The international charity, Oxfam, made a startling revelation on the eve of the Davos meet of the world's richest in Switzerland. Davos is a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland where the World Economic Forum (WEF) of the world's richest meet in January every year. Oxfam said, since 2020, the world's richest five men have doubled their wealth. Together they own USD 869 billion, as their wealth grew at the rate of USD14 million per hour since 2020. Of course, someone had to pay for these people to get richer. And they were none other than the world's poor. And if this trend continues, just within a decade the world will have its first trillionaire, adds Oxfam. And in that case, all hopes of eradicating poverty from the world will be shattered. In Oxfam's words, poverty will not be eradicated for another 229 years!
However, the rich at their Davos meet were quick to respond to Oxfam's damning disclosure. Condemning global income inequality, in an open letter to the world leaders, some 250 billionaires and millionaires attending the WEF's Davos summit called upon the elected representatives of the world's leading economies to impose higher taxes on the richest in society.
It is indeed a new realisation on the part of those mega-rich that they should pay tax at a higher rate.
That's music to the ears of the audience beyond the elitist gathering of Davos. But what is curious about the global elite's reaction to Oxfam's disclosure is that it is the rich who are requesting their democratic governments to tax them, not the other way around. Why? Are the elected, democratic governments shy about asking the super-rich to pay tax? The answer is perhaps a 'yes', for had it not been the case, such an ugly accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few could not have happened in the first place. If truth be told, the existing global order is pro-rich whether the governments the rich have referred to are elected democracies or not. And these governments everywhere provide the rich all necessary protective umbrella of the state to increase their wealth by fair means or foul. So, taxation in most cases are not meant for the rich. It is the common, small income households, the small businesses, the fixed income groups etc., who are the target of the revenue department of the governments in question. And that has obviously been concerning for the super-rich as Brian Cox, an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Scottish actor and signatory to the open letter, said: "It's long past time to act. If our elected officials refuse to address this concentration of money and power, the consequences will be dire"
Seemingly, being tired of their idle wealth, the rich out of their own volition have made this historic offer to be taxed. Consider the language in which the rich have, to all intents and purposes, put the governments concerned to shame in their letter that at one point says: "We are surprised that you have failed to answer a simple question that we have been asking for three years: when will you tax extreme wealth?"
So, what will the governments do? It is not the millions of working people who have long been struggling for their right to have a fair share of the wealth they produce. It is now the wealthy who are talking.
Will the governments listen?
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