Aid only works to hide the deep patterns of wealth extraction that cause poverty and inequality in the first place: rigged trade deals, tax evasion, land grabs and the costs associated with climate change. Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms. But in reality it is a political problem: poverty doesn’t just exist, it has been created. What is causing this growing divide? We are told that poverty is a natural phenomenon that can be fixed with aid.
The richest eight people now control the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world combined. Some 1 billion live on less than $1 a day. Today 4.3 billion people, 60 per cent of the world's population, live on less than $5 per day. Since 1960, the income gap between the North and South has roughly tripled in size. It’s a comforting tale, and one that is endorsed by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations. We have been told that development is working: that the global South is catching up to the North, that poverty has been cut in half over the past thirty years, and will be eradicated by 2030. Drawing on pioneering research and years of first-hand experience, The Divide tracks the evolution of global inequality - from the expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the present day - offering revelatory answers to some of humanity's greatest problems.For decades we have been told a story about the divide between rich countries and poor countries. Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms, and aid only helps to hide this. But just because it is a comforting tale doesn't make it true. For decades we have been told a story: that development is working, that poverty is a natural phenomenon and will be eradicated through aid by 2030.
* Though global real GDP has nearly tripled since 1980, 1.1 billion more people are now living in poverty. * Today, 60 per cent of the world's population lives on less than $5 a day. * The richest eight people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined. In The Divide, Jason Hickel brilliantly lays it out, layer upon layer, until you are left reeling with the outrage of it all.' - Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics
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