Income Inequality In The U.S. Is Worse Than In Egypt

One of the driving factors behind the protests is the decades-long stagnation of the Egyptian economy and a growing sense of inequality. “They’re all protesting about growing inequalities, they’re all protesting against growing nepotism. The top of the pyramid was getting richer and richer,” said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the Middle East.

As Yasser El-Shimy, former diplomatic attaché at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote in Foreign Policy, “income inequality has reached levels not before seen in Egypt’s modern history.” But Egypt still bests quite a few countries when it comes to income inequality, including the United States:

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the U.S. is ranked as the 42nd most unequal country in the world, with a Gini Coefficient of 45.

In contrast:

– Tunisia is ranked the 62nd most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of 40.

– Yemen is ranked 76th most unequal, with a Gini Coefficient of 37.7.

– And Egypt is ranked as the 90th most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of around 34.4.

The Gini coefficient is used to measure inequality: the lower a country’s score, the more equal it is.

More at link


http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/31/income-inequality-egypt/

Then it was stagnant from 1973-2000.
From 2000-2010 median income has declined.

While the rich (top 5%) now have 72% of the money.

We have become a nation that feeds the sparrows through the horses.

Because that's Egypt's situation: more equal in a distribution sense than us, but much, much, much more poor. Apparently unimaginably poor to a lot of people, since there are several threads saying we're as bad off as Egypt is.