As the super-rich plunder Earth’s resources, the rest of us are left vulnerable to the devastating impacts. With the emerging threat of the world’s first trillionaire, an Extreme Wealth Line can help us fight back against the impact of extreme wealth on society’s safety and stability.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
The super-rich are hoarding ever more wealth, with severe costs to the natural world and ordinary people. Billionaires cause carbon emissions over one million times greater than that of the average person, leaving the rest of us to cope with the fallout while they lie back and count their profits. We must challenge the growing power of the super-rich over our politics to stop them blocking the changes we need for a just and sustainable future for us all.
Solution
A poverty line already exists – a level under which people lack the resources to cover the basics. But there is also a level at which someone has more wealth than they could ever spend. The influence it buys is destroying our environment and damaging society. We propose the Extreme Wealth Line, the point beyond which wealth overpowers democracy, society and the environment, exposing the public to extreme wealth’s damage and challenging decision makers to stand up for the common good.
