What Mississippi & Nepal Have in Common
Jul 24, 2010 09:58 Filed in: Mississippi/Jackson Subjects Economics
Here’s an interesting article on income inequality in the United States. The Gini coefficient measures how far the distribution of income differs from a perfectly equal income distribution, and is used by the Census Bureau to measure inequality. A population in which everyone makes the same income has a Gini coefficient of 0, whereas a perfectly unequal population—one person at the top receives all the income—would have a Gini coefficient of 1.
The article lists each state and its Gini coefficients along with the third-world nation with the closest-matching Gini coefficient. Mississippi (Gini coefficient = .471) most closely resembles Nepal by that measure.
The title of the linked article, “Is the U.S. Becoming a Third-World Country?” thus has an answer: Mississippi is already a third-world country. The rest of the U.S. is following us onto the plantation.
The article lists each state and its Gini coefficients along with the third-world nation with the closest-matching Gini coefficient. Mississippi (Gini coefficient = .471) most closely resembles Nepal by that measure.
The title of the linked article, “Is the U.S. Becoming a Third-World Country?” thus has an answer: Mississippi is already a third-world country. The rest of the U.S. is following us onto the plantation.
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