Oxfam: 'Centuries of wrong-headed policy decisions and bipartisan embrace of capitalist policy-making'

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00:00In other news, U.S. President Donald Trump is due to virtually address the World Economic Forum in

00:04Davos. The speech comes days after he resumed office for the second time. It also comes on

00:09the heels of NGO Oxfam, warning of an aristocratic oligarchy emerging. For more on this story,

00:15we can bring in Rebecca Riddell, Economic Justice Policy Lead at Oxfam America. Thank you so much

00:20for joining us on the program today. Now, the newly installed U.S. President will be addressing

00:25the global elite, the global elite he balks at. But Donald Trump is part of this elite, isn't he?

00:33First of all, thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure. And yes,

00:37so President Trump's decision to dial into Davos today is a clear signal of what seems to be his

00:43main presidential priority, which is pandering to fellow billionaires.

00:46Now, fellow billionaires were firmly in the shot when Donald Trump was being sworn in.

00:55What does this mean about his second term in office?

00:59Well, Oxfam and organizations like us and the people we work with certainly expect and are

01:06preparing for President Trump to be a president of and for billionaires and for his administration to

01:13potentially fan the flames of inequality in the U.S., but also globally.

01:17You know, his team is set to be the richest ever to run the U.S. government, a cabinet worth,

01:24the richest cabinet in history and a team overall worth over $450 billion.

01:29Now, the wealth of billionaires, according to Oxfam, grew three times faster last year. Why

01:35do you think that there is this reluctance on the part of governments to level the playing field?

01:41Hmm. Well, yeah, that's a great question. I want to step back and say, you know, every year,

01:48Oxfam puts out a global inequality report as the sort of private jets are descending onto Davos.

01:55And this year, we found that the billionaires have a lot to celebrate, even compared to recent

02:01years. You know, their wealth has increased tremendously, this less than $3 trillion.

02:07At less than 3,000 people, their wealth went up by $2 trillion. Right. That's unimaginable.

02:14Last year, we had predicted that there would be the world's first trillionaire within a decade.

02:20Now, our expectation is there will be five trillionaires within that time frame. And

02:24that's just because of how fast billionaire wealth is increasing. And you asked about

02:29why steps aren't being taken to address this type of extreme inequality. Right.

02:36And I think, you know, we have to think about how the very richest folks,

02:39they're not just getting more wealth, they're also getting more power. And nothing really

02:44exemplifies that better than seeing a billionaire, Donald Trump, backed by the world's richest man,

02:51sworn in as president of the US. Right. This is oligarchy in action. We're so concerned about

02:55the ability of the ultra wealthy to really shape political decision making in their favor. So

03:01I think that's a key factor behind this. We had the outgoing US President Joe Biden

03:08warn of an oligarchy taking hold in the United States. He was president for four years. What

03:14did he do to combat this? Yeah, I have to say, it's a strange moment when the President of the

03:22US is even talking about oligarchy and the risks of that. Something we and others have been warning

03:29about for a while. But a few years ago, you know, you might have thought about a James Bond villain

03:35or a rogue state. And now it feels like we don't have to use our imagination anymore to think about

03:39oligarchy. We can just look at the newspaper. And, you know, the reality is, these are decades,

03:47and in some cases, as we talk about in the report, centuries of really wrongheaded policy decisions,

03:54and often a bipartisan embrace of a very pro capital type of policymaking. And so while the

04:01Biden administration did take steps in response to pressure from workers and families, of course,

04:08these are problems that haven't yet been resolved and are going to take a lot of political will to

04:13tackle. Does the global political context, you know, change the stakes of the meeting underway

04:19in Davos this year? I think it's a good question. It's when we get asked a lot, you know,

04:29what's going to happen at Davos. And I think if nothing else, it's an opportunity for dialogue.

04:35And that's what we hope is happening with so many billionaires, world leaders, politicians

04:40coming together. It's a really important time to talk about these problems. In a way, the need to

04:46tackle extreme wealth and the risks of not doing so have never been more clear. And so we certainly

04:52think that should be front and center at Davos this year. Rebecca, we're going to have to leave

04:57it there. Thank you so much for joining us on the program today. That was Rebecca Goodell

05:01from Oxfam America.

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