Power, profits and the pandemic

From corporate extraction for the few to an economy that works for all

Publication date: 10 September 2020
Authors: Uwe Gneiting, Nicholas Lusiani, Irit Tamir

The worsening inequality crisis triggered by COVID-19 is fuelled by an economic model that has allowed some of the world’s largest corporations to funnel billions of dollars in profits to shareholders giving yet another windfall to the world’s top billionaires, a small group of mostly white men. At the same time, it has left low wage workers and women to pay the price of the pandemic without social or financial protection.

Since the onset of the pandemic, large corporations have put profits before workers’ safety, pushed costs down the supply chain and used their political influence to shape policy responses. COVID-19 should be the catalyst for radically reining in corporate power, restructuring business models with purpose and rewarding all those that work with profits, creating an economy for all.