The writer quotes a professor of economics from the US who said that sharing vaccine manufacturing technology could save more lives by producing and distributing the vaccine in more regions, but we didn't. While the poor were dying, he said, billionaires amassed more wealth than ever before, becoming wealthier and some of the biggest corporations are generating unprecedented returns. Thus, the disaster of the pandemic has deepened inequality. And the reality of inequality isn't just making the rich, richer and producing more of the poor, it's actually killing people.
On January 17, Oxfam, an international relief organization, released "Inequality Kills," a report analyzing income inequality around the world after the pandemic.
According to the report, from March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, to the end of November last year, an income of 99% of the world's population decreased and 160 million fell into poverty. Inequality such as poverty, lack of medical benefits, and climate problems, killed one person every four seconds and at least 21,300 people a day.
On the other hand, during the same period, the wealth of the world's 10 richest people more than doubled from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion. That's an increase of 1.3 billion dollars per day. These 10 people have six times the wealth of the world's poorest 3.1 billion people. And every 26 hours, a new billionaire is born.
10% of the wealthy, 76% of the world's wealth These figures are also confirmed by other research organizations. The World Inequality Lab (WIL), a research institute affiliated with the Paris University of Economics, France, released the '2022 World Inequality Report' on December 7 last year.
According to the report, from 1995 to last year, the richest 1% of people accumulated 19 times more wealth than the bottom 50% of income earners. The top 10% accounted for 52% of total income, and the bottom 50% earned only 8% of total income. The polarization of holdings is even more extreme. The richest 10% own 76% of the world's wealth, while the bottom 50% own only 2%.
According to CNN Business of the United States, the wealth of the world's 500 richest people increased by 1 trillion dollars last year, and in 2020 when the pandemic started in earnest, the assets of the 500 richest people increased by 1.8 trillion dollars.
On the other hand, according to the World Bank (WB), the number of people living in absolute poverty living on less than $1.9 a day (about 2,300 won) increased by 97 million in 2020 and 100 million last year. The World Bank predicted in its 'World Economic Outlook Report' released on January 11 that inequality among countries around the world will become more severe than before the pandemic due to differences in the speed of economic recovery.
In the early days of the pandemic, it was thought that humanity was faced with a "common crisis". It was thought that everyone was in the same tragic situation, regardless of country, ethnicity, gender, or social class. However, the expectation that a vaccine would become a public good for mankind ran into a wall of selfishness and monopoly from the beginning. The world has been divided into countries that can vaccinate and countries that cannot, and the death rate from COVID-19 in developing countries is twice that of developed countries. Pharmaceutical companies took people's lives and became billionaires.
After his ascent to the papacy, Pope Francis, who issued the exhortation The Joy of the Gospel and preached that "an economy of exclusion and inequality should not be," has constantly criticized the structural evils of inequality and economic alienation.
On February 7, 2015, Pope Francis urged that "wealth inequality is the root of all evil" and that "we must first give up the market’s absolute autonomy and financial speculation, and make a decision to eliminate the structure of wealth inequality."
In a Wednesday general audience on August 26, 2020, when the pandemic was spreading rapidly, the Pope lamented that “the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized and exacerbated inequality.
Prior to this, the Pope pointed out at the International Conference of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on February 5, 2020, that "today, extreme poverty continues to occur in the center of wealth" because "our neglect and unconcern have created the greatest poverty in history."
The Pope went on to say, "All economic inequality stems from the structure of sin brought about by 'globalization of indifference' and 'idolization of money, greed, and speculation,'" adding, "We can intensify social inequality and violence or humanize the socio-economic system by our choices."
Oxfam and the Institute for Global Inequality argue for the need for tax increases for the wealthy, whose assets have soared during the pandemic as a way to resolve the global inequality situation deepened by the pandemic. In other words, it is necessary to support the vulnerable groups suffering from the reality of inequality by injecting the financial resources obtained by raising taxes on the wealthy who have accumulated enormous wealth to use for global health, medical care, education, and response to the climate crisis.
Along with these measures, the Church emphasizes the spirit of sharing and fundamental concern for neighbors based on 'fraternity' in order to respond to the unequal world reality. Like Jesus Christ, who stayed by the side of the poor and shared their destiny, it can be said we too should be on the side of the poor and marginalized, our neighbors suffering oppression and discrimination, and a willingness in interest and love to share their destiny.
