Tuesday October 20, 2009, 8:28 am
It did not surprise me that the top 3 were Hong Kong, Singapore, and The United States which are all bedfellows. Hong Kong and Singapore are the top importers of supplies and goods the people of the U.S. use everyday. The top three are also associated with the sweatshops and slave trade that has had the blind eyes of the Governments ignoring the problems. The next time you go shopping take the time to read the labels of what you buy before dropping them into your basket. Observe where they are made and you may be surprised where they come from. As long as Americans continue to support this happening by purchasing these goods, and allow our Government to continue to support the big companies moving their operations out of the country to take advantage of cheap labor to support their greed, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. When do we stand up for ourselves and stop the cycle?

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 8:33 am
Its a ver sad reminder that most Americans dont see the forest for the trees. Most people are too caught up in their own materialism to see what the big picture really says.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 9:38 am
You touched on another excellent story Dandelion.. I worked on this issue some time back but it is never out of style while there's such a wide gap, and growing, between groups in these countries, especially the US of A that "Dare" boast there's no inequality in America. Thanks! I will gladly move this story again, since, sadly, it has not gone out of style yet!

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 10:00 am
Divide the wealth fairly, I've got nothing against the rich but you only need to look at the Scandinavian coutris to see that's possible to spread the wealth among all your citizens.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 10:00 am
I could not have said it better Brad, in fact is exactly what I've been saying to others. The Corporations are not going to change it is us, the average citizen, that must change things.
You cannot currently send a star to Brad because you have done so within the last week.

Thank you Barbara and Susan for your imput. I also appreciate you will help move this story, for as you said, it has not gone out of style yet, unfortunately.
You cannot currently send a star to Barbara because you have done so within the last week.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 10:42 am
Hong Kong number 1, Singapore #2, and after the U.S. at #3, is Israel at #4, wow what a statement of corruption, racism, and the failings of capitalism. The two Chinese cities that Britain ruled until recently with a Chinese slave labor force, the U.S. with a Mexican slave labor force, and Israel with a racist oppressed Palestinian population.

Capitalism is the key to corruption. Socialism is the future with strong controls over it with Constitutional powers, such as the U.S. Constitution without Corporate American added legislation from corruption of our congress. I think the U.S. democracy is a socialist model and would work if we; Legally SEPARATED CORPORATE FROM STATE.

With a socialist model, we could respect the people from Mexico, Cuba, and China equally and move them from uneducated slave labor to educated specialists, as their children quickly become, given half a chance. Our humanity is the price of the rich and powerful special interests corrupting the U.S. and the world.

Are we to exist on this planet as if we are better or worse than each other or as equals? Materialism and mythology of monotheistic macho god based religions justify supremacy philosophies and Corrupt Capitalism's exploitation of people as slaves, because they believe they are more deserving or better than their slaves.

The ethics of the bush republican era typifies the East India Company that started the American Revolution by taxing tea to the point that it was thrown into the Boston bay. We need another revolution of intellect and ethics today, to reform fairness and equality to match the hopes and dreams of the writers of the Constitution and level the playing field where "all men and women are created equal."

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 12:47 pm
As long as the sick love affair with capitalism continues to be spread and sucked up by too many of the World's have-nots, with vicarious wealth [e.g. watching rich people waste money and waste their lives on TV in "fun" Reality Shows], we all continue to enable and support the blood-sucking filthy-rich global ruling class. Instead, how about putting back the missing letter in capitalism? I prefer to spell it "crapitalism": capital/wealth for the stinking rich - and CRAP for all the rest of us.
Get real - really rich people get that way by NOT SHARING MUCH IF ANY OF THEIR ACTUAL WEALTH. (Usually they get huge tax breaks for anything they do share, which just makes them more filthy lucre a.k.a. capitalistic profits!) CRAPITALISM STINKS!

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 12:54 pm
Well said Alice ~ passing thru

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 1:20 pm
Thank you Casey and Alice for your insightful input to this.
You cannot currently send a star to Alice because you have done so within the last week.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 3:41 pm
I'm surprised that Britain was not in the top 4! Since this global financial meltdown, the gap in the pay system has grown on such a wide scale... Actually, I don’t think I know anyone who has had a pay rise in the past 4 to 5yrs, for some, it’s even longer.

Inequality rules Britain, with its ridiculous class system; working class, middle class and upper class, it’s all pish posh!! I personally, refuse to typecast myself in this outdated system that discriminates human beings from one another....

Thanks Dandelion, another example of capitalism at its best!! Or in Alice’s words crapitalism!!!

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 3:56 pm
The failings of capitalism. Anybody feel anything trickling down on them, I'll bet it's not money.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 4:39 pm
Yea, the Corportocracy practices Corrupt Crapitalism.

Clean thought, once you get away from the stench of living on the rotten pirate's wooden boat of rich and powerful special interests with U.S. in chains in the hull for ballast. Nice subtitle for Pleasure Bubble Lifestyles and the passive apathy that enslaves through non-participation and no expressions contrary to the status quo, fear of rocking the boat, and a sense of futility when contemplating the oatmeal image of government, as an amorphous mass, polemics, politics, and power. Where to start! ? !

Since recorded history or the days of Christ, class supremacist discrimination has existed economically and socially. This is still based on wealth and power, as if we have not learned that the value of life is how we treat each other, not what we possess materially.

As Alice said with bitter awareness of being in the slave class in this material wealth power centered culture, we all get the crap that is left over. The scraps, enough to satisfy but struggle or die trying to survive or better ourselves educationally or physically with faulty health care, that is what our Crapitalist system provides for U.S.

