Is Inequality a Political Choice by Billionaires?

CGTN Europe

Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International spoke to CGTN Europe on global inequality report. He emphasized that inequality is a political choice, and governments should invest in people's access to essential services like medicine, doctors, and teachers. Behar highlighted the global protests as a sign of people's anger towards these wrong choices and their potential to bring about a more equal society through political power.

Transcript

00:00Earlier, I spoke to Amitabh Bihar, Executive Director of Oxfam.

00:30They are taking, giving support to the billionaires in further accumulation of wealth and not for freedoms of people.

00:39You say this report is about choice. So what choices should or could governments be making?

00:45Governments can make decisive choices. Let's first start by recognizing inequality is not inevitable.

00:54It's a political choice. It's a policy choice, which is led by these super rich billionaires who have become oligarchs,

01:03who now shape policies, economic policies, political policies, according to the way they want.

01:10It's really important, doesn't it? It's one thing to talk about super rich lifestyles, yachts, private jets.

01:19But this is not about that. This is really about political poverty. It's about political capture by billionaires.

01:27So economic poverty leads to hunger, but political poverty leads to anger. And that's what we are seeing now.

01:34We're here at Davos, rubbing shoulders with the political and the business elites.

01:40How encouraged are you that a new, more equal world is possible?

01:49Just look at the world. Last year, we had 144 global protests in more than 60 countries.

01:58The anger that I'm talking about is spilling out to the streets and leaders need to listen to it.

02:04They cannot continue to make these wrong choices of supporting billionaires and not investing in people's future,

02:12in ensuring that people have access to medicine, access to doctors, teachers.

02:17That's what the real choices are for governments. But they're not making it.

02:21People will ensure, through their political power, that we take a decisive shift towards an equal and just society.

02:30So, thank you so much for having to be successful.

02:34Let's hope for the next generation.

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