THE latest figures on global inequality paint a picture of increasingly stark contrasts. In just two years, says the global charity Oxfam, the richest 1pc of the world will own more than the rest of the world combined.

The richest 1pc, a segment that has found itself increasingly in the spotlight since a book by the French economist Thomas Picketty clearly laid out how they were a closely knit group for over a century benefiting more from inheritance than hard work, is now being seen as a parasite.

It is said to be consuming more than the rest of humanity, and stymieing economic growth in the process. For almost a quarter of a century now, economists have placed the policy emphasis on growth of output alone, saying that inequality will sort itself out once the size of the pie increases.

Now evidence is mounting that this will not happen. The pace of growth of inequality is staggering, and it continues through good times as well as bad.

Since 2009, while the advanced industrial democracies have been in a persistent economic slump, the top 1pc of the human population increased their share of global wealth from 44pc to 48pc.

The statement from the charity came only days before the meeting of global leaders at Davos, Switzerland, where the future priorities of the global policy elite are decided.

Developing a policy framework to tackle inequality is not simple, and the experience of the 1970s when such an exercise was indeed attempted, shows us the pitfalls if the state takes on too much of the burden. And given the massive stimulus programmes that are under way to kick-start the growth process, the fiscal space to forcibly redistribute wealth is also limited.

What is needed is a vision of a growth process that generates incomes at the bottom and lets the money percolate up. Are any of the assembled heads at Davos up to the task of devoting their energies to creating such a vision? Time is running out to simply stand and stare.

Published in Dawn January 22nd , 2015

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