05 MARCH 2013 - BANGKOK, THAILAND:  A broom vendor pushes his cart past a motorcycle taxi in an upscale neighborhood in Bangkok. Thailand's economic expansion since the 1970 has dramatically reduced both the amount of poverty and the severity of poverty in Thailand. At the same time, the gap between the very rich in Thailand and the very poor has grown so that income disparity is greater now than it was in 1970. Thailand scores .42 on the "Ginni Index" which measures income disparity on a scale of 0 (perfect income equality) to 1 (absolute inequality in which one person owns everything). Sweden has the best Ginni score (.23), Thailand's score is slightly better than the US score of .45.  PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