people on the planet now own as much as the bottom half of the world’s population, while 7 out of 10 people live in countries where the gap between rich and poor is greater than it was 30 years ago. In the US, the richest 10% accounted for over half of total national income in 2012, the biggest share since 1917.
In recent years, austerity policies imposed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis have made the concentration of income and wealth more acute. In many emerging economies and countries transitioning from undemocratic rule, the rise or persistence of stark economic inequality has dashed expectations of a more egalitarian society. Inequality in South Africa, for example, is greater today than at the end of apartheid, while regressive austerity measures have deepened disparities in Egypt’s troubled transition.
Outrage at the injustice of extreme inequality—and of the inequitable policy choices that fuel it—has spurred an unprecedented groundswell of popular mobilization across the globe. Inequality has surged to the forefront of political debate in many countries. It has become central to the international development agenda, and the subject of global development campaigns and best-selling academic tomes. Even the bastions of economic orthodoxy such as the International Monetary Fund have identified income inequality as a central challenge of the 21st century.
