#inequality

Here’s a report called the GLOBAL JUSTICE REPORT: A Plan for Equality & Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries. The big name on the report is Thomas Picketty. This is an academic report – despite their insistence that it is concrete and practical, it is definitely more of a vision along with a catalog of policies that could be pursued to support that vision. Part of it is about a global wealth…

Photo by Siena Nisavic on Unsplash

I’ve been following the preparation of the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty beyond Growth (https://www.neep-poverty.org/) in the media and its recent presentation at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. 

In a world where nationalistic competition for scarce resources sidelines the universal, rights‑based agenda, and where public‑interest protections, democratic scrutiny, and accountability are often absent, it is crucial to consider what it would actually look like to put human rights at the heart of economic policy.

At first, having human rights at the centre of economic policy might sound naive, at least because of these two points:

The international financial architecture remains largely detached from the universal, rights‑based global development agenda. International human rights commitments have little direct bearing on how money, wealth, and economic power are distributed between the imperial core and the rest of the world. This separation sustains a financial status quo in which unjust debt arrangements, unequal fiscal space, and weak financing commitments stand in stark contradiction to universal human rights. As a result, the realisation of social justice commitments and the environmental guardrails needed for a livable future is extremely difficult.

Nation‑states are increasingly erecting barriers to migration and adopting restrictive policies, driven by a broader rightward shift. These anti‑migrant approaches not only deny the reality that more people are moving across borders than ever before; they also overlook the complex dynamics of mobility, where economic necessity can be as coercive as direct persecution. As Hannah Arendt reminded us decades ago, there is no universal system that guarantees human rights. Rights ultimately depend on the capacity — and willingness — of states to grant them. In practice, the right to have rights, the very precondition for realising human rights, is determined by the arbitrary lottery of where, when, and into which country one is born — a reality far from universal.

In this context, it is particularly enlightening to listen to the former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, as he details his ideas on what states can still do; his words remind us that we, the people, shape economic policy and determine governance systems. It means that even within the barriers listed above (flaws of the economic system and increasingly protectionist states),  it is possible to do otherwise. As Olivier points out, however, in the current global order, it may not be a universal debate among all nation-states and their dictatorial figureheads, but rather a growing alliance of those willing to swim against the tide. 

𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 ….?

𝐈𝐧𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: the top 1% now owns as much as the bottom 90%, the middle class has been overtaken, and here’s the quiet punchline, the wealthy don’t just have more, they own the right assets.

The bottom is locked into houses and cars; the top compounds through stocks, funds, and business equity.

https://x.com/mohossain/status/2071048446329385268?s=46

ht: Slock/SteveRattner/waj #safety #violence