Inequality is not inevitable, but the Davos elites will not solve it

The absurdity of eight billionaires owning as much wealth as the poorest 50 per cent of the world’s population has only been overtaken by the news that the top 1 per cent managed to take 82 per cent of all global wealth created, while the bottom half of the world’s population saw no increase in wealth.

Oxfam’s research provides the perfect answer to those I regularly debate when they point to capitalism’s vital role in lifting people out of poverty. It’s not just about the global story, our Equality Trust Wealth Tracker shows that Britain’s richest 1,000 people are wealthier than its poorest 40 per cent.

Such extreme inequality is even beginning to trouble the elites meeting at Davos, with the slogan, “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”. As the IMF, World Bank, OECD and even the CBI have warned economic inequality does not make good economic sense.

More importantly, an overwhelming body of evidence shows that in countries with high levels of inequality, such as the UK and the USA, we also see high levels of mental ill health, physical ill health, incarceration, infant mortality and lower levels of social mobility and trust.

The irony is that these issues affect us all – rich or poor. From Carrie Gracie to Carillion, from stagnant wages to the Trade Union Act 2017, inequality is rearing its ugly head. But it’s not just the concentration of wealth that we ought to question, it’s also the concentration of power and influence that such wealth brings.

And that is one of the key reasons why the Davos participants are not the people to solve inequality. Whilst most are happy to speak about and fund initiatives tackling poverty, getting girls into education, combatting malaria and many other important issues, few are prepared to tackle inequality.

To truly tackle inequality would require new economic systems and a redistribution of current wealth, which no one on the mountain is currently advocating. Tackling inequality means throwing the spotlight on the 1 per cent, their disproportionate influence and how they accumulated such wealth.

We must also face the fact that the majority of those meeting at Davos are isolated from the realities most of the world’s population faces. Putting food on the table, having a secure and decent job, and gaining access to education, sanitation and rights are problems the rich don’t have to think about. They are also unrepresentative in terms of class, gender and diversity.

As Dan Snow, the historian, recently pointed out, there has never been a better time to be rich. Usually in history, when there are such high levels of inequality, people come round and burn your house down.

People are mobilising: across the globe the Fight Inequality Alliance is highlighting how people power can solve inequality. The levers to bring down inequality are well-known: tax transparency, living wages, strong trade unions, gender equality, more co-operatives and mutuals, investment in health and education and secure jobs.

Inequality pits the few against the many. When the many decide to take action, the results are truly inspiring. People living on the front lines of inequality are the key to the radical change that is needed because they understand the issues and can devise the solutions.

Inequality has become the uniting focus for a range of campaigns, from a local equality group in Glasgow fighting to save North Kelvin Meadow green spaces, to Nester Ndebele challenging mining companies in South Africa. She points out that although they claim to bring development, in reality the mining companies make a fortune while leaving the land unfarmable and polluting the air.

As people come together, we see women garment workers in Bangladeshi factories fighting for the living wage, youth activists in Zambia fighting for mining companies to pay their fair share of tax that funds public schools and health clinics and indigenous communities fighting to prevent fossil fuel companies destroying their land.

In many areas, civil society space and democratic rights are being eroded to make way for elites. But the very iniquity of inequality is the strength that will bring people together to take actions to save communities and to save the planet, because they know that inequality is a political choice. It is not inevitable and it can be tackled.

Dr Wanda Wyporska is executive director of the Equality Trust, the national charity that campaigns to reduce social and economic inequality, to improve the quality of life for everyone. For more information, visit equalitytrust.org.uk