>-On inequality data, I would like to disagree with you. While Taiwan is less
>unequal than the USA (Ginni 32), SK is only marginally better (Ginni=36) and
>Malaysia is almost as unequal as Latin America (Ginni=48). I will check data
>for Thailand.
Hmm, where'd you get these numbers? Here's what I have for 1993 from Branko Milanovic at the World Bank. The figures are pretty old, but generally these things don't change too much over a decade.
Brazil 59.0 Malaysia 46.3 Thailand 45.6 USA 39.4 Korea 31.0 Taiwan 29.3 China (urban) 27.1 Japan 24.3