The Lopsided Continent: Inequality In Latin America
Dope Title Inequality is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. No region on earth has suffered (and continues to suffer) the damaging repercussions of this phenomenon like Latin America- the most unequal continent on the planet. There are many factors in Latin America which have contributed to developing this lopsided continent. These aspects are highlighted in detail in the article, “The Lopsided Continent: Inequality in Latin America”, written by Princeton professors Kelly Hoffman and Miguel Angel Centeno. The article highlights many of the elements that led to the equality crisis the continent is facing. Throughout the reading, it becomes clear that there are three main factors causing inequality: Latin America’s position
in the global economic system, internal colonialism, and undeveloped state structures. These ideas have not only set up the modern economic crisis, but have intensified inequality associated with a person’s class, race, and gender. Before discussing the causes and effects of this inequality it is imperative to understand what inequality means, and how it is measured. Hoffman and Centeno define it as “the distribution of resources across society”. Meaning that inequity is simply a measure of how unevenly wealth is distributed among a country. There are many ways to classify this inequality but the two most common include the Gini coefficient, and the 20:20 ratio. The Gini coefficient is a percent between 0 and 100, where 0 indicates perfect equality, and 1 represents complete inequality. South Asia has a low Gini coefficient at 31.9, followed by Industrial Countries (like the United States and Canada) with a Gini score of 33.8, then East Asia and Pacific with a respectable 38.1, next is Africa with a striking 45, and finally Latin America with a startling 49.3. The 20:20 ratio compares how much richer the top 20% of the given population are to the bottom 20% of that population. For this measurement, higher ratios represent higher levels of inequality. South Asia has the lowest ratio at 4.5, followed by Industrial countries at 6.3, then East Asia and Pacific at 6.5, next Africa at 9.7, and once again Latin America has the highest score at a noticeable 11.8.
in the global economic system, internal colonialism, and undeveloped state structures. These ideas have not only set up the modern economic crisis, but have intensified inequality associated with a person’s class, race, and gender. Before discussing the causes and effects of this inequality it is imperative to understand what inequality means, and how it is measured. Hoffman and Centeno define it as “the distribution of resources across society”. Meaning that inequity is simply a measure of how unevenly wealth is distributed among a country. There are many ways to classify this inequality but the two most common include the Gini coefficient, and the 20:20 ratio. The Gini coefficient is a percent between 0 and 100, where 0 indicates perfect equality, and 1 represents complete inequality. South Asia has a low Gini coefficient at 31.9, followed by Industrial Countries (like the United States and Canada) with a Gini score of 33.8, then East Asia and Pacific with a respectable 38.1, next is Africa with a striking 45, and finally Latin America with a startling 49.3. The 20:20 ratio compares how much richer the top 20% of the given population are to the bottom 20% of that population. For this measurement, higher ratios represent higher levels of inequality. South Asia has the lowest ratio at 4.5, followed by Industrial countries at 6.3, then East Asia and Pacific at 6.5, next Africa at 9.7, and once again Latin America has the highest score at a noticeable 11.8.