A United Nations report on wealth distribution has found that the world’s richest 1% own 40% of the world’s wealth. Europe, the US and some Asia Pacific countries account for most of the world’s wealthiest with 30% of them living in the US. So is this a problem and should we, or indeed can we, do anything about this. The article below from the Guardian looks at these issues in more detail.
World’s richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers Guardian (6/12/06)
Questions
| 1. | Examine whether the fact that the richest 10% in the world own 85% of all world assets is likely to cause problems for developing countries. |
| 2. | Suggest two policies that a developed country could use to narrow wealth distribution and evaluate the likely impact of these policies on the level of economic growth. |
| 3. | “”In some ways, wealth is more important to people in poorer countries than in richer countries.” Discuss the extent to which this assertion from the article is likely to be true. |