As every year, at the end of January the great figures of politics, industry and finance gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss the global dynamics of the economy (and more). And, as every year, the humanitarian organisation Oxfam greets them with a study that takes stock of the true, enormous weak point of our development model: the vertiginous inequalities that split our societies in two, creating an abyss between those who enjoy the fruits of economic growth and those who, conversely, are systematically excluded from them.

Oxfam portrays a world divided between opulence and poverty

The list drawn up by Forbes magazine in 2019 counts 2,153 billionaires. Adding up all their wealth, the total surpasses what 4.6 billion people have to share between them. The top five on the list are Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and now philanthropist; Warren Buffett, the investor nicknamed "the Oracle of Omaha"; the owner of the luxury group Lvmh, Frenchman Bernard Arnault and his family; and Carlos Slim Helu, who with his family controls the Mexican mobile operator America Movil. To accumulate just one fifth of their average wealth, a hypothetical person would have had to set aside 10,000 dollars a day, starting from the time when the Egyptian Pyramids were built.

#FightInequality ✓ @FightInequality

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Inequality is growing. The world's richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. Many of these billionaires are at @wef #WEF20 to solve the "inequality crisis". How can they when they are the problem to begin with?

#TaxtheRich → fightinequality.org

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Given that the fortunes of the super-rich feed on themselves through financial returns, Oxfam goes as far as to say that at the top of the power hierarchy there is "nothing but money and no work." Meanwhile, between 2011 and 2017, dividends distributed to wealthy shareholders increased by 31%. Average wages in the industrialised G7 countries also grew during that period, but by just 3%. All this while progress in the fight against poverty continues, but at a pace that has slowed considerably since 2013. Even today, the World Bank reveals, nearly half of the world's population subsists on less than 5.50 dollars a day.

Oxfam International ✓ @Oxfam

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Our economies enable a privileged few to accumulate massive wealth and power - while women & girls work billions of hours caring for others.

For free.

Even though this work is worth $10.8 TRILLION.

Govts must #MakeCareCount. Join us 👉 evenitup.org
#FightInequality

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The forgotten value of women's unpaid work

While the faces of the ultra-wealthy are in many cases familiar to us, far less often do the spotlights shine on those at the base of the pyramid. More often than not, Oxfam stresses, these are women. Women who provide low-cost labour to companies, or who take on free of charge the healthcare and social support that should be guaranteed by the state. These are the so-called caregivers, who spend their days managing the household and looking after children or the elderly, without any formal recognition.

There are 67 million domestic workers in the world. Only one in ten enjoys legal protections comparable to those of other forms of employment, or has access to maternity or sick pay. Eight in ten are women; this explains why, worldwide, as many as 42 per cent of the female working-age population does not receive regular pay, compared with 6 per cent of men.

But how much value does all this unpaid care work bring to the global economy? According to Oxfam's estimates, 10,800 billion dollars a year: three times the turnover of the entire technology sector. A value that, in general silence, women give to society without receiving anything in return. It is no coincidence, Oxfam concludes, that the 22 richest men on the planet hold wealth greater than that of all African women combined.

Cover photo © Annie Spratt / Unsplash