The truth of the US numbers that deny Trump: what Gini’s index is and what he says

The symbol of America is an eagle with a severe gaze, dominator. Donald Trump, on the other hand, He is telling us the most powerful country as if he were a clumsy volatile, pushed by all the other governments of the planet. Not only from Chinese opponentsbut also from the historical allies, the « parasites » and unrecognize Europeans. And even from the small and anonymous Lesoteho, guilty of providing, under cost according to Trump, the denim, the cotton that serves to pack jeans, Like those of Levi’s. The world described by Trump touches the peaks of manipulation.

In its way it is a masterpiece of communication. But things are not quite so. Just examine some figures developed by the World Bank to find that in the last decades The US had earned market shares, to enrich more than others and also at the expense of others. In 2008 the gross domestic product of the United States was equal to that of the Eurozone: about 14 thousand billion dollars. Fifteen years later, in 2023, The American GDP jumped to 27 thousand billion dollars, Almost double that of the Eurozone, which was nailed to 15 thousand billion.

Still, in 1990, the average annual American salary He wandered around $ 53,000, more ten thousand more than the average of the 38 countries collected in the OECD, the organization for cooperation and economic development. In 2023 the gap further enlarged: The medium US salary touched 80 thousand dollars, that of the OECD rose at a much slower pace, reaching $ 58,000.

Finally, perhaps the most surprising data, updated to 2024. The per capita income of the poorest state in the USA, i.e. Mississippi is equal to 53 thousand dollars, a figure higher than that of the United Kingdom (52,420 dollars), France (48,010 dollars), Italy (40,290 dollars)Spain (35,790 dollars). Only Germany goes a little better than the US tail light.

The official statistics of the World Bank And the International Monetary Fund, therefore, deny the root the Trumpian representation. Yet these numbers do not break through the internal debate. Only a few analysts, such as Fareed Zakaria, recently evoked them on the CNN. After all, they would be a good topic in the hands of the democratic opposition: America is not disadvantaged at all; Indeed he has progressed most of all, so there is no need for any revenge, of any commercial or economic war.

The American race begins for years away. The debate is open. Republicans say with Ronald Reagan (1981-1989); Democrats with Bill Clinton (1993-2001). In any case, the great transformation of the American economy begins between eighties and nineties, with the formidable push of finance, digital technology, while the traditional manufacture slowly reduces. As we have seen, wealth increases in absolute terms and even per capita; Salari rise.

The problem, however, is that we are talking about medium sizes That are not enough to answer a key demand: how were the additional resources between the population distributed in concrete terms? To answer it comes to the rescue The Gini index, the parameter that measures the degree of inequality in society. It works like a report card, but on the contrary. Zero is the maximum score: perfect equality; 100% is the minimum: total inequality.

Well in the United States wealth and imbalances In the distribution they have substantially grown in parallel. In 1981, the first year of the Reagan era, the Gini index was equal to 35.5%; In 1993, with Clinton to the White House, he had risen to 38%. In 2022, the last year available in the serious world bank, The index reached 41.3%. Of course, the curve oscillated a little between ups and downs, but the trend is very clear, as well as the political meaning.

Nor the republican administrationsnor the democratic ones, starting from Reagan, jumping to Clinton and then up to Barack Obama, Donald Trump I and Joe Biden have managed to distribute more equally the enormous wealth produced by the country. Someone, like Obama, tried more than others. But the data show that today The level of inequality in the USA is similar to that of Malaysia, Argentina, Mexico And, ironically, of Lesoteho himself. Competition countries face minor imbalances. In China, the value of Gini’s index is 35.7%, in India, 32.8%, in Germany 32.4%, 34.8%in Italy.

The more rich one is rich, the less the inequalities are accepted. It is the reason that, perhaps more than others, reported Trump in the oval study. But the President, instead of dealing with the structural malfunction of the internal distribution of income, has unloaded responsibility for other states. Those economic and commercial partners which in recent decades have had to accept the financial, technological and monetary power of the USA.