An analysis of the global gap between the rich and the poor

陳柳伊　黃健偉

Abstract: with the development of economic globalization, more and more people are paying attention to the gap between the rich and the poor in the world. The richer the rich countries are, the poorer the poor countries are. The richer the rich are, the poorer the poor are. This is the reality of today's world. The degree of the gap between the rich and the poor affects the process of social development and economic construction. On the one hand, the gap between the rich and the poor is the driving force to ensure the social progress. On the other hand, the too large gap between the rich and the poor will cause social unrest.

Key words: gap between the rich and the poor; wealth situation; root causes

I.The gap between the rich and the poor: 1% of the rich have half of the world's wealth

Beijing, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) - World Bank experts conducted a comprehensive survey on the distribution of wealth in 120 countries on Sept. 15, and published a report entitled "where is national wealth" on its official website? Switzerland, the richest country in the world, and Ethiopia, the poorest country, are far from each other in terms of per capita wealth, and the world poverty gap continues to expand. The latest report from Credit Suisse shows that global wealth has grown by 6% in the past 12 months to US $280 trillion, the fastest pace of wealth creation since 2012. More than half of the $16.7 trillion in new wealth comes from the United States. Over the past year, China's wealth has increased by $8.5 trillion. But wealth is now concentrated at the top. The richest 1% of the world's population now owns 50.1% of global wealth, up from 45.5% in 2001.

II.The reasons for the gap between the rich and the poor in today's world

1.The impact of economic globalization on the gap between the rich and the poor

Economic globalization is a double-edged sword. It not only has a positive impact on the world, but also has a negative impact on the global economy. After the economic globalization, the rich countries are richer, the poor countries are poorer, the global polarization is more and more serious, and the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. For poor countries, after economic globalization, their economy has fallen to the lowest point in history, while the development of developed countries is still rapid, which also makes the gap between the rich and the poor more and more serious.

2.A sharp increase in the population of poor countries

The basic feature of the world population growth is that the population of the poor countries is increasing, the poor people are increasing, and poverty spreads and expands like infectious diseases. Asia is the region with the most urban poor, and Africa is the region with the highest proportion of urban poor in all developing countries, accounting for 41%. The world's urban population is growing at the rate of 1 million people a week, and in 2000, the number of urban poor exceeded 1 billion. The huge problems brought by the rapid growth of poor countries and poor people make the resource bottleneck problem more and more serious. With limited resources and less and less non-renewable resources, the desire of the people of the world to get rid of poverty has become a distant dream.

3.Monopoly of rich countries' resources

Population is increasing and resources are decreasing, but resources are monopolized and controlled by rich countries. The expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor has become an inevitable trend of development. There are two kinds of resource monopoly: natural monopoly and power monopoly. The natural monopoly of resources is closely related to the monopoly of power, which in turn leads to the natural monopoly of resources. Japan lacks natural resources. How does it monopolize power and become a rich country in the world? This kind of resource is not only talent and natural resources, but also talent, technology, education, brand, capital, culture and information. Japan is a country where everyone knows the market game. It lacks this kind of monopoly resource, so it pursues and creates another kind of monopoly resource, thus forming its monopoly resource advantage.

III. How to solve the gap between the rich and the poor

Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to the gap between the rich and the poor. At present, there are two opinions on how to solve this problem: first, we should focus on the sustainable economic development, and only if the cake is bigger, we can solve the gap between the rich and the poor; second, we should strive to improve the distribution system, as long as the distribution is fair and reasonable, we can narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. But both seem to be one-sided. What we should really do is to adhere to the principle of efficiency first and let the vitality of labor, knowledge, technology, management and capital burst out.

Author brief introduction:

Chen Liuyi (1998 -), female, Han nationality, Zigong, Sichuan , bachelor's degree ,research direction: Economics.

Huang Jianwei (1998 -), male, Han nationality, Luzhou, Sichuan, bachelor's degree, research direction: product design.