'The challenge is not just that we're seeing large and increasing inequalities across the world. The challenge is that there is a well-connected group of people who are actively rigging the political rules in order to grow the capital they already have.'

'The challenge is not just that we're seeing large and increasing inequalities across the world. The challenge is that there is a well-connected group of people who are actively rigging the political rules in order to grow the capital they already have.'

Think about these facts for a moment.

There are slightly more than 3,000 billionaires in the world and it is expected that we are only a few years away from the world's first trillionaire. Between 1989 and 2018 this top 1% grew their wealth from $8.4-trillion to $29.5-trillion, while the bottom 50% incurred a net loss of wealth of $900-billion.

On the other hand, according to new calculations from the World Bank, there are more than 808 million people worldwide living in extreme poverty - that is less than $3 per day. Thirty million people live in poverty in South Africa and of that number nearly 14 million live below the food poverty line of R796 per month.

Is this just the natural order of things?

According to Ingrid Robeyns, the author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth (Penguin, 2024), most certainly not!

In her quest to unpack the deleterious effects of extreme wealth Robeyns...