Inequality lurks under facade of prosperity

ASIA-PACIFIC

Inequality lurks under facade of prosperity

Published: 19 Feb 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

What if the gap between the rich and poor grew and grew in Asia, and no one noticed?

Avendor pedals past a Louis Vuitton store —an image of contrast that captures Thailand’s widening income gap between the rich and poor. NATTHITIAMPRIWAN

Amidst skyscrapers and shopping malls from Bangkok to Beijing, that's a question worth pondering given an increasingly affluent and growing middle class often far removed from the poverty that persists across the Asia-Pacific region.

This article is older than 60 days, which we reserve for our premium members only.You can subscribe to our premium member subscription, here.

Forum

Your comments

boons
Post : 664
Send message

Discussion 15 : 20 Feb 2013 at 01.1315
Post this to my Facebook
How could the gap between rich and poor *not* grow? Compound interest is at the heart of the financial system and wealth-creation. It is by definition exponential growth of existing wealth. ie: The wealth get wealthier, faster.

I make no judgement on the "good" or "bad" of a widening wealth-gap, but anyone with a modicum of understanding regarding finances should know that a widening wealth gap is not some unfortunate side-effect of success. Without compound interest, there is no such thing as investing.

Which is why the discussion must be about equality of opportunity, not equality of assets.
Like dislike 3 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
spiceman
Post : 3,482
Send message

Discussion 14 : 19 Feb 2013 at 19.1714
Post this to my Facebook
Bandrew #13, the fuse of what to become the 2007 US Financial Crisis was lit by Bill Clinton back in 1999 when he deregulated the US Banking Industry. The Subprime Mortgage Crisis was caused by Democrat's controlled House of Representatives and Senate, during the second half of GWB's final term in office. Together, they brought the mighty US Economy down to its knees. GWB was on the record warning the Democrats to tight up the loose lending rule, but with no avail. PBS Frontline produced an excellent documentary series about it from beginning to end. Please, go to pbs.org and watch "Money, Power, and Wall Street," and "the Untouchables."
Like dislike 3 people liked / 4 people disliked this comment
bandrew
Post : 66
Send message

Discussion 13 : 19 Feb 2013 at 18.3313
Post this to my Facebook
Capitalism can work well, providing Government plays a strong role in watching over it. This did not happen in the USA where the Republican Party and it's Corporate backers were in full agreement that Government should look after Government and Business should look after Business. What resulted was the subprime mortgage fiasco which the world is still trying to recover from.
Like dislike 5 people liked / 2 people disliked this comment
peterd
Post : 678
Send message

Discussion 12 : 19 Feb 2013 at 17.5412
Post this to my Facebook
#4, "Communists countries have a low rating since everyone is equally poor"??? It's an idealist vision of their situation. Always have a a privileged nomenclature in this countries and enormous inequalities in the population. Just look at China.
Like dislike 6 people liked / 2 people disliked this comment
lungstib
Post : 498
Send message

Discussion 11 : 19 Feb 2013 at 14.2911
Post this to my Facebook
Capitalism, especially the form practiced by the robber barons of many countries, has failed the large majority of the worlds people. Communism was trampled into the falling Berlin wall and proclaimed dead, but the scandals pervading capitalism since 2000 are far more numerous. Just when will capitalism be pronounced useless to most of us?
Like dislike 7 people liked / 4 people disliked this comment
kasper
Post : 603
Send message

Discussion 10 : 19 Feb 2013 at 14.2410
Post this to my Facebook
I am not sure about the Gini index, but in the EU the way to measure if one is poor is to look at the median income for a given country. If you make less than half (I think) of that median income, then you are poor.
This also means that if all the rich people of your country were to suddenly move to another country, then you would no longer be poor, even though you make the same money as yesterday (when you were poor), and the cost of living remains the same.
In other words, the official way of measuring rich and poor makes no sense!
Like dislike 4 people liked / 8 people disliked this comment
tamsin
Post : 115
Send message

Discussion 9 : 19 Feb 2013 at 13.289
Post this to my Facebook
This all has less to do with populist policies and more to do with ignorance and nationalism. Hence the Thai students' surprise when having been faced the fact that Thailand has the largest wealth gap of all SE countries. And their current propagandised education engendering willful ignorance of the world about them is unlikely to wake them up any time soon.
Like dislike 8 people liked / 1 people disliked this comment
Ian
Post : 676
Send message

Discussion 8 : 19 Feb 2013 at 08.408
Post this to my Facebook
It takes education to seize opportunity, but education involves effort both by the teacher and the taught. But effort fails when the culture says "mai pen rai".
Like dislike 30 people liked / 1 people disliked this comment
spiceman
Post : 3,482
Send message

Discussion 7 : 19 Feb 2013 at 07.587
Post this to my Facebook
Khun Whatajoke #4 brought up an excellent point. The Govt of Singapore is generally regarded as the least corrupted in the world. On the other hand, the Govt of Thailand is generally regarded as among one of the most corrupted. So, is it just a coincidence that the least corrupted country is also one of the most prosperous with the least income inequality? And as the S Koreans also found out, by drastically reducing the level of corruption at all cost, the economy took off with prosperity spreading throughout their society.
Like dislike 37 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
brilliant
Post : 1,458
Send message

Discussion 6 : 19 Feb 2013 at 07.476
Post this to my Facebook
johnb - while you're at it, look at the NPL rate in 2003 and 2004. Due to populist policies making it possible for anyone to get a loan through the village loan programs as well as other TRT progrmas, there were false indicators of the poverty level. Everyone in Isaan was buying trucks, motorbikes, cell phones, etc. on loans that were defaulted and forgiven by the government at the time. Government banks were reporting default rates on certain loan sectors of 80%. Personal debt was at an all time high in Thailand during those years.
Like dislike 34 people liked / 1 people disliked this comment

1 2 Next Last

Inequality lurks under facade of prosperity | Bangkok Post: opinion