The growing income gap between the world’s richest and the poorest was again confirmed by a report published by the British charity Oxfam. The report, titled, “working for the Few,” claims that a small elite group of more than 85 individuals hold wealth equivalent to that owned by the bottom half of the world's population. The study further says that the top 1 percent have 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population.
It is sad that in the 21st century, a relatively small percentage of humankind has immense wealth, while the majority of the world's population lives in dire poverty and misery. This imbalance exists both within nations and between nations. Moreover, the gap that separates rich and poor continues to widen, which indicates that the current existing economic systems are incapable of restoring a just balance.
While the economic crisis in various countries has led many to focus on inequalities at the national level, the extremes between rich and poor internationally have also grown to become a threat to global stability. Many member countries of the United Nations have agreed to raise income inequality as outstanding issues on the international agenda. In an interconnected world, where the wealth of many of the world’s richest individuals exceeds the Gross Domestic Product of entire nations, extreme poverty and extreme wealth exist side by side. While the leaders of the world and the community leaders are working towards finding remedial efforts to solve the problems of the poor, they fail to probe the concentration of the wealth in the hands of the few people in the world. This need urgent attention.
The Baha’i International Community in New York in one of their recent reports offered two principles as guides for efforts in the realm of poverty eradication: justice and unity…Justice provides the means capable of harnessing human potential to eradicate poverty from our midst, through the implementation of laws, the adjustment of economic systems, the redistribution of wealth and opportunity, and unfailing adherence to the highest ethical standards in private and public life. Unity asserts that progress is systemic and relational, that a concern for the integrity of the family unit and the local, national, and global community must guide poverty alleviation efforts.
A satisfactory solution to narrow the gap between rich and poor and to eradicate poverty lies in a profound change of heart and mind which only religion can produce. The human and material resources at our disposal must be used for the long-term good of all, not for the short-term advantage of a few. This can be done only if cooperation becomes the basis of organized economic activity among business leaders and among nations. Cooperation gives life to society just as the life of an organism is maintained by the cooperation of the various elements of which it is composed.
The fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit. The disease which afflicts the body politic is lack of love and absence of altruism.
This central Baha’i principle – the elimination of the extremes of poverty and wealth – flows throughout the economic and spiritual teachings of the Faith. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of Baha’u’llah, prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, and its leader after the passing of His father,
quoted:
"Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good. To be seated in the mean is most desirable. If it be right for a capitalist to possess a large fortune, it is equally just that his workman should have a sufficient means of existence.
A financier
with colossal wealth should not exist whilst near him is a poor man in
dire necessity. When we see poverty allowed to reach a condition of
starvation it is a sure sign that somewhere we shall find tyranny. Men
must bestir themselves in this matter, and no longer delay in altering
conditions which bring the misery of grinding poverty to a very large
number of the people. The rich must give of their abundance, they must
soften their hearts and cultivate a compassionate intelligence, taking
thought for those sad ones who are suffering from lack of the very
necessities of life. There must be special laws made, dealing with
these extremes of riches and of want. The members of the Government
should consider the laws of God when they are framing plans for the
ruling of the people. The general rights of mankind must be guarded and
preserved.
The government of the countries should conform to the
Divine Law which gives equal justice to all. This is the only way in
which the deplorable superfluity of great wealth and miserable,
demoralizing, degrading poverty can be abolished. Not until this is done
will the Law of God be obeyed."
Comments