Understanding the true costs for South Africa - and the world - of excessive inequality and excessive wealth - and how we should consume less and share more for societies that serve everyone (including the currently very wealthy) even better.

1. The case for the
maximum wage –
a universal pay cap

2. ‘It is all wrong to have
millionaires before you
have ceased to have
slums.’

3. Increased inequality brings *
• Lower educational • Less social trust
achievement
• Increased obesity
• Shorter life
• More mental illness –
expectancies
incl. drug & alcohol
• Increased infant addiction
deaths
• Reduced social
• More murders mobility
• Increased • Reduced
imprisonment environmental
• More teen births concern
* Wilkinson and Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009), www.equalitytrust.org.uk

4. Inequality worsens health and social problems...*
* Wilkinson and Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009), www.equalitytrust.org.uk

5. Income gaps – the difference
between poorest and richest 20%
* Wilkinson and Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009), www.equalitytrust.org.uk

6. Richest 20% of households earn
38 times
what poorest 20% earn*
* Stats SA (2006), Income and Expenditure Survey

7. Difference between richest and
poorest 20% of population *
South Africa
Japan (3.4x) (38x, households)
Denmark (4.3x) United States (8.5x)

8. Each year, we now use 50% more
water, soil, fresh air, wood and carbon storage
than the Earth can sustainably provide.*
* WWF Living Planet Report 2012

9. Consume less,
share more.*
* Herve Kempf and others

10. What’s most important in politics...
‘The first is money, the second one is
money and I’ve forgotten what the third
one is.’
– Mark Hanna, 19th century Ohio industrialist and Republican US senator.

11. ‘Growth-led poverty reduction …’
South African wage increases 2006-9: *
Workers: ↑15,4% CEOs: ↑200%
* Computus (Leadership Online, 4 May 2010)

12. Wealth can destroy as much as it can create.

13. Wealth can destroy as much as it can create.

14. Global financial crisis …
Wealth can destroy as much as it can create.

15. Solutions...

17. ‘It is all wrong to have
millionaires before you have
ceased to have slums.’
– John Spedan Lewis, founder of the John Lewis Partnership

18. Democracy does not require perfect
equality but it does require that citizens
share in a common life.
– Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel

19. We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal...
– American Declaration of Independence
Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
– France’s national motto
All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights.
– First Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Equality includes the full and equal
enjoyment of all rights and freedoms.
– South Africa’s Bill of Rights

20. It is all wrong to have millionaires
before you have ceased to have slums.
Consume less,
share more.