“Economic Inequality” is a hot topic in American politics at the moment but it is not just an American condition.
A report released in May of 2011 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that the gap between the rich and poor in O.E.C.D. countries has reached its highest level in over 30 years.
In Italy, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom the income gap between the richest 10% and the poorest 10% was reported to be 10 to 1. Israel, Turkey and the U.S. had a gap of 14 to 1. And although the gaps in Chile and Mexico had declined the incomes of the richest are still more than 25 times that of the poorest.
This month we are inviting bloggers to ponder the impact these kinds of extreme conditions are having on the world we live in. Are extreme gaps between the rich and poor harmful to society? Does excessive inequalities of wealth create situations where the human dignity of people are threatened? Does the kind of economic inequality that is being reported around the world undermine human solidarity and the common good?
If you would like to join in the conversation, please plan to submit your name, name of blog, title of post and link in the comment section of this announcement by 6PM EST 2/7/2012. The list of participants will be compiled and posted on 2/8/2012.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: We ask that all synchroblog participants include the list of participants and links at the end of their post.
synchroblog 
Excellent topic. My reply:
Name – Marta Layton
Title – Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate…
Link – http://fidesquaerens.livejournal.com/61052.html
Thanks to a 2006 study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research — using statistics for the year 2000 — we now have information on the wealth distribution for the world as a whole, which can be compared to the United States and other well-off countries. The authors of the report admit that the quality of the information available on many countries is very spotty and probably off by several percentage points, but they compensate for this problem with very sophisticated statistical methods and the use of different sets of data. With those caveats in mind, we can still safely say that the top 10% of the world’s adults control about 85% of global household wealth — defined very broadly as all assets (not just financial assets), minus debts. That compares with a figure of 69.8% for the top 10% for the United States. The only industrialized democracy with a higher concentration of wealth in the top 10% than the United States is Switzerland at 71.3%. For the figures for several other Northern European countries and Canada, all of which are based on high-quality data, see Table 4.
i am going to be out of town next week but post is scheduled to go up on tuesday the 7th. here’s the link, i hope it works:
http://kathyescobar.com/2012/02/04/pawn-shops-empty-refrigerators-the-long-hill-up
Here’s my link: http://wordshalfheard.blogspot.com/2012/02/wondering-about-wealth.html
A challenging topic, but definitely worth thinking about.
Great, meaty topic!
Here is my link: http://communitascollective.com/archives/6162
My link will go up tomorrow morning.
Wealth Redistribution – http://www.tillhecomes.org/wealth-redistribution/
Here is mine http://gracerules.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/the-first-step-is-admitting-there-is-a-problem/
I will get all the links together this evening and put them on this site. Thanks to all of you who were able to participate.
http://ellenharoutunian.com/2012/02/07/february-2012-synchroblog-economic-inequality-coming-back-to-our-senses/
Okay, I’m late. But I wrote something anyway.
Name: K.W. Leslie
Title: Wealth, Christians, and justice.
Link: morechrist.blogspot.com/2012/02/wealth-christians-and-justice.html
My post is called “Obsenity” and is at http://methodius.blogspot.com/2012/02/obscenity.html
Thanks Steve. I added your link here and on my blog.