Economist.com | Inequality in Latin America: "Inequality affects development in three main ways. First, income inequality goes hand in hand with unequal access to good things such as education, health and political power�inequalities that violate basic principles of democracy. Second, in Latin America, inequality involves widespread poverty: two out of five Latin Americans are poor, even though most of them live in �middle-income� countries. Third, there is some (contested) evidence that very high inequality undermines growth, by concentrating saving and investment in too few hands."