Dynamic Maps of Income Distribution Over Time
INDIA
The Rise of India's Middle Class
Check out the dynamic, time-series graphs of income distribution from Gapminder.com here. Pick a country (or the world), and click the arrow on the left to watch the year-by-year change in income distribution. For an interesting comparison, watch India (see charts above for 1970 and 2000) and then Nigeria - two different stories.
7 Comments:
This data obviously needs to be inflation-adjusted in order to mean anything.
Being Indian, I have to say a few things about this graph. I hope no one takes offense ... but ...
- Pre-1947 India = Today's India+Pakistan+Bangladesh. If you chart all three countries over the graph time, you can really appreciate what India has done vs. what it's cousin's have. India's neighbors need to wake up to the reality and stop supporting terrorists, have a real democracy and increase business with India.
Both China and the USA developed a double hump, that is an indication of a bubble.
Wealth distributions and yield curves are closely related, and a bump in the yield curve would be considered abnormal, inefficient and unstable.
The authors of the study and presentation did a great job.
Very interesting.
a) Did you notice Indonesia, which the main hump did a backslide towards the end.
b) Nigeria. So sad.
> Both China and the USA developed a double hump
Actually, the USA had and always had (for the range of this graph) a triple hump, it's just a lot less pronounced on this scale until the shift at the end. But you'll note how the top end did not grow and the middle block did not shrink, which sheds some question on the notion of a "shrinking middle class".
a) I'm curious what happens to that increasing back hump if you pull out immigrants (esp. illegal ones, if they are included).
b) That increasing back hump isn't necessarily an avoidable feature as society tends towards an IP and Services economy (which we have little foreknowledge of the standard features of) -- it seems to me that (though it 'twere not PC to point it out) that a subsection of the population may well be limited in the possible valuation of their skills in this regard -- they may not have the basic human skills needed to obtain anything better than a "McJob" in ANY market, period. And there will always be an upper limit (based on total societal income) as to what these jobs will pay. No one should be relegated to such a job by social background, but if you don't have the ability to perform a better (i.e., better-paying) job, you don't have the ability to perform a better job. Society can't change that.
c) You cannot teach a horse to sing nor a pig to fly. So if the best paying jobs involve singing or flying, what are you supposed to do? There is a limit to how far society can go to solve the inherent inequities of the universe.
I like the contrast between Ireland and Switzerland. It's amazing what decimating the corporate income tax can do for a country.
Switzerland on the other hand has relied far too much on secretive banking, which has lost a lot of its edge as the developed world cut top income tax rates by a lot over the past generation, thus negating its comparitive advantage to a significant degree.
I apologize. I posted before I checked the link. I am not so sure how easy it is to find the link you need to compare switzerland and Ireland. Here it is.
My link is better, with all due respect. It is more up to date, and gives all kinds of fun options.
If you feel like crying, check out the vertical line in a comparison between Botswana and Zimbabwe. If you use a log scale the horizontal axis is enlightening between those two countries.
> happyjuggler0 said...
Wow. That's pretty cool.
Thx.
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