The Reality of Global Wealth

NGO Oxfam recently published their annual report on global inequality right before the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, which discloses some alarming trends of worsening inequality. French newspaper Le Monde writes about this report, highlighting that the billionaires of the world (all 2,153 of them) have a combined wealth that surpasses that of 4.6 billion of the poorest people on the globe. Another highlight of the Oxfam report is that close to half of the global population – about 3.8 billion people – lives on less than 5 dollars (about €4.50) per day. Le Monde points out that the Davos meeting comes at a time right after the conclusion of 2019, a year that had been marked by a multitude of social movements all over the globe (that tended to focus especially on inequality). Le Monde also highlights the realities in France: seven billionaires possess more wealth than 30% of the poorest; the richest 10% of the nation possess half of the wealth in France; and out of 41 French billionaires, only 5 are women. 

Another important issue of the Oxfam report is the sexist inequality that exists, which is the subject on which Die Presse, the Austrian newspaper, writes about. In their article, Die Presse highlights the alarming amount of unpaid work that women and girls do worldwide – a whopping twelve billion hours of it. The Oxfam report shows that women and marginalised groups are the most hard hit when it comes to global poverty. Die Presse also draws attention to the report’s findings on the overwhelming economic imbalance that exists – the 22 richest men in the world have a combined wealth that is worth as much as all the women in Africa. Interestingly, the Oxfam study indicates the social reasoning behind this inequality – capitalism persists in taking advantage of sexist roles, where many women continue to do underpaid care work. The article also points out that this is still a reality in richer countries as well, especially if there are not enough public services for childcare. Die Presse concludes that caregiving cannot be taken advantage of, and more investment needs to be done in national care systems.

In the spirit of the WEF’s annual meeting which ends today, El País wrote an opinion piece on Davos’ main themes this year. Of course, climate was to be on everybody’s lips at this year’s forum. Another omnipresent theme to be expected was inequality – suitable, for the most important meetup between powerful political and business leaders. El País writes that these important global leaders must be aware that incompatibility exists when it comes to the global economy, due to the range of inequality that endures all around the world. The article declares that income redistribution and tax policies must be rethought, especially when it comes down to large tech companies that may have questionable tax evasion strategies. El País also mentions that, though Davos probably will not mark the moment of capitalist renewal, the annual meeting can be used as a tool to draw attention to the world’s dangers that surround global economy, climate change, and inequality.