Financing the Global Sharing Economy
* Report: FINANCING THE GLOBAL SHARING ECONOMY. SHARE THE WORLDS RESOURCES, 2012.
URL = http://www.kosmosjournal.org/articles/financing-the-global-economy
Description
"Dealing with the structural causes of the global emergency will require wholesale reform of the world economy on a scale never before attempted. As an immediate response, the international community has the means to mobilise staggering amounts of finance to end poverty-related deaths and needless suffering as a foremost priority. If taken together, the policy recommendations in this report could enable governments to redistribute more than $2.8 trillion within a short number of years, money that could be used to prevent life-threatening deprivation, reverse austerity measures and mitigate the human impacts of climate change...the report sets out in some detail 10 policy recommendations that readers can learn more about and support as campaigns.It is demonstrated how these 10 measures alone could mobilise over $2.8 trillion globally that governments could use to strengthen and scale up the global sharing economy and address the global emergency."
Discussion
"According to research in a new report by Share The World’s Resources (STWR), governments could harness more than enough money to reverse policies of economic austerity, prevent life-threatening deprivation and mitigate the human impacts of climate change. By utilising the policy options summarised below, we could mobilise over $2.8 trillion every year to bolster the sharing economy both within and between nations. These figures are only broad estimates, but they demonstrate the potential for governments to collect and redistribute huge quantities of additional public finance for critical human needs – often money that they have led the public to believe does not exist or cannot be found.
- Tax financial speculation: $650bn
- End fossil fuel and biofuel subsidies: $531bn
- Divert military spending: $434.5bn
- Stop tax avoidance: $349bn
- Increase international aid: $297.5bn
- End support for agribusiness: $187bn
- Redistribute IMF resources: $115.5bn
- Tax carbon emissions: $108bn
- Cancel unjust debt: $81bn
- Protect import tariffs: $63.4bn
Total: $2,816.9bn
The structures, mechanisms and expertise needed to utilise this additional finance have long been in place. For example, there are numerous international agencies working ceaselessly to provide disaster relief and prevent poverty-related deaths throughout the world. The international community has already established an array of funds and other programs to facilitate climate change adaptation and mitigation programs in developing countries. And in terms of social protection, many low-income countries already have various systems of welfare in place to provide essential public services to their citizens. According to calculations by the United Nations, it could be possible to ensure that a basic level of social protection is available to the world’s poor for as little as 2% of global GDP."
(https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/17-2)