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POVERTY: CALL TO ADDRESS INEQUALITY TO HELP THE WORLD’S POOR

DAVID ADAMS reports on a call for world leaders to address inequality between the world’s richest and poorest…

The combined income of the 100 richest billionaires in the world – $US120 billion  – could end extreme poverty four times over, according to international humanitarian agency Oxfam.

The briefing paper, The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all, was released in the UK last week in the run up to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum which kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, today.

PICTURE: Kuzma/www.istockphoto.com

Urging world leaders to commit to reducing inequality to “at least 1990 levels”, Oxfam has warned that extreme wealth is “economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive”.

It says that the richest one per cent of people around the globe have increased their income by 60 per cent in the last 20 years – with the level of growth even larger among the top 0.01 per cent – and notes that the financial crisis has accelerated rather than slowed down the process.     

The paper says inequality between rich and poor has grown dramatically in many countries over the past 30 years. 

In the US, for example, the share of national income going to the richest one per cent of people has doubled from 10 per cent in 1980 to a figure of 20 per cent while in the UK the report says inequality “is rapidly returning to levels not seen since the time of Charles Dickens”. 

Meanwhile in China the richest 10 per cent take home nearly 60 per cent of the nation’s income while South Africa is credited as being the “most unequal country on earth”.

Urging world leaders to commit to reducing inequality to “at least 1990 levels”, Oxfam has warned that extreme wealth is “economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive”.

Dame Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam in the UK – who steps down from the role in February, says the world “can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many”, noting that too often the reverse is true.

“Concentration of resources in the hands of the top one per cent depresses economic activity and makes life harder for everyone else – particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder,” she says.

“In a world where even basic resources such as land and water are increasingly scarce, we cannot afford to concentrate assets in the hands of a few and leave the many to struggle over what’s left.”

Oxfam have suggested that closing down tax havens – estimated to hold as much as $US32 trillion or a third of all global wealth – could yield an additional $US189 billion in tax revenues.

In addition they have called for reversing the trend towards “more aggressive” forms of taxation, the introduction of a minimum corporation tax rate, and increased investment in free public services and safety nets.

“We need a global new deal to reverse decades of increasing inequality…” says Dame Barbara. “It is time our leaders reformed the system so that it works in the interests of the whole of humanity rather than a global elite.”

Meanwhile in Australia, Oxfam have called for the poor to see a “fair share” of the world’s mineral wealth.

www.oxfam.org.uk
www.oxfam.org.au

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