The human race is sitting on two loudly ticking time bombs. One is environmental: the impact of global warming and the dwindling of Earth’s natural resources.
The other is societal: the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing and, along with it, the anger and desperation of the poor. Four out of every five US dollars of wealth generated in 2017 ended up in the pockets of the richest people, while the poorest half of humanity got nothing, according to a report published by Oxfam this week.
The report found that the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth in 2017, while 82% of the wealth generated last year went to the richest 1% of the global population. So, the old adage, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, is more than just a saying, it is the reality. Oxfam believes it is the workers of the world who hold the key to a secure future for all of us. And they should be treated fairly.
We agree whole-heartedly, well aware we run the risk of being accused of having communist sympathies. Our answer to that accusation is that the wealth chasm is not an issue about political ideology, it is about morality.
Whatever your religious beliefs – and even if you have none – it is unjust that people go to bed hungry, children die because they don’t have medicine and people don’t have clean water or proper roofs over their heads.
Beyond morality, though, is practicality. Eventually, the anger of the poor will boil over – and bullets won’t stop it. So, a more equitable distribution of wealth is a guarantee of peace in the future.
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