In its 2022 Briefing paper, Oxfam put the matter bluntly: “Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds.” Such violence demands change.
“We can claw back extreme wealth through progressive taxation; invest in powerful, proven inequality-busting public measures; and boldly shift power in the economy and society.”
As the 2023 Oxfam Report makes clear: “Inequality is not inevitable. Inequality is a policy choice.”
The injustice of excessive wealth has long been understood to be an evil as described in the Quran:
“Woe to every slanderer backbiter. Who gathers wealth and counts it over. Thinking that his wealth has made him immortal. By no means. He will be thrown into the Crusher.” (Quran 104:1-4)
The Quran also warns against keeping wealth circulating amongst the rich.
“And what Allah restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns – it is for Allah and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and orphans and the [stranded] traveller – so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you.” (Quran 59:7)
James, the leader of the Community of the Gospel after the mission of Jesus (a) warns the oppressive rich:
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.“ [James 5]
This year 2023, Oxfam opens its Executive Summary with this one devastating point:
“Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, paid a ‘true tax rate’ of just over 3% from 2014 to 2018. Aber Christine, a market trader in Northern Uganda who sells rice, flour and soya, makes $80 a month in profit. She pays a tax rate of 40%.”
“ Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth – nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.”
“Food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022, paying out $257bn to wealthy shareholders, while over 800 million people went to bed hungry.”
“A tax of up to 5% on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, and fund a global plan to end hunger.”
The crisis has become so dangerous that the tables seem to be turning.
The backpedalling of the UK Tories after the October 2022 tax cuts debacle has started a major change but the tables have not yet turned enough on trickle down economics.
Guy Rundle suggests that is not happening in Australia. [17 Jan 2023 Crikey]
“Only in Australia do we have a Labor government committing to programmatic neoliberalism, without any vocal opposition.”
“Instead of pushing back against the haphazard, jerrybuilt, ramshackle neoliberalism the Coalition had pursued under two crackpots and a hostage over the past decade, Labor was now moving to streamline, purify and redeploy it.”
A very worrying analysis.
Tax cuts to the rich have still not been ruled out by the Albanese government, jobseeker rates are still below the poverty level and Medicare rebates have not been upgraded to meet our health needs, increased since the onset of the pandemic.
Defenders of equality and justice need to become more vocal in support of change.
This year, with the cost of living crisis and the rise in racism which will accompany the Voice to Parliament campaign, will be eventful.
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