GEND 356: OXFAM "The Cost of Inequality"

The main point to OXFAM's briefing on "How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All" is to convince the reader that focusing on just extreme poverty is not enough.  It is important to focus on the "inequality and the extreme wealth that contributes to it" (1).  The article outlines how inequality is "reaching levels never before seen" and is "getting worse" showing disturbing statistics like "In the US the share of national income going to the top 1% has doubled since 1980 from 10% to 20%" and "For the top 0.01% it has quadrupled" (1).  These statistics show the reader just how unequal the rich and the poor are.  Perhaps it asks the question "just why would any one person need that much money, when people are literally starving?"--it highlights the greed of the top percents.

The article also discusses how extreme wealth and income effects economic efficiency, politics, corruption, the environment, and ethics.  This perhaps suggests that all other crises would be tremendously improved by paying attention to extreme wealth and extreme inequality that exists in the world.  By the end of the article, OXFAM urges the world to "end extreme wealth by 2025" stating that "in a world of increasingly scarce resources, reducing inequality is more important than ever.  It needs to be reduced and quickly" (4).  Overall, this is a tight and to-the-point persuasive essay on the dangers of the wealth gap.

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