As the 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF) kicked off virtually in Switzerland yesterday, Oxfam, Kenyan-based international confederation, comprising independent charitable organisations, called on governments to invest further in public services and for the richest individuals and corporations to contribute their fair share of tax. The WEF theme for this year is: “A Crucial Year to Rebuild Trust”.
Oxfam’s 2021 Wealth Report shows worldwide, the wealth of billionaires increased by more than N$58 trillion (US$3.9 trillion) between March 18 and December 31, 2020, which is almost 1000 times Namibia’s national budget.
The Oxfam Report, supported by Oxfam’s survey of 295 economists from 79 countries, shows that it took just nine months for the world’s top 1 000 billionaires’ fortunes to return to pre-Covid-19 levels. However, for the world’s poorest people, this recovery could take 14 times longer or more than a decade.
Oxfam’s report, also endorsed by leading global economists such as Jayati Ghosh, Jeffrey Sachs and Gabriel Zucman, shows that 87% of respondents’ expected income inequality in their country was either going to increase or strongly increase as a result of the pandemic.
Over half of all survey respondents also thought gender inequality would likely or very likely increase – and more than two-thirds thought so of racial inequality. Two-thirds also felt that their government did not have a plan in place to combat inequality.
Moreover, the report shows the increase in the 10 richest billionaires’ wealth since the Covid-19 outbreak started is more than enough to prevent anyone on the planet from falling into poverty because of the virus – and to pay for a Covid-19 vaccine for the global population.
Leading global organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the United Nations’ Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have also all expressed deep concern that the pandemic will drive up inequality all over the world – with deeply harmful effects.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s Oxfam report states: “The coronavirus pandemic has the potential to lead to an increase in inequality in almost every country at once – the first time this has happened since records began. The virus has exposed, fed off and increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender and race. Over two million people have died, and hundreds of millions of people are being forced into poverty, while many of the richest – individuals and corporations – are thriving. Billionaire fortunes returned to their pre-pandemic highs in just nine months, while recovery for the world’s poorest people could take over a decade. The crisis has exposed our collective frailty and the inability of our deeply unequal economy to work for all. Yet, it has also shown us the vital importance of government action to protect our health and livelihoods. Transformative policies that seemed unthinkable before the crisis have suddenly been shown to be possible. There can be no return to where we were before”.
Managing director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva commented: “The impact will be profound... with increased inequality leading to economic and social upheaval: a lost generation in the 2020s, whose after-effects will be felt for decades to come”.
“Covid-19 has been likened to an x-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built. It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world, and the myth that we are all in the same boat. While we are all floating on the same sea, it’s clear that some are in superyachts, while others are clinging to the drifting debris,” stated UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Meanwhile, World Bank calculations show that if countries act now to reduce inequality, then poverty could return to pre-crisis levels in just three years – rather than in over a decade.
- ebrandt@nepc.com.na