Two Neighbors, Two Worlds
By Tim Brothwell
Inequality is a growing concern in the modern world as we see a continued move towards a globalized economy and globalized culture. Inequality is present in every community, state, country, and nation across the world. People who live within miles, even blocks of each other often live completely different lives, simply because some people are wealthy and others are not. Nowhere is this inequality seen clearer then when analyzing the conditions in the United States compared to the conditions in Mexico.
Although the two nations share a border and are neighbors, the living conditions in each nation are drastically different. A very striking example of this is San Diego and Tijuana; in San Diego the average median household income in 2000 was $61,683 and the average median household income in Tijuana was the American equivalent of $9,812 (see U.S. Census Bureau data at www.census.gov). Although these two cities rest on opposite sides of a border that determines so much about the quality of their residents’ lives, they actually are only ten miles apart. It is discouraging to see that even with this globalized economy things are clearly not evening out amongst nations, in fact the gap may be growing.
mwalsh @ November 5, 2008