Oxfam wrong on neoliberalism

Sir, – In late January each year, just in time for Davos, the anti-poverty charity Oxfam issues a report denouncing the neoliberalism ideology and globalisation.

Yet the years since the Reagan-thatcher revolution have seen the percentage of mankind existing on fewer than $2 a day falling from 40 to 8 per cent – the greatest reduction in poverty in history.

Oxfam’s perversity is breathtaking. There’s no acknowledgement on its part that so many billions of people have been lifted up from abject poverty.

Their world view also blithely ignores China, the world’s most dramatic example of economic progress and poverty reduction.

These successes have been achieved by a move towards a system of capitalism within China, while at the same time opening itself up to international trade.

Oxfam’s absurd posture is due to the fact that Oxfam – and the Christian churches – object to inequality.

The great sin, in their eyes, is that 40 of the world’s billionaires have the same amount of wealth as the combined income of the poorest half of mankind.

It’s an ideology that, in the eyes of Oxfam and the churches, makes the group of billionaires the enemy rather than the friend of the world’s poor – the poor who have benefited so much from economic policies Oxfam and the like oppose.

Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.