ewennberg19
Jan 28, 2018

Rising wealth inequality

2 comments

Saddening statistics published this week about the "billionaire boom" – including the fact that 4 out of every 5 dollars generated in 2017 went to the world's richest 1 percent.

https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year

 

Oxfam suggested these measures to combat the growing disparities:

  • Limit returns to shareholders and top executives, and ensure all workers receive a minimum ‘living’ wage that would enable them to have a decent quality of life. For example, in Nigeria, the legal minimum wage would need to be tripled to ensure decent living standards.

  • Eliminate the gender pay gap and protect the rights of women workers. At current rates of change, it will take 217 years to close the gap in pay and employment opportunities between women and men.

  • Ensure the wealthy pay their fair share of tax through higher taxes and a crackdown on tax avoidance, and increase spending on public services such as healthcare and education. Oxfam estimates a global tax of 1.5 percent on billionaires’ wealth could pay for every child to go to school.

What do you all think? Any other measures you think would be effective?

Tuhin Chakraborty
Jun 17, 2018

How exactly can you limit the returns of private corporation shareholders through government legislation? Also, how can you legislate and end to the gender wage gap in developed countries?

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ewennberg19
Jun 21, 2018

Obviously those are broad suggestions for the issue– for limiting the returns of shareholders, you could limit the amount that corporations could do share buybacks (where shareholders just get more profjts) and encourage companies to use the excess capital to instead raise the wages of their employees.

 

With the gender wealth gap, initiatives like the one implemented fairly recently in Iceland could be effective: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/03/575403863/companies-in-iceland-now-required-to-demonstrate-they-pay-men-women-fairly

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