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Comment by Lionga | Hacker News Reader

Countries in which the income disparities ARE so high are also the ones where the "poor" are the richest. They just feel poor in comparison not in absolute terms.

70K a year is poor in California, but top 1% rich in almost any country in the world.

Low income disparities are countries like Albania, Afghanistan, Armenia to name the first three with below 30 GINI income.

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This is an anomaly and left over from the time when middle class was growing after the 2nd world war. We (Western countries) are dismantling all the back stops and the process will reverse and move all the wealth to the few rich people in the capital class. When this process is complete the poverty levels in the west will equal those of the countries you mentioned, Afghanistan etc.

The USA and UK are leading the process since they started to pursue this goal aggressively during the 80s with Reaganism and Thatcherism.

and you’re claiming the process still isn’t complete more than 40 years later? shouldn't the wealth gap between the poor in the US vs the poor in Afghanistan be starting to get smaller if your argument is correct?

And this is exactly why nominal $ amount comparisons are completely pointless. Someone who makes $70k in southern or eastern Europe is living like a king (or living at least good life anywhere in Europe) while someone making $70k in expensive parts of California is going to struggle.

Wealth is equal to your share of the overall resources, $ amounts are just an abstraction.

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