Oxfam has published a report about economic inequality entitled Working For The Few which everyone should read carefully. Trust me, it will be time well spent.
The report describes an increasingly perilous global situation and provides some very worrisome statistics. Quoting from the report:
* Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.
* The wealth of the one percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population.
* The bottom half of the world’s population owns the same as the richest 85 people in the world.
* Seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years.
* The richest one percent increased their share of income in 24 out of 26 countries for which we have data between 1980 and 2012.
* In the US, the wealthiest one percent captured 95 percent of post-financial crisis growth since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer.
Americans should find the data in the last bullet particularly alarming. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln spoke of "government of the people, by the people, for the people," but the last bullet means we effectively now have
government for the wealthy. That despite the efforts of a progressive president and his allies in Congress, the laws and policies of the government still yielded an outcome which strongly favored the wealthy over the middle class and the poor. That despite attempts by progressives to reverse the trend, conservatives in Congress managed to thwart those efforts enough to keep the fundamental trajectory toward greater inequality intact. This is alarming indeed.
Alarming but not all that surprising perhaps. Corrupting the political process is an avenue always open to the wealthy if they choose to take it. A democracy requires the consent of the governed, but the consent of its wealthiest citizens is the most critical. As demonstrated in the US over the past 30 years or so, the wealthy can always remake the government to favor themselves over the rest of the population if they choose. All it takes is sufficient application of the resource they have in great abundance -- money.
As long as enough of the wealthy remain benevolent and willingly participate in a progressive system of taxation, a democracy can thrive. But if too many of the upper class succumb to destructive greed, as they have in America and elsewhere in recent times, democratic government becomes the victim of their political manipulations and ceases to function for the common good.
US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis summed it up well:
"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both."
Because they are the driving force behind accelerating economic inequality, the report addressed its recommendations to the wealthy of the world and more specifically to those would be attending this year's
World Economic Forum.
Quoting the report, Oxfam suggested the attendees pledge to:
* Not dodge taxes in their own countries or in countries where they invest and operate, by using tax havens;
* Not use their economic wealth to seek political favors that undermine the democratic will of their fellow citizens;
* Make public all the investments in companies and trusts for which they are the ultimate beneficial owners;
* Support progressive taxation on wealth and income;
* Challenge governments to use their tax revenue to provide universal healthcare, education and social protection for citizens;
* Demand a living wage in all the companies they own or control;
* Challenge other economic elites to join them in these pledges.
Of one thing I am certain. There will eventually be corrections to the current trend toward ever greater economic inequality. The only thing in doubt is how peaceful or violent the corrections will be. By following Oxfam's recommendations, the wealthy can ensure the corrections are peaceful. But if they fail to rein in their destructive selfishness and instead leave it to the masses to revolt when they've finally had enough, the corrections will most certainly be bloody and the outcome quite possibly good for no one.
All should heed the words of 18th century Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith:
"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."