Graduating from Extreme Poverty

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2015

More than a billion people live in extreme poverty, in conditions which would be un-imaginable for readers of this column. Economists say that this is due to “scarcity” – there are not enough resources to feed them. The solution lies in economic growth, increased production to enable us to provide for all. This diagnosis deliberately distracts attention from the real problems. One of them is the rapidly rising inequality. In 2010, the richest 388 people owned more half the wealth of the planet, an astonishingly skewed income distribution. Although there has been substantial growth, benefits of the growth accrue only to those who are already extremely wealthy. According to recent Oxfam reports for 2014, the richest 80 people now have more than 1.3 trillion dollars, which is more than half of the total privately owned planetary wealth. A tax of only 33% on just these 80 would suffice to feed, clothe, house, educate and provide for the health needs of all of the extremely poor. Coincidentally, global defence budgets are of similar magnitude. We don’t have to become peace-niks; just scaling back our bloodthirstiness by 33% would suffice to remove extreme poverty from the planet. Just avoiding the Iraq war would have saved sufficient money to feed the planet for thirty years.

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