Abstract
The author maintains that it is more relevant to talk about “equal pay per capita for all countries” than about “equal pay for all people”, since international inequality (between countries) accounts for much more global inequality than income differences within countries. The question is whether this international inequality is unjust; from a cosmopolitan perspective on distributive justice, which the author adheres to, it is. This conclusion is reinforced by a mini-survey among Costa Rican geography students. Subsequently, thoughts are developed on how to achieve greater equality between countries and the role that the United Nations should play in this, especially by better monitoring of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal #10, which is, precisely, about reducing inequality. Finally, a suggestion for further (cosmopolitan) reading is made.
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Notes
- 1.
All people over 15 years old and under 70.
- 2.
Attributable to returns on capital, as has been shown by Piketty (2013).
- 3.
Concept 2 is also about inequalities between countries, but weighed for population sizes, while Concept 3 refers to global income inequality, with individuals as the unit of analysis.
- 4.
For two reasons: the world’s countries have vastly different population sizes as well as very different income distributions.
- 5.
With the online Gini Coefficient Calculator (Shlegeris 2020).
- 6.
My heartfelt thanks to Prof. Lilliam Quirós for allowing me to subject her students to this ordeal.
- 7.
In a borda count, points are given to each option in reverse proportion to their ranking, so that the first-preferred option receives as many points as there are options; the second preference gets one point less and so on. When all rankings have been counted, the points are added up for every option.
- 8.
This is known as the Lucas paradox, after the American economist Robert Lucas.
- 9.
“Indicator is conceptually clear, has an internationally established methodology and standards are available, and data are regularly produced by countries for at least 50 per cent of countries and of the population in every region where the indicator is relevant” (UNSTATS—United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Statistics Division 2019).
- 10.
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound.
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Schuurman, J. (2021). Can a Honduran Have What a Norwegian Has? Equal Pay for All Countries: An Exploration. In: Örtenblad, A. (eds) Debating Equal Pay for All. Palgrave Debates in Business and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53575-9_13
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