The world’s super-rich swanned around a luxury ski resort in the charming Swiss town of Davos. They sipped champagne and nibbled on macaroons while trying to get to grips with the threat of rising inequality.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified this as the single largest global risk in 2017 and the issue finally has world leaders in designer suits sitting up and taking notice, especially as it has started taking its toll on the developed world.
The growing gap between rich and poor was a key reason for the citizens of the United Kingdom to vote to leave the European Union and, undeniably, it was also a major factor in the unprecedented election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.
Globally, more and more literature, such as Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, suggests the tide is turning against the Washington consensus of low marginal tax rates and the broadening of the tax base.
In South Africa, one of the most unequal societies in the world, inequality is at the heart of the biggest issues faced by the nation.
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