Great fortunes, greater crimes

Billionaire wealth rose three times faster in 2024 than it did in 2023, with an estimated four new billionaires being minted every week last year. Much of this wealth is largely unmerited, with an estimated 60 per cent of billionaire wealth now derived from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections. Even more alarmingly, much of this billionaire wealth creation is based on neo-colonial extractions of wealth from the Global South to the Global North, with the top one per cent in the latter pulling an estimated $30 million out of the former per hour. And while the rich get richer faster than ever before, the number of people living in poverty has barely budged since 1990. These are the conclusions of Oxfam’s latest annual inequality report ‘Takers Not Makers’, highlighting how our deeply unequal and still colonial global economy is rigged in favour of the rich and designed to take more and more from the poor. While the unequal nature of capitalist economics, and its colonial past and present, are no secret to most observers of global politics, its effects are arguably more evident than ever before. As the Oxfam report notes, the most powerful country in the world inaugurated a billionaire president backed and paid for by the richest man in human history. This is a fitting ode to an age of inequality.

And it is only about to get worse. According to Oxfam, economic inequality will almost certainly continue to rise in 90 per cent of countries without urgent policy interventions. Sadly, the countries in the Global South that bear the brunt of this inequality are in a poor place to fight against it. Fiscally crippled by debt repayments, low- and middle-income countries spending 48 per cent of their budgets on debt repayments, far more than their spending on education and health combined, there is little left to help improve the living standards of the global majority. This is despite the fact that the global economy simply does not work without the poor and all the unpaid or underpaid labour that they provide.

The dynamic described by the Oxfam report, billionaires in the Global North extracting wealth from debt crippled countries in the Global South, fits Pakistan to a tee. As things stand, the country is unable to even keep its economy afloat without ‘financial assistance’ from the rich countries in the form of loans from the IMF and the World Bank. But these loans come at a price, one that is often paid by the poorest in this poor country. With slightly over half of the nation’s budgetary outlay for the ongoing fiscal year reportedly being spent on debt servicing, this leaves little for investments in infrastructure, health and education. This is the economic equivalent of sacrificing one’s tomorrow to make it past today. Like most other global institutions, the leadership and control of multilateral financial organisations like the IMF and the World Bank is tilted towards the Global North. This leaves these institutions poorly placed to solve the widespread poverty, environmental crises and inequality faced by countries like Pakistan. Breaking free of this neocolonial model will thus be crucial to future prosperity for the global majority. While this will not happen overnight, there are signs that things are slowly beginning to shift. The rise of China and India as economic powerhouses are firm indications that the West will not always be on top. As countries in the Global South acquire more prominence, it is important for them to support each other and be more intentional in crafting a fairer global economic order.