An article by the Financial Times about wealth distribution completely misses a fundamental economic principle: opportunities have value.
Debt is also low in poor countries because financial institutions do not exist to allow people to borrow.In contrast, the authors say "many people in high-income countries have negative net worth and, somewhat paradoxically, are among the poorest people in the world in terms of household wealth."
Just like an unscratched lottery ticket is worth one-trillionth of the jackpot, an American with a mortgage is far richer than a peasant in China, despite his debt. From that perspective, wealth is even more "unevenly distributed" than the article claims, because the richest nations are also the most free. However, the solution isn't to redistribute money from one group to another, it's to help those enslaved by tyrants to gain their freedom. Where there's opportunity, wealth will quickly follow.
