I have been clearing up the odds and ends I place for later on top of the printer on my desk. A bad habit, this tearing out of bits and pieces from newspapers, collecting bits of information from wherever I might visit, things that I mean to use for some purpose at another later time. At times I get fed up with it all, rapidly go through the mess, and turf the lot. After all, it is usually past news I have never done anything with. But here I am with a snippet from, who knows, probably The Adelaide Advertiser, dreadful paper that it is. I had neglected to note on it where I had sourced it from, or when. It is one column, ten centimetres maybe, probably from the World News page which The Advertiser now puts right at the back of everything local or of Oz national. ‘Tax the rich to save the poor’ its small font headline announces. It is a report on the last World Economic Forum held as usual in Davos, in May 2022, after having been postponed for some years because of Covid. 

As background, the WEF touts itself as the international organisation for public-private cooperation, engaging the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry leaders. ‘We believe,’ their website says, ‘that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.’ Davos is located in the Swiss alps and gained prominence in the 19^th century as a mountain health resort. Today it is the home of one of Switzerland’s largest ski resorts. An unlikely location as a source for a statement like ‘Tax the rich to save the poor,’ given the number of billionaires and millionaires who congregate regularly on WEF matters. A true global elite.

In keeping with the ‘all walks of life’ claim of the Forum, Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam director, was in attendance. She noted that 263 million people are expected to sink into extreme poverty this year, at a rate of one million every 33 hours, given soaring inflation and the effect of Covid worldwide.  In stark contrast, 573 people became billionaires during the pandemic, that is one every 30 hours. ‘Billionaires,’ she said, ‘are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. … Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive.’

Hence the call from Oxfam for a one-off ‘solidarity tax’ on billionaires’ pandemic windfall to go some way to assisting people facing increasing poverty and help fund a ‘fair and sustainable recovery from Covid.’

A wealth tax, a mining tax, a fairer progressive tax system – tax reform in other words. And I think of the people who right now, in this coldest of Adelaide winters for many years, sleeping in their cars, or on the street corner, homeless, unable to find or afford rental accommodation, women fleeing from domestic violence often with children … the list goes on. And those of us lucky enough to have warm beds and a roof over our heads continue to cavil at the idea of paying more tax to enable the state to increase its services, fund agencies that can assist individuals in need, to enable a reset which would make it possible to live in more equitable communities. Tax reform shows itself to be, again and again, a death knell for governments dependent on big business and voter support. What does it take to bring about real change which would see us live in a fairer world?