I am currently thinking a lot about the following problem:
In theory, we have enough resources to fullfill the basic needs of every human being. However, (increasing) inequality leads to different access to resources, power concentration and social instability. Governments often act in favour of the richest due to the power those have with their money and the fear of encouraging them to move to another country and loosing tax income. A global institution taxing the richest 10% (with an e.g. exponential rise to the richest of the rich) could counter this.
My vision would be to use this money to:
1) establish a (low) global basic income in order to encounter the worst poverty
2) establish an institution (or find a way to transform the existing structures of the United Nations) that monitors the status of humanity in all regions of the world (e.g. following the UN development goals plus a devision to tackle existential risks), evaluating approaches and giving concrete advices how to improve in the most effective way and stepping in when governments fail or are not able to solve the issues. I have some more detailed ideas about the structure, but I am sure there are 1) bright minds out there who are deeper into the topic and perhaps have great suggestions that I don’t want to bias right now 2) it is pointless to discuss details if there lacks the plan how to achieve the overall goal to establish such a “people’s institution” that advocates for the majority of humanity on a global level against the existing structures of power.
So my question is: Are there legal ways that doesn’t mean that those who currently hold money and power have to establish it? Because it seems unlikely to me that existing governments agree to establish such a loss of power, even though it is kind of an insurance for them that another player (be it a government or a person) is developing a technology (AI!) that leads to a total concentration of power through money, as the global tax would counter the money concentration to a certain degree (yet to be defined in detail).
And if yes: What would it take to follow the path? Is there a possibility to file a lawsuit at the international court for global governance failure/failure of protecting human rights/failure to provide assistance (thinking in the latter case of Singer’s comparison not to help a drowning person when you pass by vs letting someone starve at the other end of the world despite having the ressources to prevent the death)?
Or would it need a vote of the people of the world?
Or is there a (peaceful) other opportunity I don’t think of?
As I am not a lawyer, I am a bit clueless how one could proceed with that. Anybody here who can help out? Because if we could really work out a way to systematically redistribute wealth for the greater good, this would save countless lifes—in the present and the future.
Hi Janika! I really like your ideas! I think Equal Right is closest to your ideas since they promote a low global basic income and a global wealth tax (and some other taxes and fees): https://www.equalright.org/
UN has a Universal Periodic Review about human rights. Having something similar for the SDG:s or global risks would probably be fruitful: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-home
I hope my comment is helpful!
The UN does write yearly reports on the progress made towards the SDGs. The latest report (for 2024) can be found here: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2024/
Thank you Jeroen for the link! I had totally forgot about that! =)
Thank you! I also now this initative: https://www.tax-the-rich.eu/ Unfortunately, they failed to collect enough signatures to force the EU to debate it.
But as the equal right movement, the initatives try to achieve the tax via the current governments.
The Club ob Rome also suggests (among lot of other huge changes) to use taxes in order to reduce the inequality and to stabilize society in their “Earth for all”-publication. But they also point out that many progressive decisions will be hard to achieve with the current structures, as those benefiting will use their influence and money to work against it and therefore also encourage e.g. grassroot movements in order to support the ideas.
This is why I am explicitely searching for alternative ways to work on that issue.
You’re welcome! Thank you for the information! Yes, it is true that people who benefit from the current structures use their money and power to gain more money and power. I have made a forum post about green basic income, in the end of the post I try to give some suggestions: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tAF4zQSfDGpABLCaH/green-basic-income-and-health-taxes-as-a-way-for-systemic
I also co-authored the systems change 101: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bwZ6HqRSjYh5DS99r/systems-change-101
I hope that those posts might give you some inspiration!
Thank you! Very interesting to read. However, what can we do to get the good ideas from paper to reality? I feel frustrated from just piling up knowledge, walking miles and miles at demonstrations, signing petitions and hoping for someone to change sth. This feels incredibly ineffective. I see that patiently working on spreading knowledge and visibility does have an effect, but for many lifes that could be safed this is waaaay to slow.
Of course, revolutions are often a shortcut to change, but they come with huge suffering, and peaceful activism doesn’t build enough urge for those in power to really change sth. So many activists and initatives gave up because they were investing time and money again and again and their achievements were small. So I am searching for the “weak spot” in the system to empower and accelerate change.
Thank you very much! I wrote input to the UN together with Cool Earth and Equal Right: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/ohchr-cfis/transition/subm-just-transition-hr-ind-ulf-graf-halmstad-university-equal-right-wageningen-university-cool-earth-arth.pdf
I share your frustration and I am not sure about what to do. This post says that if 3,5 % of a population is active in peaceful social change, change will happen: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/v6PtkcfZQAHR2Cgmx/do-protests-work-a-critical-review
Check the general channel in the Slack Group “Improving Institutional Decision Making”. Maybe you should apply and see if it is something for you?