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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in"><i><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Garamond" lang="EN-GB">Oxfam. Inequity
</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Heavy","sans-serif"" lang="EN-GB"><span> </span>Masters of the universe pressed to pay tax </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Heavy","sans-serif"" lang="EN-GB"><span> </span>and to support protection of public goods.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:28.3pt;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond">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 <i>Working for the Few: Political Capture and
Economic Inequality, </i>published in time to confront<i> </i>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).</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond">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”.’<span> </span>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).</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%"><span> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond">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:</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Support progressive
taxation and not dodge their own taxes </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Refrain from using their
wealth to seek political favours</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Disclose their investments
in companies and trusts</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Press governments to use
public money for universal healthcare, education and social protection</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Insist on living wages for
all workers in companies they own or control</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Challenge the rest of the
super-wealthy to join them in these pledges.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond"> </span></p>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><i><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Garamond;font-weight:normal">Box 1</span></i></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>Oxfam on injustice and inequity </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"> </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:150%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><i><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>This
is an edited extract from the January 2014 Oxfam report (2).</span></i></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>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: </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"> </span></h1>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 14.2pt;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="line-height:115%;font-size:10pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book"">The 85
wealthiest people in the world own $US 1 trillion (thousand billion). This is
as <span> </span>much as the 3 billion ‘bottom half’
of the world’s population with lowest incomes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="line-height:115%;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book""> </span></p>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 14.2pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;font-weight:normal"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal">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. </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"> </span></h1>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 14.2pt;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book"">In the US, the wealthiest 1
per cent captured 95 percent of post-financial crisis growth </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book""><span> </span>since
2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer. </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:28.3pt;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book""> </span></p>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>This
massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people
presents a </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>significant
threat to inclusive political and economic systems. Instead of moving forward </span></h1>
<h1 style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 7.1pt;line-height:115%;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(198,217,241)"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Franklin Gothic Book";font-weight:normal"><span> </span>together, people
are increasingly separated by economic and political power, inevitably heightening
social tensions and increasing the risk of societal breakdown.</span></h1>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-right:28.3pt;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond">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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:28.3pt;line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Garamond">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’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:28.3pt"><i><span style="font-size:16pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Garamond">References </span></i></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 10pt 35.45pt"><span style="font-family:Garamond"><span>1<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Oxfam. <i>Working for the few. Political capture and
economic inequality</i>. Briefing report. Oxford: Oxfam, 20 January 2014. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Garamond" lang="EN-US">http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/</span></a></span><span style="font-family:Garamond"> files/bp-working-for-few-political-capture-economic-inequality-200114-en.pdf</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 10pt 35.45pt"><span style="font-family:Garamond"><span>2<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Wearden
G. Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world. <i>The Guardian</i>, 20 January 2014</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 10pt 35.45pt"><span style="font-family:Garamond"><span>3<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Schuftan
C. <i>Big Food Watch</i>. The Gates
Foundation. Big Bill and Big Food. More. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 10pt 35.45pt"><span style="font-family:Garamond">[Feedback]. <i>World Nutrition</i> February 2004, <b>5</b>,
2. <span style="color:red"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 28.3pt 10pt 35.45pt"><span style="font-family:Garamond"><span>4<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Garamond">Butler
P. Food banks issue parcels for those too poor to heat dinner. <i>The Guardian,</i> 20 January 2014<span style="color:red">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 28.3pt 0.0001pt 0in;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Garamond">Taken from<i> Anon. Oxfam. Masters of the universe
pressed to pay tax and to support protection of public goods. [Update]. World
Nutrition February 2014, <b>5</b>, 2,
111-113. <a href="http://www.wphna.org" target="_blank">www.wphna.org</a> </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="PT-BR"> </span></p>
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