Page 7 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Muhammad Yunus: Can wealth concentration be stopped?

Citizens have to create little islands of wealth harmony through their efforts. They
have to inspire the world, particularly the youth, that this can be done and must be
done. We have to remind ourselves that we are in an era where impossible become
possible faster and faster. This is one impossible that we'll have to make possible
very fast irrespective of all the hurdles in reaching it.
Let me share some of my thoughts on how we can make it happen.

People at the Centre
Can wealth explosion be stopped?
My firm answer is, yes, it can be done. Human beings can do anything they
want. There must be a strong desire behind it. Old ways of doing it through
government and charities alone cannot do it. People will have to take it up as their
personal priority. People will take the lead in doing it themselves and then put strong
pressure on government to move in the direction of creating right kind of policy
packages to facilitate this.
Since the appearance of modern capitalism around 250 years back, the concept
of free market has been well established. It has been believed that an invisible hand
ensures competition in the economy and thus, it contributes to the equilibrium in the
markets. It is also believed that society is benefited automatically if individuals
pursue their own benefits without paying any attention to social benefits. Now the
question is: Does the invisible hand ensure benefits equally for everybody in the
society? Obviously the invisible hand is dedicatedly biased to the richest. That's why
enormous wealth concentration continues.

How Can We Reverse Wealth Concentration?
My faith in the possibility of transforming a wealth-pyramid gradually into a
new shape, wealth-diamond -- very few at the top, and very few at the bottom, bulk
of the people in the middle, simply sky-rocketed after the victory of the people in
Paris. Now I feel confident that wealth explosion can be arrested.
First of all it is not an unalterable fate that mankind was born with. Since it is
our own creation, we can solve it through our own efforts, same as global warming.
It is our blocked mind which prevents us from seeing the problem that is pushing us
towards this explosion. Our efforts should be directed to unblock our minds. We
must challenge the existing paradigms which led the world to this problem. The
usual political agenda to reduce the problem focuses on income-gap, not on wealth-
gap. It is done through a programme of income redistribution -- taking from the top
(through progressive taxes) and giving it to the bottom (through various transfer
payments).

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