As the saying goes, "the rich get richer," a LOT richer
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For guys like Jeff Bezos, it's good to be alive |
The report, released ahead of June 30 development financing
talks in Seville, Spain, argues that the international community's plan to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals agreed
upon in 2015 has failed utterly as global inequality has continued to expand,
efforts to end poverty have stagnated, and the climate crisis has spiraled further out
of control.
"There is glaring evidence that global development is desperately failing because—as the last decade shows—the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else," said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International. "Rich countries have put Wall Street in the driver's seat of global development. It's a global private finance takeover which has overrun the evidence-backed ways to tackle poverty through public investments and fair taxation."
"It is no wonder governments are abysmally off track,
be it on fostering decent jobs, gender equality, or ending hunger," Behar
added. "This much wealth concentration is choking efforts to end
poverty."
According to Oxfam's analysis, the roughly $34 trillion wealth increase enjoyed by the global 1% since 2015 would be enough to eliminate annual poverty "22 times over."
The report argues that "a new agenda is needed" to
break free from the private profit-centered global development model that has
allowed international crises to run rampant while letting the ultra-wealthy
continue growing their massive fortunes unabated.
The upcoming conference in Seville, the report states,
represents a key opportunity for countries that are willing to "work
together to tackle extreme inequality" and "reject the 'Wall Street
Consensus' around financing development."
"They can start by taxing the very wealthiest—a new
global survey finds 9 out of 10 people support taxing the super-rich to raise
the revenue needed to invest in public services and climate action," the
report notes. "Reforms to the international financial architecture and
restoring aid are also key."
The report comes as the world's wealthiest countries,
including the United States under Donald Trump, are
making unprecedented cuts to development aid spending, a
surefire way to reverse any recent progress toward reducing global hunger,
poverty, and disease.
Behar said Wednesday that "trillions of dollars
exist" to tackle such emergencies, "but they're locked away in
private accounts of the ultra-wealthy."
"It's time we rejected the Wall Street Consensus and
instead put the public in the driving seat," said Behar. "Governments
should heed widespread demands to tax the rich—and match it with a vision to
build public goods from healthcare to energy. It's a hopeful sign that some
governments are banding together to fight inequality—more should follow their
lead, starting in Seville."