A pink Davos

On the snowy slopes of Davos, delegates were tickled pink to rub shoulders with celebrities such as will.i.am and Shakira. The Latino songstress was one of several women there, which saw the World Economic Forum (WEF) boost its proportion of female delegates to 20% for the first time.

To coincide with the WEF event in Davos, Oxfam, a global confederation of nongovernmental organisations, released its report, titled Economy for the 99%, which maps out the chasm between the world’s richest and poorest citizens.

The report found that just eight men own the same amount of wealth as half the world.

Danish professor Bjorg Lomborg, writing for USA today, noted Oxfam has measured wealth and not income inequality resulting in, for example, an American with a student loan (negative wealth) being poorer than “a day labourer from Zimbabwe with nothing but a comb to his name”.

Ronald Wesso, a senior researcher for Oxfam South Africa, said the obvious policy mix that would serve to bridge the wealth gap would be a progressive tax system. “Instead, we are systematically cutting taxes for the wealthy and raising taxes for the poor,” he said. Policy that would lessen inequality includes higher minimum wages and initiatives such as women-centred land reform.

The obvious one, Wesso said, is a wealth tax.

Social grants are not enough to address inequality.

“Redistributive policies have never really failed. If they have, it has been because elites have acted to roll them back,” he said. “Minimum wages, progressive tax systems, free accessible service, these have always worked in assisting human development.” —