SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Donald Trump and Angela Merkel will join 2,500 world leaders, business executives and charity bosses at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland which kicks off on 23 January. High on the agenda once again will be the topic of inequality, and how to reduce the widening gap between the rich and the rest around the world.
The WEF recently warned that the global economy is at risk of another crisis, and that automation and digitalisation are likely to suppress employment and wages for most while boosting wealth at the very top.
But what ideas should the great and good gathered in the Swiss Alps be putting into action? We'd like to know what single step you think governments should prioritise in order to best address the problem of rising inequality. Below we've outlined seven proposals that are most often championed as necessary to tackle the issue – but which of them is most important to you?
- Provide free and high quality education
- Raise the minimum wage
- Raise taxes on the rich
- Fight corruption
- Provide more social protection for the poor
- Stop the influence of the rich on politicians
- Provide jobs for the unemployed
Do you think these ideas are enough, or are there any better ideas to close this wealth gap ? You too can participate and vote for the idea that, you think, works best.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday January 21 2018, @02:48PM
Not defending Ms. Clinton specifically, but in general "that level" of government, the top, and even our current carrot top to a small degree... part of the job of diplomacy, as practiced for the last 500 years, involves lying. Part of the job of the president is to explicitly override the law, with the power of the pardon among other things. So, in a sense, yes, the people at the top are exempt from the same type of accountability as their lower level functionaries.
Should that extend to heads of large corporations? I think not, but clearly in practice it currently does. I think the recent jailing of the VW executive level engineer for "cheating" is a good start, and that sort of thing should be much more common (and in that particular case the criminal penalties should have run higher in the company as well...) It is problematic, because "the buck stops" at the top level, and it is humanly impossible for a single person, no matter how diligent, to be actually responsible for the day to day actions of tens of thousands. I think a broad/global increase in transparency would go a long way toward improving this situation, but that seems slow in coming.
🌻🌻 [google.com]