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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the eat-the-rich dept.

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

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/jan/19/project-davos-whats-the-single-best-way-to-close-the-worlds-wealth-gap

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.


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  • (Score: 1) by bobthecimmerian on Monday January 22 2018, @02:07PM (1 child)

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Monday January 22 2018, @02:07PM (#626065)

    I support UBI too, but I think it's still political suicide in the US. The conservatives have been selling the idea that everyone has to work hard for what they get on their own, and everything else is nonsense. So for too many people UBI is an ultimate evil.

    The problem is, that ignores context and history. In the present day context, businesses employ people educated in public schools and businesses conduct business partnerships and sell product to people educated in public schools. Businesses need infrastructure - roads, telecommunications, standards - supported by public funding. Businesses rely upon security and safety from police and firefighters. They rely upon the courts to settle legal disputes and help deal with breaches of contract. They rely upon financial institutions that are regulated so they don't collapse and lose all of their financial assets. Success through 'rugged individualism' doesn't exist, everyone is implicitly drawing upon trillions of dollars of public investment to reach their situation. But further and just as importantly, the worker treatment today didn't come just because employees in the 1940s and earlier thought it was fair. It came because of organizing, unions, lobbying, and fighting for better treatment. Strip away those laws, and you don't get a worker utopia. You get the 19th century with 70 hour work weeks for junk pay in deadly conditions, air quality like Chinese cities, people injured at work that have to hope their family can support them.

    With respect to education, my understanding is that the countries in the world with the best education outcomes don't spend a lot on teacher monitoring. What they do is spend more on social welfare programs and require better benefits for all workers and parents, so there are fewer kids with a terrible home life.

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 22 2018, @02:41PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday January 22 2018, @02:41PM (#626074)

    it's still political suicide in the US.

    Absolutely true, no matter how well framed the UBI presentation is made by those in favor, there will be those who oppose it simply because it is an easy political win to "fight free money to the lazy."

    the countries in the world with the best education outcomes don't spend a lot on teacher monitoring. What they do is spend more on social welfare programs and require better benefits for all workers and parents

    So, I feel like you're talking about Finland, or perhaps Scandinavia at large, and you're right. Due to the harsh winters, I think they have a slightly different view of social welfare there, and they have evolved more quickly to a modern system that addresses more root causes than acute symptoms.

    fewer kids with a terrible home life.

    Oh, but now you're on the wrong side of every voter who (even thinks they) had abusive parents but managed to get away from them and have a better life on their own. They did it without namby-pamby social programs coddling them, everyone else who's worth keeping alive can do it the hard way too, am I right? /s

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