Economic inequality and the environment

One of the most important consequences neoliberal policies applied globally it is a growing concentration of income and wealth.

A recent study in Oxfam’s publication entitled “Survival of the Richest” (2023), It is pointed out that between 2020 and 2022, the richest 1.0% of the world’s population appropriated 63.0% of all new wealth created in that period.

The rest of the population, or 99.0% of the population, had only 37.0%. This means that for every dollar appropriated by an individual who makes up 1.0% of the population, every rich person who is part of 1.0% of the population has accumulated $1.7 million.

The study also points out that a very significant part of the new reservoir The wealth of the super-rich had as its counterpart greater difficulties for the rest of the population. Thus, it is pointed out that 95 large corporations operating in the energy and food sector doubled their profits during the year 2022, in that year they achieved an extraordinary profit calculated by us360,000 million dollars, of which 84.0% was end up directly in the hands of its richest shareholders.

The document also emphasizes that wealth taxes play no rolesignificant role in the possible improvement of the position of the most vulnerable.

Globally, it is estimated that for every dollar raised in taxes, barely 4.0% comes from wealth taxes. It points out that a tax of just 5.0% of billionaires’ wealth could generate $1.7 trillion a year, removing it from poverty for about 2,000 million people in the world.

The greed of the super-rich, given their insatiable desire to earn profits and accumulate wealth, it also threatens the lives of many species, including humans. This becomes clear if we take into account the current situation and the trend of global warming, caused by the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the central cause of which is the now polluting economic expansion fueled by capital accumulation.

David Harvey drew attention to the fact that while for 800,000 years the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere fluctuated between 150 ppm and 300 ppm, today the upper limit of that interval has been significantly exceeded, so that in the last 60 years this has risen to more than 400 ppm. The conclusion is clear, the problem is no longer just the rate increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As well as the already high level she reached.

A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (January 2023), edited by N. Diffenbaugh and E. Barnes, concludes, using a methodology that includes artificial intelligence, that Earth’s temperature will exceed a threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels between 2033 and 3035. Importantly, the study shows that this will happen, “even if climate forces are significantly reduce in the short term.” Furthermore, these authors predict that the threshold of 2 degrees Celsius will be exceeded at in the middle of the century, with a high probability.

Current uncivilization, driven by interest v the super-rich in the constant accumulation of monetary wealth, creates poverty and destruction of life. The building of a democratic civilization that supports and respects nature is ahead.