As every year for 10 years now, the NGO Oxfam is taking advantage of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a major meeting of the planet’s economic and political elites, to publish its report on inequalities in the world. Year after year, these inequalities are growing.
With our special correspondent in Davos, Mounia Daoudi
Since 2020, two thirds of the wealth produced in the world is held by the richest 1%. Billionaires who, according to Oxfam’s calculations, earned 2.7 billion a day since the Covid-19 crisis. The main finding of this vast survey conducted by Oxfam is therefore the acceleration of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a very small minority while for the first time in 25 years extreme poverty has started to rise again.
The significant increase in the wealth of the richest is explained in particular by the aid granted by the States in the face of the coronavirus and the billions injected into the economy, observes Quentin Parrinello, co-author of the report on inequalities. “ It is not because they have made particularly brilliant economic and strategic choices, he points out. And today, we are in a situation where we have to pay the bill for this crisis. And it would seem quite logical to have them help pay the bill for the crisis. »
A logic that is not really at work according to this representative of Oxfam who denounces a lack of political courage. “ We have 75% of countries around the world planning to reduce spending on health, education and social protection to pay the bill for the coronavirus. There is a lack of political courage, even though we have seen the need to have an efficient health system and to have safety nets that protect the most precarious. »
” Inequality is not inevitable, it is the result of political choices »
Faced with the arguments of governments evoking budget deficits to reduce spending, Quentin Parrinnello replies that it is necessary to tax better: “ inequalities are not inevitable, they are the result of political choices. And when we put in place measures to tackle the concentration of the wealth of billionaires, in particular tax measures, we have the means to tackle inequalities. »
And he takes as an example pension reform announced by the French government: We have a government that is implementing a pension reform when 2% of the fortune of French billionaires would be enough to absorb the so-called uncontrollable deficit of the pension system. »
While the cost of living crisis has been designated as the major risk that weighs on the world economy for the next two years, Oxfam intends to be the mouthpiece of a social exasperation which no longer spares any region of the world.
► Also to listen: Eco from here eco from elsewhere – Freedom, inequalities, fraternity