Russia, Women and Musk

Capitalism is global. Capitalism long ago created the conditions for the transition to a socialist global society. Examples of wealth inequality can be found in many SOYMB posts. Now comes news further inequality within Russia. Rosstat, the Russian official statistics agency, using the Gini index, which assesses inequality on a scale from 0 to 1, where higher values indicate higher inequality. (has reported that in 2023 the index rose from 0.395 in 2022 to 0.403 in 2023. Meaning that the income gap amongst Russians had increased.

‘In 2023, according to preliminary data, the 10% of the population that are the highest earners accounted for 29.7% of total income (29.1% in 2022) and the 10% most disadvantaged population accounted for 2.0% (2.1% in 2022),

The World Bank, formed at the 1944 Breton Woods Conference is meanwhile concerned that women's rights and gender equality need to progress at a faster pace. Lest anyone think that this organisation’s motives are exclusively altruistic the World Bank says, ‘Closing the gender gap could boost global GDP by over 20%, doubling the world’s growth rate over the next decade.’

‘Women have the power to turbocharge the sputtering global economy,’ it said.

Further, ‘Today, barely half of women participate in the global workforce, compared with nearly three out of every four men. This is not just unfair – it’s wasteful,’

‘The development organization argues that the transition to a gender-equal world could be fast-tracked through accelerating efforts in reforming laws and enacting public policies that empower women to work, as well as to start and grow businesses.’

In other words, on behalf of the global capitalist class the World Bank wants a situation where, along with men, more women can be exploited to produce more surplus value (profits) for capitalists. Women are also part of the majority working class and their interests are best served by working toward the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by a social system where quality goods and services are produced for free use not profit.

Stop and shed a tear for Elon Musk who has been replaced as the world’s richest person by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people.

‘Bezos’ net worth was $200 billion, while Musk’s stood at $198 billion. According to the index, the Tesla CEO has lost more than $31 billion over the past year, while Bezos has gained more than $23 billion.’

‘The world’s third richest man, according to Bloomberg, is French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). Bezos, Musk, and Arnault have been jostling for the top spot for years. Arnault previously briefly surpassed Musk at the top of the index. The trio are the only individuals ever to have exceeded $200 billion in net worth, according to Bloomberg.’

Where does their wealth come from? It comes, as does all capitalist wealth from the exploitation of the working class. It’s long past the time when the vast majority allowed such inequality to continue. Capitalism concentrates on the intersts of its, the ruling classes, interests. When is the global working class going to do the same?