Virus of inequality

While 1000 of the world's richest people have already been able to recover from the losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which swept around the world through 2020, causing millions of losses to many, it is the poor who continue to suffer in almost every country in the world. The rich benefit from the fact that taxes were reduced during the pandemic, allowing them to increase their gains. Also, as a new Oxfam report shows, they still have the credit to be able to obtain new loans and enough assets to be able to build up their fortunes once again. Indeed, many have already done so, some in fact benefiting at least indirectly from the pandemic.

This aspect of Covid-19 and the manner in which it has affected some so much more than others will be read out when the report is presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Oxfam report titled 'The Inequality Virus' goes far beyond Covid itself, and also discusses the difference in economic levels and the impact this has on people everywhere. It is just astonishing that 101 of South Asia's richest persons have benefited from the virus and if they gave out only a part of the earnings to the 93 million who have suffered huge losses, they would be able to make out cheques of nearly $2000 to each of the poor families affected. These are facts that should make us think deeply and think hard. We all know that natural disasters and pandemics strike unequally and hit the poor the worst. Certainly, this has been true of Covid-19. The worst affected include women entrepreneurs, those from indigenous groups, and others with lower standing in society, or possibly fewer networks from which they can obtain help or support. This will be a factor that should be kept in mind each time there is an analysis of the year 2020 and the virus which swept around the world during it.

The task of world leaders must be to help all the people recover even if this happens slowly. Current estimates suggest that for the poor who have been worst hit by the virus and the unemployment, it will take years to come back to the levels of living that they enjoyed prior to the start of the pandemic as we see others already back on their feet and in fact running. Clearly, there is a huge impact of inequality on the world. Something has to be done to ensure that the wealth collected by the richest men in the world, most of them white billionaires, is shared in some manner with those who have been forced close to starvation by Covid-19. It is not easy to achieve this. But international institutions should work towards it and keep this end in mind following a reading of the Oxfam report.