COVID-19 entered a world already struggling with unprecedented levels of inequality.

There can be no return to the neoliberal order that was 'normal' prior to the crisis.

Higher taxation, expanded healthcare and labour rights are just the start of the reforms needed.

Meet Sampa Akter. She sews clothes for global brands in Bangladesh. As with millions of others, she was sent home in March with no pay as COVID-19 canceled orders. Ninety-eight percent of buyers said no to paying lost wages, rich multinationals included. Some are paying now. More factories have reopened. But women like Sampa across the industry, who already lived pay cheque to pay cheque, now face wage cuts. They fear hunger more than sickness. Not all are hit equally, however. It takes a top fashion brand CEO four days to earn what Sampa does in a lifetime.

Think of Jason Hargrove, a bus driver in Detroit, US. He posted a video expressing his frustration about people spreading the virus. Days later, he died. Black Americans, making up a disproportionate number of bus drivers, have been killed at three times the rate of white people by COVID-19. In the UK its four times. Two times if youre ethnic Pakistani. Again, not all are equally hit. If you live in a rich area, your chance of dying of COVID-19 is halved.

Now consider billionaires. If the richest man on Earth made a pile of all his wealth in $100 bills and sat on top, he would be in outer space. US billionaires are half a trillion dollars richer than when the pandemic began. Were seeing similar trends across the world. This at a time in which half a billion people face being pushed into poverty, amid the world's worst recession since the Great Depression, according to the IMF. By December, more people could die each day from hunger linked to coronavirus than from the disease itself.

Such extreme differences define our divided world. They also explain this inequality virus. But its seen as improper to speak out politically, as our families have been hit personally. That politeness looks increasingly like a fig leaf, stopping us from asking hard questions.

Is it not time to get talking again about the economic model that betrays us? About the role of billionaires, and an extreme and widening gap between the richest and the many? COVID-19 entered a world that hasnt seen such concentration of wealth since the days of robber barons and empire. This great divide has made the 99% of us less safe as a result.

It is time to talk, too, about how our great challenges share roots in inequality. The plunder of our planet for profit by a tiny few. White supremacy and racism that systemically excludes people of colour from safety and opportunity, and is used to divide us. Sexism and patriarchy that exploits womens unpaid care work and cheap labour, like that of Sampa, for profit. The democratic breakdown caused by elites buying policies, politicians and a pliant media.

The increase in wealth for America's richest during the pandemic exemplifies global inequality

Image: Institute of Policy Studies

In recent years, Oxfam has charted the rise of extreme inequality.

A world in which 1% of humanity controls as much wealth as the other 99% will never be stable, said President Barack Obama at the UN in 2016, citing our new data.

By 2017, based on the data at the time, we showed that eight billionaires just eight men then owned more wealth than the bottom half of the global population, 3.7 billion people.

By 2019, our data revealed how billionaire fortunes were growing by $2.5 billion each day, while the wealth of half the world, collectively, had dropped by over 10%.

I hope these data are taught in classrooms some day soon, recalling a foolish era we must never return to. Neoliberalism for four decades told us GDP would be good for us all, but it was mostly good for the rich. It told us cutting regulation, taxes and labour laws would offer freedom, but instead it gave us fear. It got rid of referees and left the bullies in charge.

Some wish to return to normal after the coronavirus. Normal is a world in which 10,000 people die each day for lack of access to healthcare what chance did we have to beat COVID-19? while the richest still try to privatize our public health. In which governments, lobbied by big business, undermine the unions we rely upon more than ever for security at work, with 85% of governments violating the right to strike. In which weve long been hurtling towards climate apartheid, with the carbon footprint of the top 1% 175 times that of the poorest 10%.

Aiming to restore the pre-COVID-19 normal is to forget why 2019 saw protests against inequality all over the world. Our economic models need transformation, not restoration. The Financial Times recently called for radical reforms to reverse the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades. They are right.

Change is coming. Neoliberalism faces its reckoning. But the old way will not die fast. Those who burned down forests will lecture us on planting seeds. Greed-washing will be in vogue.

So we must be explicit. A better future relies on our actively and significantly redistributing the wealth and power of the 1% to everyone else. A great reset for our world must be a great equalizer. One that ends the billionaire boom, creating hope for a post-COVID-world.

We know what works. Quality public healthcare, for free, for all. High and inescapable wealth taxes, as rich people are now calling for. A universal labour guarantee that protects workers and ensures a living wage.

Go further yet. Sledgehammer emissions cuts towards net zero. Recognize care work as real work and pay care workers who do the vital work of caring for our children, parents and the vulnerable a living wage. Begin exploring reparations for slavery and colonialism. Regulate who owns, and benefits from, innovative technologies. Grow equitable business models. Go beyond GDP to well-being, as New Zealand has. These are supposedly radical policies that leaders are already trying. It is achievable. Its exciting.

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forums annual Global Risks Report.

The report reveals that the economic impact of COVID-19 is dominating companies risks perceptions.

Companies are invited to join the Forums work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here, and our impact story with further information.

Above all, it means rejecting a failed economic model that this inequality virus has not forgiven us for. Its time for a far more equal, sustainable and truly human economy that works for all.

See more here:

COVID-19 has let the virus of inequality run rampant - World Economic Forum