Gini Coefficient & Singapore

Did some reading the other today about income inequality and its general propensity as an indicator of social unrest.  I found a neat table from CIA World Factbook listing where countries rank.

Very interesting to note that the top developed countries (is South Africa considered developed? Iffy in my opinion) on the list would be:

1 - Hong Kong (53.7)
2 - Singapore (47.8)
3 - USA (45.0)
4 - South Korea (41.9)
5 - UK (40.0)

Its a bit sad that these countries (esp #1 & 2) are on the same level as places like Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and China.  I'm not exactly a socialist or communist but large distributions of wealth and poverty is never a good thing.  Having traveled to many of the countries here, its really appalling to leave the nice snazzy hotel and see tarps/tents on the road median just in front with families huddled together beneath it.

For Hong Kong & Singapore, I suspect the inequality may be worse than listed because the coefficient doesn't take into account several factors like housing costs (its insane to buy a decent home in Singapore & HK without being rich).  For the USA, I'm surprised its so high considering there is still a decently sized middle class there (though shrinking every year).  Below, I also show historical Gini coefficient, notice how many countries are increasing in income inequality over time.

RANK COUNTRY DISTRIBUTION OF FAMILY INCOME - GINI INDEX DATE OF INFORMATION

1 Lesotho 63.2 1995 2 South Africa 63.1 2005 3 Botswana 63.0 1993 4 Sierra Leone 62.9 1989 5 Central African Republic 61.3 1993 6 Namibia 59.7 2010 7 Haiti 59.2 2001 8 Colombia 58.5 2011 9 Honduras 57.7 2007 10 Guatemala 55.1 2007 11 Hong Kong 53.7 2011 12 Thailand 53.6 2009 13 Paraguay 53.2 2009 14 Bolivia 53.0 2010 15 Chile 52.1 2009 16 Panama 51.9 2010 est. 17 Brazil 51.9 2012 18 Papua New Guinea 50.9 1996 19 Zambia 50.8 2004 20 Swaziland 50.4 2001 21 Costa Rica 50.3 2009 22 Gambia, The 50.2 1998 23 Zimbabwe 50.1 2006 24 Sri Lanka 49.0 2010 25 Mexico 48.3 2008 26 Singapore 47.8 2012 27 Ecuador 47.7 December 2012 28 Madagascar 47.5 2001 29 China 47.4 2012 30 Dominican Republic 47.2 2010 est. 31 El Salvador 46.9 2007 32 Rwanda 46.8 2000 33 Malaysia 46.2 2009 34 Peru 46.0 2010 35 Georgia 46.0 2011 36 Argentina 45.8 2009 37 Mozambique 45.6 2008 38 Jamaica 45.5 2004 39 Bulgaria 45.3 2007 40 Uruguay 45.3 2010 41 United States 45.0 2007 42 Philippines 44.8 2009 43 Cameroon 44.6 2001 44 Guyana 44.6 2007 45 Iran 44.5 2006 46 Uganda 44.3 2009 47 Nigeria 43.7 2003 48 Macedonia 43.2 2009 49 Kenya 42.5 2008 est. 50 Burundi 42.4 1998