7. MLA/APA/AMA Citation: Birdsall, Nancy. "1.1.

" The World Is Not Flat: Inequality and

Injustice in Our Global Economy. Helsinki, Finland: United Nations U, World Institute for
Development Economics Research, 2006. N. pag. Print..
Source Validation: This book was written by the board of the United Nations World Institute
for Development Economics Research.
How did you find this source?: I found this source through my outside mentor.
Intended audience: This book was intended for attendees to a United Nations Summit in
Finland on inequality.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This article argues that relative
income, aka how much I make in comparison to those richer than me on a purely domestic
level, is far more important to someones sense of happiness and fulfillment than their
absolute income. People are more concerned with how much money they are making in
comparison to the person who makes more than them, and this forms the basis for the
argument against inequality because if true this line of logic proves that augmenting
everybodys purchasing power in a particular country wont make people happy unless the
increase occurs in such a way that relative inequality decreases. The backing for this logic
comes from a study that shows when asked how satisfied they are with their respective
income levels, the average Nigerian was as satisfied with the average Frenchman despite
the large income disparity.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to be
helpful in future writing:
Graham and Felton (2005) report that based on happiness surveys, people in
Nigeria are as happy as people in France despite the huge discrepancy in per capita
income.
Because it is relative and not absolute income that matters (and expectations
about future relative income as Hirshmans tunnel metaphor illustrates), economic
growth and subsequent increases in a countrys average income do not seem to
increase the average level of happiness in a country (Easterlin 1995).
Inequality is probably most bothersome (to the rich as well as the poor) when
low income is persistent for identifiable groups of people and thus most obviously unjust
rooted in racial or other discrimination, for example, or in inadequate access to
education for low-income children.