Page 4 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.73, # 2, 2016, pp. 4-20

CAN WEALTH CONCENTRATION BE STOPPED?

Muhammad Yunus

Nobel Peace prize winner

Received 15 September 2016; accepted 14 December 2016;
published online 26 December 2016

Abstract
This article summarizes a lecture of Nobel laureate Prof Dr. Muhammad Yunus
delivered at the 25th Anniversary event of the Daily Star on February 5, 2016 in
Dhaka. In this article, Dr. Yunus mentions that wealth concentration is a negative
tendency as 99% of global wealth belongs to 1% of people and therefore, threatens
the global peace. The professor highlights the importance of understanding
seriousness of situation and calls to implement measures against it.

Keywords: wealth concentration, social business, charity, personal giving, corporates.

JEL classification: D31, E01, E21, P46

Victory of the People
Outcome of Cop 21 got me thrilled and inspired. After 40 years of battle between
believers and non-believers finally believers won. They persuaded everyone that the
world is in real danger, and we must act collectively. Paris got all the nations, big and
small, together to sign on a legally binding agreement to protect the planet from
impending climate disaster. Every day I feel like thanking all the activists who have
gone through an uphill task to convince political leaders, businesses, and ordinary
people, year after year to show the writing on the wall. Many took it as their life-long
campaign to bring the nations to their senses. Citizens who were on the sidelines
gradually became activists. They voted for political candidates who supported climate
action. Political parties started getting elected to power because they are green.
I see Paris as the victory of the people led by the committed activists who
never gave up campaigning for their cause. Even during the Paris conference over 7,
85, 000 people marched at 2,300 events in 175 countries united in one voice calling
for a 100% clean energy future to save everything they love. Normally we expect
governments to mobilize public opinion behind their brave actions. In the case of
global warming it was the reverse. It is the citizens of the world who mobilized their
governments.

4