Claims That Capitalism Is Eradicating Global Poverty Are Wildly Misleading

Fans of our current global economic order often justify it by claims of great progress in lifting people out of extreme poverty. Rarely do they cite statistics on inequality, such as comparing the slice of the “world pie” that goes to the rich versus that which goes to the poor. Little wonder as that picture is much grimmer, undermining their much-touted triumphant “progress.” Here are 2021’s global pie slices, according to World Inequality Lab data.

The top-skew is so severe that half the pie gets gobbled up by the top 10 percent. That resource-blessed group earns over $53,300 annually, and includes me and likely many of you. Meanwhile the poorest half of humanity nets 8.5 percent, and the bottom decile only 0.1 percent. The bottom decile earns an average of $289 annually, or about 79 cents a day. That’s 436 times less than the average top-deciler, who earns an average of $126,000, or $345 a day. (For rank-anxious overachievers, top 5 percent and 1 percent thresholds are $81,700 and $181,000 respectively.)