Debt as Slavery; Entire Nations Face a Cost-of-Living Crisis
By Max Lawson Not just people, entire nations are facing a cost-of-living crisis Spare a thought for the Finance Minister in his office in almost any of the world’s developing countries. He (it is still almost always a he) is struggling with an economy still…
Advertising, Inequality and the Madness of Capitalism
By Max Lawson Bullshit jobs When I was out walking my dog Marx earlier in the week, I got talking to another dog walker. I recognized her as she is always out with her dog, but generally talking quite loudly on her phone so we…
Monarchy, inequality and just how rich is the queen?
By Max Lawson Those who know me, know that I am not a royalist. This puts me firmly in a minority here in the UK. Six out of ten adults believe Britain should have a monarchy in the future, compared to just 22% who think…
Is science a public service, and are scientists public servants?
By Max Lawson Sometimes Davos has a way of creating moments of great theatre; where the elites who run the world can be in some ways held to account, or at least called out. On a panel this week at Davos, my boss, Gabriela Bucher…
Profiting from Pain
By Max Lawson We are living through extraordinary times. Extraordinarily bad for the vast majority of humanity. Extraordinarily good if you are one of the richest people in the world. Normally they meet in January at Davos, but that face-to-face meeting was postponed, due to…
Hunger, Inequality and the Birth of Oxfam
By Max Lawson The other day I was speaking to Nellie, an old friend who is a primary school teacher in Malawi, about the rapidly rising prices: ‘Prices have risen, just since last month. Imagine a loaf of bread was 600kwacha, now it is 1000….
Golden Passports – Inequality and Refugees
By Max Lawson and Evelien van Roemburg Once again, daily our screens are filled with the heart-breaking scenes of many hundreds of thousands of people fleeing. At such moments, stories are told in the simplest way, and all distinctions are blurred; refugees become just that,…
Life in Socialist Countries and the Fight against Inequality
By Max Lawson My friend Olga Ghazaryan was born in 1962 in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, a small mountainous country in the Caucasus, and that time one of the republics that made up the USSR. I have known Olga since around 2003, when we…
What was the most iconic inequality moment in history?
By Max Lawson Dear Friends I hope this finds you well in these crazy times. Imagine you are an ambitious budding script writer in 2019. You have what you think is the perfect script for a new Netflix blockbuster: Scriptwriter:[nervous and excited] ‘Picture the scene. …
Making extreme wealth extinct
By Max Lawson In the week before the COP we released a report together with the Institute for European Environment Policy, (IEEP) with new figures on the carbon emissions of the world’s richest. The report was once again written by my brilliant former colleague at…