It must be hard for a major player in the poverty industry when you see capitalism, consumerism, science and technology rapidly eroding your market by lifting living standards around the world faster than at any time in human history.
When I was born in 1962, approaching two-thirds of people on the planet were trapped in absolute poverty. Today, although the global population has more than doubled, that figure has fallen to just one in ten.
This is astonishing progress. It should be a source of immense pride. But if your business model is built on the concept of posing as a do-gooder to help ease the burden of poverty, this presents a big problem. Especially when you have promoted yourself so well in the past that you have convinced politicians around the world to pour billions into your sector and millions into your pocket. To keep pressure on governments to keep that cash flowing the big international charities are expanding into new areas like any other smart organisation confronting change.
Some of them are focusing on fashionable issues such as conflict resolution or climate change. Others prefer endless conferences to supposedly foster entrepreneurship – even in countries where it needs no encouragement. But Oxfam, a left-leaning brand, has had the bright idea of tapping into current concerns over inequality to retain relevance. So the bosses spent chunks of that cash – raised from idealistic schoolchildren and kindly grannies – to hire a head of inequality and started to switch their attention from the poorest people on earth to the richest.
Now they release a wearily-predictable annual report attacking the wealth gap just as phalanxes of plutocrats gather amid the snow-capped mountains of Davos. This year they have condemned “an unacceptable level of inequality”, claiming that 82% of money generated last year went to the richest 1%. Much of their data is questionable and in truth, the core concept is pretty meaningless. Income inequality in Britain, for instance, has just worsened with footballer Alexis Sanchez’s £2m-a-month pay deal with Manchester United – yet circumstances have not changed for millions of Britons toiling away in offices, fields and factories.
Yet put all this to one side. For the simple fact is that Oxfam is displaying hypocrisy of the most breathtaking magnitude. Yes, there are valid questions over undeserved corporate pay that has boomed to grotesque levels (and I wrote about them, earlier this month, for UnHerd) – along with many other issues surrounding modern capitalism. But Oxfam underscores the very problem it attacks. Even as it begs for cash on its website with emotive pleas for £5 a month to pay for a goat for two impoverished families, it is clear that charity most definitely begins at home for this outfit.
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