Wealth is relative. Since the Baby Boomers' DoB, many people have got wealthier, many more have got poorer. This is not coincidental.
Wealth is absolute. Since the Baby Boomers' DoB, many people have got wealthier, very few have got poorer.
Outsourcing our manufacturing base has reduced the inflation adjusted income of a lot of people.
I'm talking in a worldwide context, not a US one.
'Wealth', as in how many Yankee dollars you have is relative. I understand all the arguments about absolute wealth, and it is true that my parents (and I) are absolutely wealthier than 60 years ago.
Now, here this: millions of people are starving to death every year. Starving from lack off food, water, ideas and hope. And Obama isn't gonna change it one bit.
Re:The Shallowest Generation
by ryanwaggoner on Sunday November 16, 2008 @03:30PM
(#366252)
Interesting how you roped Obama into the discussion, despite it being completely irrelevant.
And it's true that millions of people are starving every year, dying of preventable diseases, etc. But those things correlate strongly with extreme poverty, and the number of people in extreme poverty has dropped dramatically over the last 25 years and continues to drop.
Check out the movement in the graph starting around 7:40. A huge portion of East Asia and South Asia (where a large part of the world's population lives) experienced a large gain. (We might not consider a move from $1/day to $10/day significant, but it is)
As another commenter pointed out, this isn't something we can attribute to some "U.S. generation", but there it is.