The anti-poverty coalition, Oxfam, is calling on world leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland to stop the massive and growing gap between rich and poor in the world, including in Canada. It’s latest report shows that 82 per cent of the world’s wealth generated last year went to the richest one per cent of the population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth at all.
Women particularly hard hit
Women in particular are concentrated in the poorest paid and most precarious work, says Diana Sarosi of Oxfam Canada: “It takes just four days for a CEO of one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her entire lifetime…
“Canadian billionaire fortunes grew by a staggering 28 billion (dollars) last year. That’s enough to pay for universal child care (which Canadians know we don’t have here) and lift all of the 4.9 million Canadians living in poverty out of poverty.”
Diana Sarosi says the wealth gap is growing dramatically and lists actions that governments should take.
Big business has excessive influence on governments, says Oxfam
Among the causes of these growing gaps, Oxfam lists the erosion of workers’ rights, the excessive influence of big business over government and “the relentless corporate drive to minimize costs in order to maximize returns to shareholders.”
Oxfam will be present in Davos, Switzerland to urge governments to limit returns to shareholders and top executives, to ensure all workers get a minimum living wage to ensure a decent living standards, eliminate the gender pay gap, protect the rights of women workers and to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.
Canadians should ‘demand better,’ says advocate
For Canada in particular, Oxfam asks government to ensure the wealthy are paying their share of taxes by holding an independent review of Canada’s tax system and eventually closing tax loopholes. It says corporations should pay more tax and governments should spend more on social needs like child care, health care and education.
Oxfam says Canada should do more to protect labour rights and also increase it foreign aid.
“Prime Minister Trudeau campaigned on reducing inequality and inequality is not improving in Canada,” says Sarosi. “But if Canadians demand better, the government has to do better.”
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