Income Distribution and Undernutrition Text extracted from The World Food Problem Leathers & Foster, 2004 ttp:// Toward-Undernutrition/dp/

Poorest of the Poor Live in third world Mostly landless Work for others, menial jobs Poorly educated Illiterate Superstitious Squatters who live in huts Almost no food Fragmented household Debt to relatives or lenders

Per capita incomes differ Democratic Republic Congo: $80/yr Switzerland: $38,330 Average person in Switzerland makes 500X more than in Mozambique. If compute purchasing power parity, difference between richest and poorest countries is 80X

Purchasing Power Parity

Global Incomes

Distribution of World GNP (1989)

Human Development Index Measures quality of life High HDI –High income countries Low HDI –Low income countries HDI not perfectly correlated with income ox6Dacw/R0yJQ0c_8YI/AAAAAAAAAO4/jCG1CPQfBb0/s1600-h/HDI+map.JPG

Gini Coefficient Gini coefficient: –Based on area of crescent made by Lorenz curve – measures inequity of wealth –= A/A+B Gini index = Gini coefficient x 100 Lowest inequity is in Japan – Gini coefficient =.249 Gini index = 24.9 –Richest 20% controls 35% of income Highest inequity is in Brazil –Gini index= 60.7 –Richest 20% controls 64% of income

Global Gini Coefficients Gini_Coefficient_World_Human_Development_Report_ png

Kuznets Curve As a country develops, rich must get richer first Therefore inequity will increase initially Later, inequity will drop as prosperity increases Data from 75 countries

Wealthy out-compete poor for food Can outbid poor for food Also purchase more livestock –Herd becomes more dependent on grain –Price of grain is bid up –Harder for the poor to buy grain

Overall inequity declining slowly Global Gini coefficients: –.67 in 1980 –.65 in 1990 –.63 in 2000 –.62 in 2005 (Bob Sutcliff, 2007)

Extreme Inequity Increasing

Child Labor 250 million children work worldwide –22% of workforce in Asia –17% of workforce in Latin America –1/3 of children in sub-Saharan Africa Jobs –Agriculture –Textiles –Maids and services –Construction and manufacturing –Prostitution Many sold into debt bondage –To pay parent’s debt or as collateral –Advance on wages

U.S. Poor are Wealthy Poverty income – $9,359/yr Person at poverty line in U.S. – has higher income than 80% of people in the world 97% poor households in U.S. have color TV

Middle Class Decline Middle class is disappearing in U.S. Income gap is increasing between wealthy and poor.

U.S. Inequity increasing Gini coefficients : –1968: 38.6: –1970: 39.4 –1980: 40.3 –1990: 42.2 –2000: 46.2 –2007:

Rich in U.S. getting richer

Hunger in the U.S.A million people live in households that experience hunger –or the risk of hunger –Includes 13 million children –More than one in ten households in the United States (11.2 percent). 1/5 of U.S. food ends up in the landfill Source: Bread for the World Institute (2004)