INCOME INEQUALITY AND THE LIBERAL ECONOMIC ORDER: A NOT ENTIRELY

This enabled the construction of a world income distribution, measuring the purchasing power of the poorest segment of global citizens irrespective of physical location, the purchasing power of the second poorest segment, and so on, all the way to the richest segment. [...] At the same time, the income growth rate of the very richest people in the world plummeted, completely eliminating the upturned trunk of the elephant in the original graph. [...] From the viewpoint of global economic welfare, the prolonged and fitful entry of China and India into the ranks of the liberal international economic order is probably the seminal shift of the twentieth century, of ultimately greater scope than other seismic events, such as the Great Depres- sion, post-war reconstruction, the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the rise of the ‘Asian Tigers’. [...] Contrary to the cherished mythology of the American Dream, the children of low-income parents clearly do not have access to remotely the same opportunities as the children of the more affluent. [...] This enables the job match – the fit between the technical requirements of a job and the skills and experience of the worker currently employed in that position – to survive the downturn in market demand.