PHM-Exch> Masters of the universe pressed to pay tax and to support protection of public goods.

[Claudio Schuftan]

*Oxfam. Inequity *

  Masters of the universe pressed to pay tax

  and to support protection of public goods.

Winnie Byanyima (above, left), who since 2013 has been Oxfam executive
director, participated at the 2014 World Economic Forum meeting. She came
with a message, from the new Oxfam report *Working for the Few: Political
Capture and Economic Inequality, *published in time to confront the masters
of the universe gathered in Davos (1). Referring to money, she 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' (2).

Authors of the report are Oxfam director of research Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva
and head of income disparities Nick Galasso. The report says: 'Unless bold
political solutions are instituted to curb the influence of wealth on
politics, governments will work for the interests of the rich, while
economic and political inequalities continue to rise. As US Supreme Court
Justice Louis Brandeis said: "We may have democracy, or we may have wealth
concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both".'  The
report includes a case study of the Mexican Carlos Slim, who in recent
years has been identified as the world's wealthiest person, along with Bill
Gates (3).



Winnie Byanyima was one of the small proportion of women and the small
number of African nationals at Davos. She called on the WEF participants,
and other rich and powerful corporations and individuals not present in
Davos this year, to:



·      Support progressive taxation and not dodge their own taxes

·      Refrain from using their wealth to seek political favours

·      Disclose their investments in companies and trusts

·      Press governments to use public money for universal healthcare,
education and social protection

·      Insist on living wages for all workers in companies they own or
control

·      Challenge the rest of the super-wealthy to join them in these
pledges.


*Box 1*   Oxfam on injustice and inequity   *   This is an edited extract
from the January 2014 Oxfam report (2).*    Left unchecked, the effects of
massive inequity of money and power are potentially immutable, and will
lead to 'opportunity capture' in which the lowest tax rates, the best
education, and the best healthcare are claimed by the children of the rich.
This creates dynamic and mutually reinforcing cycles of advantage that are
transmitted across generations. Given the scale of rising wealth
concentrations, opportunity capture and unequal political representation
are a serious and worrying trend. Data taken from reports prepared by
financial and economic institutions show that:

·     The 85 wealthiest people in the world own $US 1 trillion (thousand
billion). This is as  much as the 3 billion 'bottom half' of the world's
population with lowest incomes.


·     The 1 per cent wealthiest people in the world own $110 trillion. That
is 65 times the amount of income of the bottom half of the world's
population.

·     In the US, the wealthiest 1 per cent captured 95 percent of
post-financial crisis growth

      since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer.


   This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer
people presents a    significant threat to inclusive political and economic
systems. Instead of moving forward    together, people are increasingly
separated by economic and political power, inevitably heightening social
tensions and increasing the risk of societal breakdown.



The Oxfam report shows that rapidly widening inequity and increased
relative and absolute poverty have been driven by a 'power grab' by wealthy
elites, who have manipulated the political process to rig the rules of the
economic system in their favour. Over the past few decades, corporations
and wealthy individuals have skewed public policies in their favour on
issues ranging from financial deregulation, tax havens, anti-competitive
business practices, and lower tax rates on high incomes and cuts in public
services for the majority. Since the late 1970s, tax rates for the richest
have fallen in 29 out of 30 countries for which data are available.

Winnie Byanyima said: 'Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle
where wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few,
leaving the rest of us to fight over crumbs from the top table...We are
increasingly living in a world where the lowest tax rates, the best health
and education and the opportunity to influence are being given not just to
the rich but also to their children... In too many countries economic growth
already amounts to little more than a "winner takes all" windfall for the
richest'.

*References *

1               Oxfam. *Working for the few. Political capture and economic
inequality*. Briefing report. Oxford: Oxfam, 20 January 2014.
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-en.pdf

2               Wearden G. Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest
half of the world. *The Guardian*, 20 January 2014

3               Schuftan C. *Big Food Watch*. The Gates Foundation. Big
Bill and Big Food. More.

[Feedback]. *World Nutrition* February 2004, *5*, 2.

4               Butler P. Food banks issue parcels for those too poor to
heat dinner. *The Guardian,* 20 January 2014.

Taken from* Anon. Oxfam. Masters of the universe pressed to pay tax and to
support protection of public goods. [Update]. World Nutrition February
2014, 5, 2, 111-113. www.wphna.org <http://www.wphna.org> *
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20140201/0f9e781f/attachment.html>