Oxfam is railing against inequality again today, publishing a report that lectures us about ‘a rigged economy’ led by ‘an elite of mostly white males‘, and recommending ‘progressive‘ tax hikes to fund Covid-19 relief. Stunning hypocrisy from a charity that paid its boss $380,039 last year and shared $2,612,503 among its top 12 executives – an average of $217,708 each. Millionaires attacking billionaires…
Basically Oxfam are once again advocating worldwide socialism, this year’s specific twist is a supposedly temporary Covid tax. The wonks at the Institute of Economic Affairs wasted no time in firing back:
“Taxing the rich ever more may make for good headlines but it misleads the public into thinking that cuts at the top will automatically lead to more wealth at the bottom. In reality, interventionist policies are far more likely to destroy wealth than successfully redistribute it.”
Rather than obsessing over the net worth of a few billionaires, perhaps Oxfam should spend some time learning basic economics. The IEA’s Len Shackleton focuses on the impracticality of the global taxes Oxfam advocates:
“Oxfam should offer a more mature understanding of how wealth is generated through creating goods and services which meet people’s needs […] A ‘temporary tax’ on the ‘excess profits’ made by 32 global corporations, Oxfam’s key proposal, would be very difficult to design, and almost impossible to implement. It would not fall on top billionaires alone – if at all – but as with all profit taxes the burden would fall on shareholders (including many pension funds), consumers and employees of these corporations.”
None of this is surprising from Oxfam, which in recent years has morphed from a bunch of do gooders focused on disaster emergencies, into a bunch of left-wing activists permanently lobbying for worldwide socialism. Seemingly more interested in attacking capitalism than actually helping vulnerable people…
BBC News World Affairs Editor John Simpson publicly defended Oxfam on the day its executives appeared before a parliamentary select committee – which was a major news item on the Beeb. Simpson, who is paid up to £200,000-a-year by the taxpayer and is bound by the same impartiality rules as any BBC journalist, said of the charity: “I for one am not abandoning it now”. What is going on at the BBC at the moment?
The official Oxfam staff training guide on sexual exploitation explicitly accepts that not only will staff use sex workers in third world countries, it claims they should not be banned from doing so “because we cannot infringe on people’s civil liberties”. This is even though the guide says that paying sex workers is “exploitative”.
The document cites example case studies of aid distributors having sex with food recipients and staff using Oxfam laptops to view porn. It advises managers on how to deal with staff who have sexual relations with refugees in camps and staff having consensual sex with underage girls. Is it really impossible for Oxfam to have a no tolerance policy to illegality?
Available on the Oxfam online book store this afternoon, “Paying for Pleasure: Men Who Buy Sex”.
“Drawing on original empirical data with men who buy sex, this book takes a fresh look at the relationships clients have with female sex workers… Managing secrecy, stigma and the consumption of intimacy takes this book into some of the more challenging theoretical areas of masculinity”
Anyone at Oxfam able to provide any “empirical data” on “managing secrecy” and the “more challenging theoretical areas of masculinity”?
International Development Secretary @PennyMordaunt tells #marr she will make clear to #Oxfam that “If the moral leadership at the top of the organisation is not there, we cannot have you as a partner.” #marr pic.twitter.com/JUlIMGvGlS
— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) February 11, 2018
“If the moral leadership at the top of the organisation is not there, we cannot have you as a partner,” Penny says of scandal-hit Oxfam…
Have Oxfam been taken over by Momentum? The charity has tweeted this afternoon that “At the moment we have an extreme form of capitalism that only works for those at the top”. They go on to call for a state-run economy, and even borrow Jeremy Corbyn’s catchphrase: “We are calling for governments to manage our economies so that they work for everyone and not just the fortunate few”. In the real world capitalism has lifted millions out of extreme poverty…
We shouldn’t really be surprised that Oxfam are run by a bunch of pinkos more interested in making loony political points than actually helping people – just read their 2010 blog post praising Venezuela as a “success story”. Of course “extreme capitalism” is certainly working for Oxfam’s chief exec, who is paid £129,000-a-year. Sad that a once respected charity has been reduced to Corbynista Twitter campaigning…
