Inequality, Tax Justice and the Philippine Wealth Tax Campaign (original) (raw)

Rising inequality has been an inescapable phenomenon of global economic development over the past 200 years. On the other end, the profits of business enterprises and their owners' wealth have been increasing disproportionately. This has been highlighted in a landmark 2014 study by a group of French economists led by Thomas Pikkety. The global data confirms this analysis of unabated inequality amid high growth rates, leading to an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. In declaring the reduction of inequality as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations (UN) observes that growing inequality affects 70 percent of the global population. It is threatening "long-term social and economic development, [harming] poverty reduction and [destroying] people's sense of fulfilment and self-worth." All these, "in turn, can breed crime, disease, and environmental degradation" (UN 2020).