Why is the gap between rich and poor growing despite rises in GDP? Do benefits help? Does aid work? Eight experts answer these and other questions from the big inequality debate
Countries that didn’t think beyond income creation pay the price in inequality: I hate it when people imply there is something inevitable about inequality constantly rising. Denmark and UK have roughly the same GDP per capita, but one is much more equal than the other. That said, there are also deep-rooted causes to inequality. One is that technology has been increasing the demand for people with high skills, while reducing it for people with low skills. But the other is that most governments have assumed that GDP growth is what they are there for, and have not been worried about how it was distributed. In the USA, for example, 47% of all growth between 1975-2007 was received by just the top 1% of the population (pdf). More recently average incomes in the US stagnated and fell for people at the bottom. This wasn’t by accident. It happened because policy did not try (much) to help those at the bottom end of income distribution. Mark Pearson, deputy director of employment, labour and social affairs, OECD, Paris, France. @OECD
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