Is the wealth bubble about to burst.
Image: “Poetography” by Khaled Youssef
The Oxfam report makes us feel that there really is a need for a complete change of global economy. We really cannot go on with so many people in poverty yet trying their best to feed their families. While others luxuriate in their mega wealth... as if they live in some protected bubble. But is that bubble about to burst. I have just completed a 3 week online course on global migration and alongside war resulting in displaced people - the other fact is poverty. The need to find somewhere to earn and build a good life. But it would seem that for some no matter how they try they will always hit up against a barrier. Kept suppressed by low wages and long hours for those wages, while others profit from the goods produced. The other issue highlighted is that there is so much money lost to tax evasion. We really need money to circulate like the red blood cells in our bloodstream providing oxygen for all cells to be kept alive and well. Money should circulate to ensure all citizens are kept well and respected with the ability to live their lives in peace, security and well-being. Every global citizen deserves financial dignity and surely this is what is needed for goods to be bought too. So it really does not make market sense surely to miss out on a large percentage of population not able to purchase the goods they need and the entrepreneur needs to sell. Glad this was brought up by Oxfam in this week of the "elite" meet up in Davos. To my reckoning there are no strong leaders in the world while there is so much inequality and poverty. Poverty is diagnostic of failed leadership. The most value asset any leader has is the people and they deserve their Maslow's hierarchy of needs met.
Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today. The report is being launched as political and business elites gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Read more on this link
‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ reveals how the global economy enables a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes while hundreds of millions of people are struggling to survive on poverty pay.
- Billionaire wealth has risen by an annual average of 13 percent since 2010 – six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2 percent. The number of billionaires rose at an unprecedented rate of one every two days between March 2016 and March 2017.
- It takes just four days for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime. In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year.
- It would cost $2.2 billion a year to increase the wages of all 2.5 million Vietnamese garment workers to a living wage. This is about a third of the amount paid out to wealthy shareholders by the top 5 companies in the garment sector in 2016.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year
