(C) Common Dreams This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . How are billionaire and corporate power intensifying global inequality? [1] ['Divya Amladi'] Date: 2024-01 6 ways corporate power is making inequality worse 1. Corporations are generating income inequality Corporations use their influence to oppose labor laws and policies that benefit workers, for example by fighting minimum wage increases, while pushing for political restrictions on unionization and supporting rollbacks to child labor laws. Only 0.4 percent of the world’s largest corporations are publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and support a living wage in their value chains. While corporate profits are soaring, the wages of nearly 800 million workers around the world have failed to keep up with inflation, resulting in a loss of $1.5 trillion for those workers over the last two years. 2. Corporate power increases racial and gender inequality This report uncovers how corporate power exploits and magnifies racial and gender inequalities. One such way is through privatization, which drives and reinforces inequalities, particularly along racial, class, caste, and gender lines. Privatization commodifies and segregates access to essential services, like healthcare and education, both excluding and impoverishing those who cannot pay. Corporate power also propels climate breakdown, which further exacerbates inequalities, putting an undue burden on Black, Indigenous, and people of color, women, and lower-income people. Many of the world’s billionaires own, control, shape and financially profit from processes that generate carbon pollution. They benefit when corporations block progress on a fast and just transition to renewable energy while the people in low-income countries who produce the least climate pollution suffer the greatest the consequences. 3. Billionaires are reaping the profits Hundreds of millions of people are struggling to keep up with the cost of living; meanwhile, billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than they were in 2020. This is not a coincidence. When we analyzed the world’s largest corporations, we found that a billionaire is running or the principal shareholder of 7 out of 10 of them. The richest 1 percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets. If corporations were structured more democratically, that could significantly reduce inequality. For instance, if 10 percent of every business in the U.S. was employee-owned, it could double the share of wealth of the bottom 50 percent and the median wealth of Black households. Help us demand President Biden and Congress rein in billionaire and corporate power It’s time to curb the influence and power of billionaires and corporations. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/how-are-billionaire-and-corporate-power-intensifying-global-inequality/ Published and (C) by Common Dreams Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/