The Divide
by Jason Hickel
Rating: 5.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2019-12-18
Really in-depth, really packed with information. I was taking notes the whole time. Legitimately made me rethink several things I just assumed to be true (e.g. worldwide poverty is decreasing, e.g. debt should always be repaid, e.g. free trade is fair)
It tries to answer why some countries are rich and others are poor. The shortest answer: colonialism. A slightly longer answer: Colonialism, slavery, theft, invasion, unfair trade.
There’s a pretty good summary of the suggested solutions to global inequality near the end of the book, so I might as well parrot them here: (1) Forgive the debt of poor countries that was taken on unfairly, or which had unfair interest rates. (2) The WTO, the World Bank and the IMF should have more democratic representation based on population, not capital. (3) The scale of liberalization vs subsidies right now favors rich countries. We should reverse that. (4) A global minimum wage of 50% the median wage in the given country, but at least the poverty line in the given country. (5) (this one is actually 3) Reduce tax evasion, reduce privatization of common resources, and make rich countries bear the brunt of fighting climate change.