Bridging the rich-poor gap

The figures revealed by the annual wealth check by Oxfam once again put the spotlight on the yawning gap between the world's richest and poorest people. Like last year’s report, the disparity is overwhelmingly outrageous: the number of assets owned by just 26 billionaires is equal to those distributed among 3.8 billion comprising 50 per cent of the world’s poorest. This global trend is reflected in India too: the top 10 per cent of the affluent here own 77 per cent of the wealth. That the riches of the rich soared by 39 per cent as against the meagre three per cent raise in the wealth of the bottom half of the Indians in 2018 exacerbates the gulf, posing a huge challenge to efforts towards bridging it. 

While in the last 25 years, the economic reforms have helped a big proportion of Indians to overcome extreme poverty, the upward mobility thereafter — of the poor and middle classes — is not much to cheer about. Even as 13.6 crore people constituting the poorest 10 per cent have to reel under debt and struggling to rise above the bare subsistence level, the swelling of billionaires’ fortunes by Rs 2,200 crore every day last year is grossly unfair. A look into how their wealth has multiplied is also a pointer to how the rich-poor inequity can be narrowed down: around 65 per cent of the billionaire wealth is derived from inheritance, monopoly and cronyism. Thus, the government would do well to impose inheritance tax on the super rich. Breaking the hold of well-entrenched privileged few over the nation’s natural resources such as oil and minerals is another essential.

Plus, zero tolerance to tax evasion and dodging and the tightening of bankruptcy laws with some high-profile convictions would send the right message and considerably ease the situation. For, the social unrest in the country stems basically from the gloomy economic divide. The middle class ordinary youth need not only jobs for a secure future; an ecosystem conducive to furthering their entrepreneurial abilities is also equally important for wealth generation and distribution.