If we separate Corporate from State, we could start returning the government to the people, working for the people's best interests, instead of Insurance, Oil, and Military Industrial Complex Corporations. Then I am sure more of a Constitutionally based socialist direction would develop out of necessity.

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 6:45 pm
Figures...

Big gorilly hugs...

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 7:06 pm
call me naive, but some surprising numbers there - thnx for this/jt

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 9:57 pm
Let's narrow the gap?...The wheels on my tumblel are oiled and ready to cart the ever-greedy plutocrats to the guillotine...I really can't think of another way, can you?

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 10:49 pm
Thanks Dandelion! Interesting indeed!

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 2:32 am
Interesting. i agree w. what Barbara W. had said. Thanks Dandelion for bring this issue to light.

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 6:06 am
America definitely needs a third party cause the both dem and rebul.NEVER did anything to distribute equity,social refors,.improve the educ.system to create wealth.American are sick od high taxes and NO subtantial benefit to improve their LOT!!.The time is right to demand.fairness by the common folks who are the backbone of the economy. What happened with taxes with 'representation'????.Is that why we became a republic to be free from 'exploitation by colonial forces.?'Here we are in the new millinium and and we are blatantly and openly exploited by the 'self aggrandisement politicians' who go about with their inefficiency and unethic.cronyism,etc,which manifest as poor governance.

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 6:30 am
Great story but doesn't match the data at the UN Development Program's website where the Gini numbers match those reported by Business Week but many countries numbers were not reported, for whatever reason. Hong Kong's score of 43.4 was tied with Venezuela that also had 43.4. Why Business Week chose to report selectively I really don't know. I'm awful at pasting links, but here is a try:

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/161.html

If that didn't work, then it's the following with traditional punctuation spelled out.

http colon slash slash hdrstats dot undp dot org slash en slash indicators slash 161 dot html

I don't like it when publications like Business Week give a source but no link to it.

The report data also does not show actual income figures. If the poorest in a given country make substantially above those in another but the wealthy also make substantially more, the Gini rank is much less relevant.

Sorry guys

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 6:32 am
Looks like you'll have to copy and paste, but at least it got in...

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 6:53 am
Thank you Roseann for your insightful comment and I agree we need a 3rd party Roseann as these two are just opposite wings to the same bird.
Thank you Paul for bringing another perspective to the story, I'm not too good at pasting links myself, lol.
Hey, David, I'm ready with the torches and pitchforks!

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 7:13 am
I think I figures out the reporting, sorta, and if I'm right it should still be disclosed by the reporter and the publication they report in. The data was last taken in 1996, although the report was released in 2009. The data for each country is labeled based on the quality of the information. Very few less developed countries had reliable statistics in the study. It is possible that Business Week excluded all countries that did not have top rated data. If that was the case, the article should have stated that only those countries shown in the article had reliable data and that of those the US ranked 3rd. The fact that over 100 countries were excluded is something that I would consider relevant to the conclusion of the article and it's headline.

It often isn't media bias that is the problem. It is often a lack of disclosure and a lack of accuracy. This can cause many of us to draw conclusions that are as inaccurate as the articles from which we get our information. I posted the study from the story because it seemed to illustrate this problem very well.

Third party sounds great to me!

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 10:14 am
Priorities. Apparently people just aren't that important in America. Thanks, Dandelion.

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 10:22 am
Thannxxx... this is a global problem and for sure there needs to be changes put into place so that the economy is better off as well as the needs of the people

Wednesday October 21, 2009, 11:33 am
Lots of great comments here. In the US, it seemed possible that the pendulum had swung so far that it would have to begin to swing back. Well, I have noticed the trend toward successful plundering and pillaging and the rest of the robber baron behaviors slow down some, but it seems to be getting worse more slowly rather than getting better at any speed at all. We got clobbered pretty hard, and now we're awake, but we're having trouble getting the corporate foot off our throat. Never give up - we outnumber them and we can cause change if we work together to take on the issues and the special interests.
This site if chock full of great people and it seems like the good news in terms of participation keeps coming. I am betting on the good folks this time.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 6:10 pm
THere are too many disparities between the rich and poor.Why?-'Cause the ave-American is so brainwashed by the clever politicians on both sides to accept their 'lot' without any protest or fight to amend their constant struggle attaining the basic.----- educ.good nutri,health and social amenities.If this chain of brainwashing continues - the Americans will continue to be left behind while their European and the rest of world forge ahead.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 6:27 pm
The comes from very 'corrupt and poor goverance' by both poli.parties.Corporate barons,greedy self-centred financial institus. have free reign to charge and exploit whatever they wish on the average citizen without any repercussion.The onslaught of the 'wild west' to the max in modern times in America.The only thing can change this blatant corruption if the ordinary Americans collectedly take over their country through social and grassroot levels.Btw,that was how the 'republic' was formed centuries ago.Stop the elitists,wanabe kings queens,rock stars, messiah and the rest of the bourgeoise from heading the republic for the welfare of the ordinary people of the USA.

Thursday October 22, 2009, 6:48 pm
The politicians are going to catapult us into this oligar. of world new order - control by a group of sinister people..THese people would enslave the world with the power of food.If you don't trade with them or put the micro chips than you will starved.When your individ. is taken away than you are chattels of the new world order.Your freedom of thought and choice is threatened in a diabolic way.The new world order is ushering a massive concentration camp of people- totally manipu.by the sick &pow.hungry peop.This is the new trend in our American society TODAY which will create more poverty and destitution amongst the populace.