Want to Reverse Inequality? Change Intellectual Property Rules.; The Nation, February 8, 2021

Dean Baker, February 8, 2021; Want to Reverse Inequality? Change Intellectual Property Rules.

Changes in IP have done far more than tax cuts to increase inequality—and US protection of IP could lead to a cold war with China.

"While the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump tax cuts all gave more money to the rich, policy changes in other areas, especially intellectual property have done far more to redistribute income upward. In the past four decades, a wide array of changes—under both Democratic and Republican presidents—made patent and copyright protection both longer and stronger."

An angry historian ripped the ultrarich over tax avoidance at Davos. Then one was given the mic.; The Washington Post, January 31, 2019

Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post; An angry historian ripped the ultrarich over tax avoidance at Davos. Then one was given the mic.

"Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author who studies poverty and global inequality, had a first this year: being invited to the world’s most prominent gathering of wealthy people — the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland — as a speaker...

[Bregman]...decided to say something during the panel discussion about income inequality he was on, hosted by Time magazine on Friday. He started by saying that he found the conference’s mix of indulgence and global problem-solving a bit bewildering.

“I mean 1,500 private jets have flown in here to hear Sir David Attenborough speak about how we’re wrecking the planet," he said. "I hear people talking the language of participation and justice and equality and transparency. But then almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance. And of the rich just not paying their fair share. It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one is allowed to speak about water.

“This is not rocket science,” he said. “We can talk for a very long time about all these stupid philanthropy schemes, we can invite Bono once more, but, come on, we got to be talking about taxes. That’s it. Taxes, taxes, taxes — all the rest is bulls---, in my opinion.”

The 62 Richest People On Earth Now Hold As Much Wealth As The Poorest 3.5 Billion; Huffington Post, 1/17/16

Emily Peck, Huffington Post; The 62 Richest People On Earth Now Hold As Much Wealth As The Poorest 3.5 Billion:

"All the money in the world is growing ever more concentrated in the hands of just a few people, a report released Sunday night makes clear.

Just 62 ultra-rich individuals -- a list that is primarily made up of men and includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, the Koch Brothers and the Walmart heirs -- have as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity. Five years ago, it took 388 rich guys to achieve that status.

The wealth of the richest 62 has increased an astonishing 44 percent since 2010, to $1.76 trillion. Meanwhile, the wealth of the bottom half of the world dropped by 41 percent.

“This is terrible,” Gawain Kripke, Oxfam's Policy Director, told The Huffington Post. “No one credible will say this is good for the world or good for the economy.”"

Spread of internet has not conquered 'digital divide' between rich and poor – report; Guardian, 1/13/16

Larry Elliott, Guardian; Spread of internet has not conquered 'digital divide' between rich and poor – report:

"The rapid spread of the internet and mobile phones around the globe has failed to deliver the expected boost to jobs and growth, the World Bank has revealed in a report that highlights a growing digital divide between rich and poor.

The Bank said no other technology has reached more people in so short a time as the internet, but warned that the development potential of technological change had yet to be reaped.

According to the Bank’s new “World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends”, the number of people connected to the internet has more than tripled in the past decade, from 1 billion to an estimated 3.5 billion. In many developing countries, more families own a mobile phone than have access to electricity or clean water.

But the report said the benefits of rapid digital expansion had been skewed towards the better-off and the more highly skilled, who were better able to take advantage of the new technologies. By comparison, 4 billion people – or 60% of the world’s population – had no access to the internet."

The anti-eviction blues: audio reports from San Francisco's gentrifying streets; Guardian, 1/14/16

Erin McElory, Guardian; The anti-eviction blues: audio reports from San Francisco's gentrifying streets:

"Our data visualisation project grew to study relations between gentrification and factors such as speculation and property flipping, racial profiling and luxury development. But as we produced more and more maps, we became increasingly concerned with the dangers of reducing complex social and political worlds to simple dots on a map – such data can never fully describe the personal and neighbourhood displacements through gentrification.

Our Narratives of Displacement and Resistance project is an attempt to address this. Over the last two years, we have been gathering oral histories of those impacted in different ways by Tech Boom 2.0 – from those evicted by networks of shell companies, to those who have experienced increased racial profiling and those who have fought their evictions through direct action … and won."