Dean Young, Liverpool South Socialist Party
We live in an incredibly unequal society. The wealthiest 0.001% alone, fewer than 60,000 multi-millionaires (and billionaires), control three times more wealth than half of humanity combined. Outrageous, but not particularly a surprise for working-class people living that reality daily. It is one of the findings in the recently published ‘World Inequality Report’.
The speculation of the bankers leading to the Great Recession in 2008, the dodgy Covid contracts handed out to Tory donors from 2020-21, the greed of the energy companies and their price gouging in 2022-23, the list goes on… All are symptoms of the capitalist system which places the greed of very few ahead of the needs of the working class in Britain and worldwide.
The report is filled with stats, some more useful than others. One which is worth sharing is that the richest 1% create 41% of global greenhouse gas emissions, further proving that the problem of climate change is one the mega-wealthy exacerbate. Climate catastrophe can only be avoided if the economy is planned democratically, taking into account the needs of the natural world, rather than plundering it in search of short-term profits!
The report’s mission statement says what it thinks is needed is “global cooperation” on the basis of “progressive taxation”, among other things. Socialists support taxing the super-rich, even tax rises that are modest by historical standards could raise billions to fund free university education for all who would like to study, including with living maintenance grants, for example.
But the bosses won’t just willingly hand over a bigger share of their wealth stolen from the working class; it is struggles of the working class and young people that can force it out of them. The capitalist bosses are in fierce competition with each other for bigger profits. In fact, far from “global cooperation”, the world is heading in the direction of more and deeper conflicts and wars.
The report’s summary concludes by saying that “inequality is a political choice. It is the result of our policies, institutions and governance structures.” This we would not disagree with. But the solution is not just to increase taxes on the wealthy. Instead we need to end the capitalist system which creates such wealth inequality!
We need a system that serves the global majority of workers and poor, not the bosses and mega-corporations. That system is socialism, based on nationalisation of the huge wealth and resources that exist, to begin the planning of a world that can unleash the potential of humanity and end the chaos of capitalism. A system in which the economy is democratically planned on the basis of human need, not the greed of the 0.001%!
