The level of inequality between the world’s richest and poorest people has widened over the last decade and the richest 8 people hold as much wealth as the poorest half of the world.
“It’s getting worse,” says 2006 Nobel peace prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus. “This is a ticking time bomb politically, socially, economically. It will explode any time.”
Yunus says the system that has led to this level of inequality will need to be fixed. “Human beings are selfish and selfless at the same time. But the selflessness was never allowed in the economic theory,” he says. One solution is the creation of a social business model that is a non-dividend company to solve social problems. “Social business doesn’t contribute to wealth concentration, because wealth doesn’t come to me. By my decision the profit is plowed back into the business itself.”
Perspective with Alison Smith airs Sunday at 10:30am & 12pmET on CPAC and cpac.ca
