The crisis of the COVID-19 widening inequalities already important around the world and in developed countries, alarmed economists, political and corporate leaders.
Share
July 5, 2020 16h26
Share
Limit inequality, an issue of vital importance in the world after the COVID-19
Marie Heuclin
Agence France-Presse
PARIS — The crisis of the COVID-19 widening inequalities already important around the world and in developed countries, alarmed economists, political leaders and businesses in the meetings of Aix-en-Seine in Paris, for their reduction should be a major issue in the world-after.
“The outbreaks have a tendency to bring down the world to the side where he leans over already. It is a sort of accelerator and a revealer of weaknesses,” said the economist Pierre Dockes, professor emeritus at the university of Lyon 2, at this event which was held this weekend.
In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors and epidemiologists have found that the coronavirus that affected more significantly the victims of chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease), proportionally more present in the poor populations of developed countries.
And these are mostly people employed in occupations in low-skilled, who have had to continue to work to turn the food shops, the warehouses of the giants of e-commerce or health services.
“All these people who have continued to work despite the risks […] are the people of the lower classes eventually,” noted Mark Stabile, researcher at Insead, a specialist in inequality.
“The outbreaks have a tendency to bring down the world to the side where he leans over already. It is a sort of accelerator and a revealer of weaknesses ”
—
Pierre Dockes, economist
In developed countries, the austerity policies in the wake of the crisis of 2008 “have reduced the quality of public services, in the health sector for example, and the support of the people in need, without a job”, making them more vulnerable today, he also noted.
“It is clear that there will be an increase in inequality” because of this crisis, has also warned the president of the european central Bank Christine Lagarde.
The Nobel peace prize, the egyptian Mohamed El-Baradeï has pointed to “the number of poor people who […] die simply because they do not have access to the health system”, “because they can not ensure the distancing physics, because the places where they live are too dense, and [that]they must return to work to survive”, especially in the emerging countries.
Pierre Dockes, countries like India or Brazil could experience a sudden stop of the movement “catch-up” of the standard of living of their middle class compared to those in western countries.
Burden for the young people
But there is another inequality generated by the COVID-19 of which it will have to be wary of, is that between the generations, considered the Italian economist Elsa Fornero, former minister of Labour in his country between 2011 and 2013.
If “the older generations have paid the heaviest price in terms of human lives, […] on the economic consequences, the containment measures – for example, with the closure of schools […] – have left children, teenagers, outside of the education system”, which “can have consequences for the long-term […] on their integration in the economy,” she pointed out.
Young people may also have difficulty to recover from the crisis, in particular because of the containment measures.
AP, Wilfredo Lee
Studies conducted after the crisis of 2008 has shown that the generations have struggled to enter the labour market during the crisis have never caught up in terms of career.
For the experts, in addition to the economic stimulus to boost growth rebound, we need to imagine solutions to the widening of these inequalities.
Some economists, including Gabriel Zucman, advocate for an exceptional tax on the rich, on the model of the German experience after 1945.
Germany has chosen to impose levies on temporary and very progressive on big fortunes”, in contrast to France and the United Kingdom, who had preferred to let them slip away inflation to reduce debt, he explained.
For its part, the Italian Elsa Fornero estimates that the massive debt of the States to sustain the economic recovery “would create a burden for these young generations,” and that it should therefore also be used to “help young people invest in their human capital”.
The investments to combat climate change will also have to turn to the most disadvantaged because “they are always the most vulnerable who will find it hard to stand the shock,” argued Kevin Sneader of the McKinsey firm.
For the leader of ING Bank France Karien Van Gennip it is necessary to go beyond the economic domain and “renewing the social contract”: “This is the time to do it, this is what we need to do in times of crisis.”
+
TOWARDS A GREENER WORLD?
At a time when the world is going through a historic recession, leaders and experts gathered in the Meetings of Aix-en-Seine in Paris believe that the crisis should be an opportunity to rebuild a greener economy and more inclusive.
“In manufacturing, in work, in commerce, what we have lived will accelerate the transformation and will likely change towards a lifestyle that is more sustainable and more environmentally friendly,” predicted the president of the european central Bank, Christine Lagarde, presented a video-conference at the meeting held normally in Aix-en-Provence, france, but relocated this year to Paris because of the pandemic.
According to the OECD, the decline of the world’s gross domestic product is expected to reach at least 6% this year and 7.6% in case of a second epidemic wave, whereas the rebound expected for 2021 would be 5.2% with no return of the coronavirus, and 2.8% with.
“The good news [ … ] is that the economy may become the armed arm of an ecological transition and a social responsibility”, stressed Yannick Jadot, member of the european parliament ecologist while regretting that a “conditionality environmental” and insufficient social support measures in France.
“In manufacturing, in work, in commerce, what we have lived will accelerate the transformation and will likely change towards a lifestyle that is more sustainable and more environmentally friendly,”
—
Christine Lagarde, president of the european central Bank
However, the stimulus of the growth announced or in preparation in Europe are often placed by the governments under the sign of the transition energy and carbon.
Germany will, for instance, boost the premiums on the purchase of electric vehicles, and France has plans to accelerate the energy renovation of the housing, and the two States also want to support investment in hydrogen, which is considered a clean-energy future.
The european commission also hopes that the european recovery plan of € 750 billion in trading favors green investment, when some States, especially in the East of Europe, there are less likely.
The transition to climate “is no longer a matter of choice”, but “a no-brainer and even a necessity,” which “is not contrary to economic development”, this is “a powerful lever of prosperity if we do the right choices,” and has defended Sunday the president of the european Council, Charles Michel.
To produce more own
“This crisis, which remains a health and economic […] we woke on the importance of ecology”, said the secretary-general of the international Organization of the francophonie, Louise Mushikiwago. “It has awakened in us the fear of what could happen if we do not pay more attention to ecological issues.”
“The rise of the environmental standard is very clear with a connection that is made between the health, well-being and the protection of the planet”, noted Pierre-André de Chalendar, CEO of Saint-Gobain group.
The greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by only 8% in 2020, according to experts, far short of what is needed to limit global warming.
Archives The Press, Martin Tremblay
According to him, “the sustainable and inclusive growth [for the disadvantaged] passes by the industry”, to the same, according to him, to guarantee our sovereignty, the pandemic that has burst at the great day, our dependence on supply chains become globalized.
For the economist Hélène Rey, “the shock of the COVID showed the dead-end of a strategy of decay to combat climate change”, because “emissions of greenhouse gases have fallen by only 8% by the year 2020”, a far cry from what is needed to limit global warming.
Therefore, “the only solution is to transform our system of production” with massive investments in research and a price on carbon, which orients investments toward green technologies, she concluded.
And to avoid a social crisis like the one that France has known with the movement of the yellow vests, “it is necessary to redistribute the dividend carbon to the citizens of the most progressive as possible, and protect those most vulnerable,” warns Ms. Rey. AFP, Boris Cambreleng
