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How does it happen India has Gini coefficient close to that of Canada (and better tan that of the USA, UK and even Australia) then?



It could be that Gini coefficients don't make that much sense in general, especially since you can skew the numbers in favour of "equality" simply by having more poor people. There are alternative measures of income inequality, but they seem not to be used basically at all by the broader public.


What? If there are more or all poor people with largely equal income, then I would say the country is equal. Even the top 1% holds much less in India as compared to US[1].

[1]: http://www.thehindu.com/business/income-share-of-top-1-surge...


The Gini coefficient only accounts for relative differences and not absolute differences. A person/household at around the 25% income level in India might be below the US/Canada poverty line.


Because inequality is really low, almost everyone’s poor.




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