COUNTRIES WHICH PREACH DEMOCRACY have leaders who clearly go against the wishes of their people on the key issues of modern times, which are financial inequality and climate change, n

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Nury Vittachi

@NuryVittachi

COUNTRIES WHICH PREACH DEMOCRACY have leaders who clearly go against the wishes of their people on the key issues of modern times, which are financial inequality and climate change, new statistics show. Citizens in the US-Israel allied countries (which include UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan) want an end to the horrifically widening gap between rich and poor—but their governments and media are reluctant to tax the rich. The data comes from the new World Inequality Report 2026, plus a study by the Pew Research Center, and the results of a global attempt to tax the rich led by the United Nations. . ‘DON’T TAX BILLIONAIRES’ Here’s the story: The nations of the world have been working together for years to halt the cross-border tax trickery which large numbers of billionaires use to pay little or no taxes, robbing the public of an estimated US$490 billion a year. A global team worked out that the problem could be largely fixed by passing a simple rule, a UN Tax Convention, saying that ALL businesses must pay at least 15% corporate tax, wherever they register their companies. But the process hit a problem. At a United Nations vote in November last year, it was opposed by the US-Israel lobby and their usual supporters: these are the other members of the “Five Eyes” group: UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; plus the US-serving Asian nations, Japan and South Korea; plus a new member of the US allies, Argentina. (EU nations, which are also partly allied to US-Israel, also declined to support the bill, but they abstained rather than opposed it.) . THEIR OWN CITIZENS’ VIEW Does this make those countries “bad guys”? You’d think so, but the answer is no. The citizens of those nations clearly want the problem fixed. Their governments and media don’t. A Pew Research Center study of PUBLIC attitudes in 36 countries revealed that 84% see economic inequality as a big problem, with the political influence of the rich being the underlying issue, according to 86%. . PEOPLE VS POLITICIANS, MEDIA If you call people promoting extreme concentration of wealth as Group 1 and those opposing it as Group 2, you notice something extraordinary, said independent journalist George Monbiot, in an essay printed in the Guardian this morning. “Almost the entire population is in Group 2,” he writes. “But – and here’s the astonishing thing – almost the entire political class is in Group 1.” This indicates a major divide between the citizens of a country and the people allegedly representing them. “It’s not just politicians,” Monbiot adds. “Almost all the media belongs to Group 1.” . RICH CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE The current debate has been triggered by the publication of the World Inequality Report 2026, which shows that the gap between rich and poor is widening across the planet—and the actions of US President Donald Trump are accelerating the process. The rich are not just hogging increasing amounts of cash – they are the main source of the climate change crisis that is causing freak weather conditions worldwide. The richest one per cent of the world’s population have a consumption level that produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as two-thirds of humanity at the opposite end of the scale, an Oxfam study showed. Yet the effects of climate change mainly hurt people in poor countries, with people in Asia being the main victims of extra-strong hurricanes. . CHINA AS CLIMATE LEADER When China led a major switch to renewable energy and clean transport options in its own territory, many of the rich countries set up trade barriers to ensure that the same options were not available to citizens in their nations. In contrast, surveys taken in China, including those by western researchers, show that Chinese citizens feel their country is democratic and their leaders do listen to them. The obvious problem, several analysts have said, is that the dominant international media only counts western democracy as “real” democracy. East Asian-style consultative democracy is discounted, despite being seen as a better model for emerging economies.

2:59 PM · Jan 17, 2026

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