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Our unsustainably unequal world
The past is still very much with us.
It's almost the first anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine. On March 11, it'll be three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record since ... 1880.
We are still dealing with the fallout from all three events. But not equally.
Since 2020, the richest 1% of people has accumulated nearly two-thirds of all the new wealth created in the world. Just 10% of the population owns three-quarters of global wealth — and account for nearly half of carbon emissions.
What can we do to turn this around?
Watch the GZERO World episode: Inequality isn't inevitable - if global communities cooperate
The Graphic Truth: America's racial wealth gap
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day Confederate slaves were emancipated a month after the US Civil War ended. But many of the effects of slavery — and of the subsequent Jim Crow laws — are still being felt today. Generations later, a glaring racial wealth gap remains between white and Black average household income and access to credit. What's more, laws such as the Fair Housing Act that eliminated redlining, have failed to significantly narrow the divide between white and Black homeownership and average home value. We take a look at a few of these indicators from today and over recent decades.
Is the US in decline while China’s power grows?
Who said last year that the biggest source of chaos in the present-day world is the US?
Not the leader of Russia. Not of North Korea. Not even of Iran.
It was Xi Jinping, who believes America poses a major risk for China.
The US feels the same about China. And while the two probably won't go to war anytime soon, ties remain tense. What's more, China has become so powerful that its political system is now accepted by all.
While China’s economic growth has been impressive, even during COVID, the pandemic has widened inequality and political divisions in the US. For Beijing, it's a sign that the East is rising as the West declines. Is it? Ian Bremmer takes a look.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Does China's rise have to mean America's decline?
Want to fix US political division? Narrow the wealth gap, says investor Ray Dalio
What happened on January 6, 2021, did not at all surprise billionaire investor Ray Dalio.
History, he says, shows that both right-wing and left-wing populism begins to gain power when there's a large wealth gap.
So, what comes next?
"It's entirely possible that neither party will accept losing, um, on, uh, the presidential election."
But it's not too late to prevent another US civil war — and Dalio thinks that, of all things, capitalism can help.
"The financial dynamic needs to satisfy the political dynamic" by narrowing the wealth gap.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Does China's rise have to mean America's decline?
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Podcast: No Empire lasts forever: How China’s rise could trigger a new world order
Listen: What keeps Ray Dalio, one of America’s most successful investors, up at night? Three things: spiraling debt, a weakening dollar and a rising China. China is closing the gap on US economic dominance as its geopolitical influence grows, Dalio tells Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast.
The US economy is negatively impacted not only by its debt but also by the widening wealth gap among Americans, and these all play into Beijing's plans to surpass the US as a global superpower, says Dalio, author of Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order” and founder of the world’s largest hedge fund. Does this mean investors should bet on China over the US?
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- The US and China are too busy to fight - GZERO Media ›
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Making sense of our new global economy
If billionaires shooting off into space because their net worth has jumped 60 percent sounds cringeworthy to you, you're not alone. Indeed, the pandemic hasn't been kind to the 120 million people into extreme poverty. Nor to the global economy as a whole, which stands to lose $2.3 trillion by 2025 due to vaccine inequality.
Even in the US, the vaccination rate is high but poor people still lack access to education, childcare, and healthcare. Still, despite these inequalities, America's economy has rebounded quickly. But we may not be fully back in the black quite yet. Economists disagree about how long rising inflation and supply chain shortages may last, and we're a long way off from vaccinating the world's poorest populations. Also, we face the twin threats of COVID variants and reduced vaccine efficacy over time.
Watch the episode: How the COVID-damaged economy surprised Adam Tooze
Should the US cancel student loan debt?
Joe Biden has already cancelled more US student than any other president. But progressive Democrats want him to write off a lot more to reduce the racial wealth gap and help people recover better from COVID's economic ruin. Republicans are against all this because it would be unfair to current and future borrowers and to taxpayers footing the bill, not to mention subsidizing the rich.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: How the COVID-damaged economy surprised Adam Tooze
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What does “build back better” even mean (and can we do it)?
What does President Biden's "build back better" slogan really mean? Well, it implies the world before the pandemic already needed some fixing. In fact, it's kind of like "Make America Great Again." And there's a reason why those phrases hit home. A lot of people DO think the system is broken. But beyond catchy slogans, how do we actually fix it?
Watch the episode: Is modern society broken?