Recently Joe Brewer, Alnoor Ladha and Martin Kirk had the audacity to describe what they call the “Poverty Creation Industry.” http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15726-its-time-to-shine-a-light-on-the-poverty-creation-industry
They write that, “Poverty is human-made. It is created – knowingly and with scientific efficiency – by a vastly sophisticated industry that includes private companies, think tanks, media outlets, government policies, and more. This ‘Poverty Creation Industry’ is about the least talked about feature of our global economy and yet it is perhaps the greatest market force in the modern world. Until we acknowledge this startling truth, progress towards global prosperity and sustainability will fall far short of what is possible.”
“It happens in big boardrooms and political conferences, where people create rules and execute strategies to ‘maximise self-interest’ as economists say, by extracting wealth from others. This is largely driven by a maniacal focus on short-term profit or advantage while ignoring one of its primary effects – the impoverishment of hundreds of millions of people.”
The industry is amazingly successful, the richest 0.001% of the world control 30% of the financial wealth; the wealthiest 0.1% about 81%. Somewhere between $21 and $32 trillion – or 10%-15% of all privately held wealth – is hidden behind the great walls of secrecy. Of the 100 largest companies on the London Stock Exchange, 98 routinely use tax havens. Over half of all global trade flows between and within them so that profits can be siphoned off untaxed.
Want to do something about this despicable state of affairs that places the fate of the world in a perilous state? Check out /The Rules, a new global citizens movement aimed at tackling these root causes of inequality and poverty. The Rules is one of the most important and impactful new organizations to come along in the past decade. Coming together in common purpose and with a common understanding, using smart organizing and global communication networks, The Rules believes that ordinary people have the power to stand up to the Poverty Creation Industry, and bring about new rules. Their first step is to demand transparency in the global hub of the tax haven system, the City of London.
They need your help! Get involved today.