Disparity of wealth biggest problem for the 21st Century

Disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor has always been with us since the beginning of  civilization.  For various reasons, some people have more money, goods and influence than other people.

The same holds true for countries.  Some countries are richer than other countries.  Along with that richness often comes some form of democratic government and institutions that allow the poor some say.

Into the 20thCentury is was assumed that we have rich countries and poor countries.  The poor countries looked to rich countries for economic and development help, which sometimes took the form of military help.

Poor countries often saw out-migration of its populace as a means to replace economic income by those who send back money made from working in richer countries.  It was an accepted way of life.

With the beginning of the 21st Century, the number of people seeking economic improvement in their lives has increased substantially.

Previously people in poor countries knew they were poor, they just didn’t have anything to compare their poverty to.  Now, the disparity of wealth is no further away than the computer in their school room and in many cases, the cell phone in their hand.  They can now see just how poor they really are compared to what they’re seeing on the net.

And, they don’t like it.  The wealth of other countries and the poverty of their country just doesn’t seem fair.  So they leave, sometimes risking their lives for a better future in a richer country, where even the poor seem rich.

But it isn’t only poverty.  It’s war, government corruption and crime.  Adding to the woes is climate change which has caused droughts and storms and placed their former subsistence living at the very end of the life scale.

The southern border of the United States is a primary example of the problem.  Thousands of refugees have made their way to the border from more than 70 different countries at last count.  Many of them fleeing poverty, others fleeing prosecution, some fleeing crime and criminal gangs and others just trying to join their family members who have already arrived here.  They see the richness of the United States as a their salvation.

But the problem isn’t only at the United State’s border.  Refugees from Africa have flooded Europe, searching for a better life.  More than a million survivors from war in the Middle East have already settled in Germany, while millions of others are pounding on the door of Greece, France and Italy demanding to be let in.

In the 21st Century the disparity of wealth, the knowledge of that disparity, and the ability to migrate will be the major problem facing the world.  Our leaders of the 21st Century will have to come up with a solution.

(Incidentally – despite its wealth – no one is trying to get into China.)