Economic Inequality Threatens Human Progress
by Thom Hartmann
January 22, 2014
Economic inequality is a major threat to human progress. According to a new report from Oxfam, 85 people control the same amount of wealth as half the population of the entire world, and the top one percent has 65 times the wealth of the bottom half. This concentration of money gives a few people way too much power over our economic and political systems. Oxfam's "Working for the Few" report says, "Wealthy elites have co-opted political power to rig the rules of the economic game."
We know that economic inequality is a major issue in our nation, but the Oxfam report shows that this is a actually world-wide problem. Their calling on the attendees of the World Economic Forum to fight this inequality by enacting progressive taxation, instituting a living wage, and pushing governments to provide every citizen with universal healthcare. Oxfam says that it's time for the rich to pay their fair share, and that we must limit their power over government.
These are same arguments that many of us have made for decades, however, those at the top have fought hard to hold on to their power. For decades, the wealthy elite have continued to hoard money, and pushed lawmakers around the world to cut education, healthcare, and social services for the rest of us. The rich getting richer hasn't created more jobs or more prosperity, it made a very small number of people more powerful and left half of the world population out in the cold. It's time to turn these ideas into action, take our power back from those at the top, and ignite an era of progress.
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