If you've read French revolutionary history, you'll remember the graphic accounts of the teeming hordes gushing from the poorest quarters of Paris seeking to tear apart any aristos or bourgeoisie they could get their clawing hands on. You don't even need to read the history books, just go to the early chapters of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities to get a handle on the horror of what happens when the poor discover their power.
Now, the question is, can the same scenario be played out on a global scale. Because it is on a global scale that the injustice exists and is increasingly realised and felt. "It wasn't me your honour, I had no part in the economic rapine". But such pleas will fall on deaf ears in the courts of human justice and revenge, as they fell on the deaf ears of the Auschwitz guards.
"The report notes, “economies across the Global South are locked into exporting primary commodities, from copper to coffee, for use by monopolistic industries in the Global North, perpetuating a colonial-style ‘extractivist’ model”. Inequalities within rich nations have grown, with marginalised communities worse off, giving rise to rival ethno-populisms and vicious identity politics. Seventy per cent of the world’s largest corporations have a billionaire as principal shareholder or chief executive. These firms are worth over $10 trillion, which exceeds the total output of Latin America and Africa.The incomes of the rich have grown much faster than for most others. Hence, the top 1% of shareholders own 43% of financial assets worldwide – half in Asia, 48% in the Middle East, and 47% in Europe.Between mid-2022 and mid-2023, 148 of the world’s largest corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits. Meanwhile, 82% of 96 large corporations’ profits went to shareholders via stock buybacks and dividends.Only 0.4% of the world’s largest companies have agreed to pay minimum wages to those contributing to their profits. Unsurprisingly, the poorer half of the world earned only 8.5% of world income in 2022.The wages of almost 800 million workers have not kept up with inflation. In 2022 and 2023, they lost $1.5 trillion, equivalent to an average of 25 days of lost wages per employee. In addition to income inequality, the 2024 Oxfam Report noted workers face mounting challenges due to stressful workplace conditions.The gap between the incomes of the ultra-rich and workers is so huge that a female health or social worker would need 1,200 years to earn what a Fortune 100 company CEO makes annually!Besides lower wages for women, unpaid care work subsidises the world economy by at least $10.8 trillion yearly, thrice what Oxfam terms ‘tech industry’.
