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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: 1) by bobthecimmerian on Monday January 22 2018, @12:24PM
I think the argument - which is reasonable - is that as the rest of the world gets better education and infrastructure more and more will move to other countries. In some hypothetical world where the entire planet has the same education level as the US, the next Google, Intel, General Electric, Tesla Motors (except profitable), Apple, Pfizer, Merck, and so forth could do all of their research and manufacturing elsewhere. So the demand for American labor drops. There would still be medical jobs, teaching jobs, police, firefighters, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, road maintenance, and so forth and a tourism industry. But a tourism industry can only be the major industry of an area if the amount of tourism is huge. Otherwise you need major employers that make something. The area where I grew up in nowhere Pennsylvania had coal mines, plastic manufacturing, paint manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, truck production, and a few farms as the heart of the economy forty years ago. All of those companies and most of those farms are gone now, and the area is falling apart. They have a Walmart and an Amazon warehouse, but those doesn't employ even 5% as many people as the companies that closed - and the pay isn't as good, either. (Well, Amazon pays well but the work is seasonal - they cut most of the staff in mid-January and then go on a hiring spree in October.)
I'm still in favor of better conditions for the rest of the world. But I think the core problem that is incredibly difficult to address is that production is becoming more efficient. As the whole world moves up to the same level of technology and infrastructure the US has today, worldwide labor demand will drastically exceed supply. I don't see any way to deal with that except greater social welfare programs for millions of people who would be thrilled to have a meaningful job but can't find one.