Insensitivity to inequality

Oxfam report on growing inequality around the world was released only a few days ago. It captured the worsening inequality that is as disturbing as it is obscene.

Just 8 individuals own the same amount of wealth as half the population of the world (that is 3.6 billion people).

58 % of India's wealth is owned by the richest 1% of Indian population. There are many more disturbing data like these. It is unfortunate that in these worrisome circumstances a WIPRO executive has made an insensitive comment at Davos:

Report from NewYork Times:

mie Tsang

People are angry at the economic elite.

So the economic elite have gathered in the Swiss Alps to discuss this.

And what do they suggest? People who have not benefited from globalization need to try harder to emulate those who have succeeded.

“People have to take more ownership of upgrading themselves on a continuous basis,” Abidali Neemuchwala, the chief executive of the information technology and consulting company Wipro, said at one event.

Little discussed ideas: bolstering the power of workers to bargain for better wages and redistributing wealth from the top to the bottom.

“That agenda is anathema to a lot of Davos men and women,” said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist and author of numerous books on globalization and economic inequality.

If that remains the case, the global populism insurrection may continue apace.

Insensitivity to inequality

Oxfam report on growing inequality around the world was released only a few days ago. It captured the worsening inequality that is as disturbing as it is obscene.

Just 8 individuals own the same amount of wealth as half the population of the world (that is 3.6 billion people).

58 % of India's wealth is owned by the richest 1% of Indian population. There are many more disturbing data like these. It is unfortunate that in these worrisome circumstances a WIPRO executive has made an insensitive comment at Davos:

Report from NewYork Times:

"Amie Tsang

People are angry at the economic elite.

So the economic elite have gathered in the Swiss Alps to discuss this.

And what do they suggest? People who have not benefited from globalization need to try harder to emulate those who have succeeded.

“People have to take more ownership of upgrading themselves on a continuous basis,” Abidali Neemuchwala, the chief executive of the information technology and consulting company Wipro, said at one event.

Little discussed ideas: bolstering the power of workers to bargain for better wages and redistributing wealth from the top to the bottom.

“That agenda is anathema to a lot of Davos men and women,” said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist and author of numerous books on globalization and economic inequality.

If that remains the case, the global populism insurrection may continue apace."

Political capture and economic inequality

Oxfam briefing paper dated 20th January, 2014 says, inter alia, the following:

"Extreme economic inequality is damaging and worrying for many
reasons: it is morally questionable; it can have negative impacts on
economic growth and poverty reduction; and it can multiply social
problems. It compounds other inequalities, such as those between
women and men. In many countries, extreme economic inequality is
worrying because of the pernicious impact that wealth concentrations can
have on equal political representation. When wealth captures
government policymaking, the rules bend to favor the rich, often to the
detriment of everyone else. The consequences include the erosion of
democratic governance, the pulling apart of social cohesion, and the
vanishing of equal opportunities for all. 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 famously
said, ‘We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in
the hands of the few, but we cannot have both.’"

The paper talks about political capture by the stinkingly rich. Combination of wealth and political power is toxic to democratic governance. As a consequence, the rich, if they happen to be politically powerful, can get away with murder (please see the previous post).