Quote of the day: on income inequality

The typical person in the top 5 percent of the Indian population, for example, makes the same as or less than the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American population. That’s right: America’s poorest are, on average, richer than India’s richest — extravagant Mumbai mansions notwithstanding.

Boggles my mind, you say?  Yep.  It is from Catherine Rampbell's review of Branko Milanovic's book The Haves and Have Nots: (ht)

And, for those of you wondering is this been adjusted for purchasing power parity, Rampbell notes:

The household income numbers are all converted into  international dollars adjusted for equal purchasing power, since the cost of goods varies from country to country. In other words, the chart adjusts for the cost of living in different countries, so we are looking at consistent living standards worldwide.

Remember the "ovarian lottery" that Warren Buffett talks about?  Well, more evidence supporting that:

As Milanovic notes, an astounding 60 percent of a person’s income is determined merely by where she was born (and an additional 20 percent is dictated by how rich her parents were).

Which is why immigration laws become so important--if the borders were open,

A recent World Bank survey suggested that “countries that have done economically poorly would, if free migration were allowed, remain perhaps without half or more of their populations.”

And that is the very scenario imagined in the crazy dystopian novel The Camp of the Saints