Michael’s Reviews > The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions > Status Update

"The charity paradigm obscures the real issues at stake: it makes it seems as though the West is 'developing the global South, when in reality the opposite is true. Rich countries aren't developing poor countries, poor countries are effectively developing rich countries - and they have been since the late 15th century. So it's not only that the aid narrative misunderstands what really causes poverty, it's backwards."

"In 2012, developing countries received a little over $2 trillion, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But more than twice that amount, some $5 trillion, flowed out of [poorer nations]. In other words, developing countries 'sent' $3 trillion more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $26.5 trillion."

Hickel is immediately on-target, identifying that the massive divide between the global South and the global North, between the massive over-exploited population of oppressed nations and those in the wealthy core, is not from a lack of institutions or targeted policies, but rather the extraction of wealth and shutting out from global market by the north. The "Development" scheme from the US/WB/IMF is false.