The effect on the poor was exacerbated during the 1980's by rising debt and falling average income. Whatever progress was made during the 1960's and 1970's was nullified by the crisis during the 1980's. Rising urban poverty then also resulted in a narrower gap between urban and rural income averages. The situation was somewhat remedied by lifting the wage freeze during 1988, and inflation abated in late 1989. Still, the country's problems remain in terms of wealth inequality and general poverty.
The United States
The United States, despite being one of the richest countries in the world, share with Nigeria the phenomenon of unequal distribution of wealth. Since the 1960's, the existing polarization in the United States increased, and the gap between rich and poor in the country during the 1990's was at its widest.
A similar pattern to Nigeria can also be detected in the wage average growth in the United States. Indeed, stagnation and a slight downward base can be detected in the income of poor to middle-class households, while a sharp rise is manifest in the income of the higher-scale earners. Like their Nigerian counterparts then, most of the economic growth and its attached benefits have been the privilege of the richest 5% of American households., while 15% of households have done reasonably well, with the remaining 85% either remaining stagnant or declining in their income level. During the 1980's and 1990's, the median real income of U.S. households...
Since the 1960's, black households have experienced broad income gains, unlike the rural poor of Nigeria. Combined with this is declining incomes for the lower 80% of the white population. The gap is however still significant, with black incomes averaging 63% of those earned by whites (Smolensky and Plotnick, 1992:6). Other races such as Hispanics however still suffer from rising poverty rates.
In terms of gender, the average income of women is 54% of that earned by men, which is better than the practically non-existent opportunities offered to women during the 1960's. This of course contrasts with the situation in Nigeria, where the gap between rich and poor is so huge that they are the only economically distinguished groups that are significant. Racial and gender equality are phenomena that are dwarfed by the economic crisis in which the Nigerian poor find themselves.
Another significant difference between the countries is the fact that the inequality of income in the United States seems to be declining, while that in Nigeria appears to increase with time.
Bibliography
Left Business Observer (1998). "Income Distribution: Nigeria." U.S. Library of Congress.
Smolensky,…
