Oligarchy or democracy?

Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief in Oxford, UK, in 1942, to alleviate World War 2 related hunger and continued in the aftermath of the war. Oxfam has an international presence with operations in 79 countries and 21 members in the Oxfam Confederation in Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Recently, Oxfam released its annual report entitled, “Resisting the Rule of the Rich.” The theme of the paper is that the world faces the choice of oligarchy or democracy. Billionaire fortunes have grown at a rate three times faster than the average annual rate in the previous five years. The number of billionaires has surpassed 3,000 for the first time and the level of billionaire wealth is now higher.

Among their other findings is that in 2025, billionaire wealth increased three times faster than the average annual rate over the past few years. One study found that more unequal countries are up to seven times more likely to experience democratic erosion than more equal countries. On a global basis, billionaires are over 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. The amount of wealth gained by the world’s billionaires in 2025 alone is enough to give every person in the world $250 and leave the billionaires more than $500 billion richer.

One of the most disturbing findings in the study is that “the world’s 12 richest billionaires have more wealth than the poorest half of humanity, or more than four billion people.”

A century ago, US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “We must make our choice. Either we can have extreme wealth in the hands of the few, or we can have democracy. We cannot have both.”

The Oxfam report is about that choice.

The report writes: “How governments worldwide are making the wrong choice; choosing to defend wealth, not freedom. Choosing the rule of the rich, choosing to repress their people’s anger at how life is becoming unaffordable and unbearable, rather than redistributing wealth from the richest to the rest. It shows how the economically rich are becoming politically rich the world over, able to shape and influence politics, societies and economies. In sharp contrast, those economically with the least wealth are becoming politically poor, their voices silenced in the face of growing authoritarianism and the suppression of hard-won rights and freedoms.”

The Oxfam report, however, also shows that governments can choose to defend ordinary people rather than oligarchs. Organized people can present a powerful counterway to extreme wealth. Together, the people, if organized properly, can defend a fairer, more equal world.

In the Philippines, there is now a current debate on increasing the minimum wage. The wealthy business sector is opposing this proposal on the grounds that it will reduce the profitability of the company and ultimately reduce dividends for the rich capitalists. The labor unions, on the other hand, are demanding an increase in their wages which are now far below the “living wage.”

The Catholic Church encyclicals and our Constitution both state that a living wage is the right of every person. In the world of politics, only those few politicians who believe in social democracy and democratic socialism have been supporting this increase in the minimum wage.

The usual scenario is that the wealthy sector will keep opposing this request and at the end, will offer as a so-called “compromise” – an extremely low wage increase proposal. The ordinary Filipino worker will continue to earn way below the living wage.

The Oxfam paper has tackled a very sensitive issue on the question of how much wealth is too much. The philosopher Ingrid Robeyns argues that beyond a certain point, private wealth becomes morally unjustifiable and politically dangerous. She proposes an upper limit of $10 billion in wealth. According to Oxfam, “The organization Patriotic Millionaires found that one-third of the millionaires they surveyed supported a $10-million extreme wealth line.” In the Philippine context, this $10-million limit is equivalent to P600 million.

Globalization has not helped reduce poverty. In 2022, nearly half of the world’s population or 3.83 billion people live in poverty. Ordinary people worldwide, including in the Philippines, are seeing the cost of food rise, resulting in food insecurity.

The Oxfam report also writes: “Economic inequality plays a major role in the erosion of rights and political freedom and creates fertile ground for increased authoritarianism. Research finds that rising inequality is one of the strongest predictors of democracy beginning to fall apart.”

Even in the Philippines, strong authoritarian figures have attracted the support of the masses, who are looking for a more decent life for their families.

It is clear that economic inequality together with concentrations of extreme wealth side by side with persistent poverty will lead to the erosion of the rights and freedom of the many. Government must make the radical reduction of economic inequality as a top priority.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]