Curbing populism: remove barriers and make actual benefits visible

Trump’s election victory and Brexit reflected a growing scepticism towards globalisation. The populist waves have swept across the globe because not everyone has benefited from the overall economic gains as a result of trade liberalisation. Over the years, the wealth gap has widened alongside the expansion of the global economic pie says Chloe Lok Yi Lam. For instance, the United Kingdom’s gini coefficient has shown more than 35% growth from the mid-70s to the late 2000s. This shows that parts of the population might not have been rewarded proportionally for their hard work. In fact, the less privileged groups who feel left behind have been rising in number, which is well evidenced by a surging number of “nationalism supporters”.