The gap between rich and poor - is it widening or narrowing?

Kate P wrote:

It's not my community but nevertheless, it's a positive and proactive step on behalf of the natives there.

On the other hand, there was an article in the Times last week (I think) about Brazilian workers in Gort who had been a big part of the local community and now were returning home en masse because there just wasn't work for them.
I wonder how many 'immigrants' have actually put down roots here - I imagine fewer Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians than Nigerians and Romanians. I say that because of the representation of their kids in local schools. Many Eastern Europeans have made very little effort to really integrate into their adopted communities and don't have good English. Many of them (at least in my part of the world) are single. They will find it impossible to transfer whatever skills they have into other areas and will most likely cut their losses and go home.

I expect other posters know more about this than I do - I'd be interested to hear what they have to say.

Not only because there is limited work here, but more importantly because the Brazilian economy is booming.

LINK

We can expect to see a lot of our recent migrant population leave to go home or move on elsewhere. This is not a good thing in my view, it is a sign that other economies are more successful than ours. They will take with them all the skills including language skills they have acquired here.

Is there any any sign globally that economies are "evening out" as footloose industry wanders the globe progressively seeking out new low cost/low wage areas to produce in?

The gap between rich and poor people has widened enormously since the 1970s, but has the gap between rich and poor countries widened or narrowed?

It is hard to say that that countries have not moved a lot closer to one another. It looks like for example Romania and Germany to pick extremes will reach parity. Following the same trajectory but a few years behind we could say that the extremes of India and China are getting closer to Australia. Amidst all this happy talk there seems to be one glaring omission that nobody mentions. I don't think I have heard much about jobs fleeing to Africa. Africa looks to be going in reverse. I do not buy the story that the Africans are any more promiscuous than others but yet the Aids rate is 50 % in areas. Bill Crosby believes Aids is a man made virus targeting blacks.
So Africa is left out of the process of all countries reaching economic parity while Malaria and Aids wipes out the population. I am listening to Bill Crosby.

youngdan wrote:

It is hard to say that that countries have not moved a lot closer to one another. It looks like for example Romania and Germany to pick extremes will reach parity. Following the same trajectory but a few years behind we could say that the extremes of India and China are getting closer to Australia. Amidst all this happy talk there seems to be one glaring omission that nobody mentions. I don't think I have heard much about jobs fleeing to Africa. Africa looks to be going in reverse. I do not buy the story that the Africans are any more promiscuous than others but yet the Aids rate is 50 % in areas. Bill Crosby believes Aids is a man made virus targeting blacks.
So Africa is left out of the process of all countries reaching economic parity while Malaria and Aids wipes out the population. I am listening to Bill Crosby.

I had a feeling that things were moving in Africa, and here is confirmation - average growth rates of over 6%. If we would only leave them to get on with it, they would quickly get back to the
relative position they were in 40 years ago.

Both Sarkozhy's Med alliance and Gaddafi's proposal for a United States of Africa are interesting. China is a big investor.

Africa - Economic Trends

cactus flower wrote:

China is a big investor.

A fairly dodgy one too.

I had a good discussion with St Disibod over on p.ie about it a while ago, though we were both busy at the time and didn't get to flesh it out as you can see. http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=19989
Disibod is the kind of quality poster that p.ie now lacks. I'll have to give him a call after the exams and see can we poach him.

China is selling Africa cheap flip flops. It is running African business, out of business. It will make for short term growth and indeed may provide the backbone for greater growth to come, but the current way investment is being done by China in Africa is no more sustainable than alot of forms of aid. It probably has its place in the grand scheme of things mind you.