Everyone is talking about inequality – from Bette Midler and Jamie Oliver on Twitter; to US Vice Presdient Joe Biden and Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
It looks like we’ve hit a nerve.
The fact that just 62 people own as much as half the world’s population has made headlines around the world and over 120,000 people have signed on to tackle global inequality.
The global inequality crisis is reaching new extremes and is bad for us all. This runaway inequality is made possible by big business dodging taxes. Tax dodging is devastating for people living in poverty, robbing millions of men, women and children of basics like healthcare and education — vital services that can change and save lives. Everyone should pay their fair share of tax.
At the Davos meeting, Winnie vowed to “fight inequality harder than ever on behalf of the world’s poorest people.” Tackling tax dodging will be a big part of this fight.
The global attention to the growing inequality crisis over the last week is important, but it’s just one step in the fight that Winnie talked about – to getting the action needed from governments, big business and the mega rich to reverse the tide of extreme inequality.
According to @Oxfam, the 62 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the bottom 3.6 billion people: Joe Biden #wef #biden
— World Economic Forum (@Davos) January 20, 2016
62 mostly white men own more wealth than half the people on earth. Trickle down? About as much as when they shake their dicks at the urinal.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) January 20, 2016