News Right Now: Tipped Scales

Welcome to this week’s episode of News Right Now: Tipped Scales

The distribution of wealth around the world is failing more than half of the world’s population. The World Inequality Report 2022 has shown horrific statistics of how the global wealth has been distributed. With economists calling for a "modest progressive wealth tax on global multi-millionaires" to solve this horrendous problem. But would it? How bad is it really? What is the cause?

Well, when looking into the report you will see that the richest 10% of the global population is currently taking 52% of the global income, while the poorest half of the population only earns 8.5% of it! This is making an individual from the top half earn an average of $122,100 of the global income per year, whereas the poorest half earns $3,920 per year! This means that the poorest 50% of the population possess only 2% of the total global wealth and the richest earn 76% of it! And since the 1990’s, the top 1% took 38% of the additional accumulated since then. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% only got 2% of it!

Since 1995, the richest individual’s wealth has grown at 6%-9% per year while the average wealth has grown only at 3.2% per year! The billionaires’ wealth rose up to 1% to over 3%, for during the Covid pandemic, the billionaires’ share of wealth exacerbated. Now, from around the world, Europe is the most equal region, with the richest 10% taking 36% of the income. In the meantime, the Middle East along with North Africa is the most unequal, where the richest 10% take 58% of the income!

What is the cause of this? Who is to blame for all this imbalance? It is the system we have been living under! It is because of Capitalism! You see, capitalism concentrates more on wealth production instead of on the distribution of wealth. But the real economic problem is the poverty of the individuals in the society and that problem is not solved by the production of wealth. It is solved by the distribution of wealth. Without the proper distribution of wealth, the individuals in the society do not have a fair share of welfare, leading to inequality.

The only solution is to uproot the capitalist system, in its entirety, and implement the system of Allah (swt), the Khilafah (Caliphate); in Islam, power does not belong to the wealthy. Nor does it legislate favorably according to one’s whims and desires. Allah (swt) send down clear instructions on how to rule in Islam and how the economic system should take place, distinguishing between private and public wealth. Utilities are not sold off from private corporations who mismanage them, causing fuel price hikes. Also, having the accountability of the ruler not rely upon the corporate media, whose vested interests guarantee that the corruption of the elite goes unchecked. Islam does not accept that power belongs to the wealthy or that they should legislate favorably going off whims and desires!

May Allah give us our state and may we see equality under its shade. Ya Rab...

Ummah Voice Podcast
SoundCloud Link: Click Here