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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Martin Luther King Jr would support Oxfam's
recommendations to the World Economic Forum
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 10:12:26 -0800
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>
Oxfam
January 20, 2014
Working for the Few
In November 2013, the World Economic Forum released its 'Outlook on the
Global Agenda 2014', in which it ranked widening income disparities as
the second greatest worldwide risk in the coming 12 to 18 months. Oxfam
shares its analysis, and wants to see the 2014 World Economic Forum make
the commitments needed to counter the growing tide of inequality.
Given the scale of rising wealth concentrations, opportunity capture and
unequal political representation are a serious and worrying trend. For
instance:
• 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.
Recommendations
Those gathered at Davos for the World Economic Forum have the power to
turn around the rapid increase in inequality. Oxfam is calling on them
to pledge that they will:
• 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.
Oxfam Briefing Paper - Summary
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-summ-en.pdf
World Economic Forum - Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC_GlobalAgendaOutlook_2014.pdf
****
The Guardian
January 20, 2014
Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world
As World Economic Forum starts in Davos, development charity claims
growing inequality has been driven by 'power grab'
By Graeme Wearden
Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos
meetings, said: "It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the
world's population – that's three and a half billion people – own no
more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a
double-decker bus."
Working for the Few - Oxfam report
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world
Comment: Although Martin Luther King Jr is no longer here in body, he
did leave with us his moral guidance, reinforcing our ability to
recognize social injustice when we see it. It is left to us to seek an
end to these injustices.
Of industrialized nations, the United States is the world leader in
expanding the injustices of inequality - a first for us that matches our
first place in health care spending in a nation that is in last place
amongst wealthier nations in meting the goal of universality.
From the perspective of those of us who are morally outraged over
health care injustice, we need to "challenge governments to use their
tax revenue to provide universal health care." We cannot possibly do
this without adopting policies that would "counter the growing tide of
inequality."
If Martin Luther King could speak to us today, he would certainly
challenge us to demand the opportunity for everyone to have an adequate
education which would help them understand better the injustices
inflicted upon us by, yes, the wealthy who control our plutocracy, and
to understand what our remedies should be. He would challenge us to
demand not only the right but also the opportunity for everyone to vote
for the government we need, especially a government that would create a
health care system that serves the health care needs of the people first
rather than the business goals of the insurers and the rest of the
medical-industrial complex. As he famously said, "Of all the forms of
inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
Listen. You can hear him now. Let's march.
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