The Divide

The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions by Jason Hickel. For decades, we've been told that global development is working, with poverty rates declining and the gap between rich and poor countries narrowing. However, this narrative has been perpetuated by powerful governments and corporations, masking a more complex reality. Since 1960, the income gap between the North and South has tripled in size. Today, nearly 60% of the world's population lives on less than $5 per day, with some 1 billion people struggling to survive on less than $1 a day. The richest eight individuals now control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined. This growing divide is not just a natural phenomenon, but rather a result of the global economic system's unequal terms and the deep patterns of wealth extraction that cause poverty and inequality. The Divide offers a revealing examination of this system, tracing its evolution from colonialism to the international debt regime, which has allowed a handful of rich countries to control economic policies in the rest of the world. The book argues that poverty is a political problem, requiring political solutions - and presents a radical new approach to thinking about inequality and development.