A/HRC/44/40 and deregulating labor markets can hurt workers. 104 Privatization of services disproportionately hurts poor people, often leading to higher user fees and cuts to wages in pursuit of disproportionately high profits for investors. 105 63. Fiscal consolidation programs promoted for decades by the IMF and others have been linked to poorer labor conditions, 106 weaker labor rights, 107 decreased state capacity, 108 reduced healthcare access, and higher neonatal mortality. 109 While the IMF has recently sought to distance itself from this legacy, its principal prescriptions have barely changed and its social protection initiatives seem designed to defuse criticism rather than protect the poor.110 B. Tackle inequality and embrace redistribution 64. There are various ways to reduce extreme inequality, but redistribution is an essential element. The global economy has doubled since the end of the Cold War, yet half the world lives under $5.50 a day, primarily because the benefits of growth have largely gone to the wealthiest.111 Between 1980 and 2016, the top 1 percent captured 27 percent of total real income growth,112 and in 2017 captured 82 percent of new wealth.113 Meanwhile, incomes of the poorest have grown far slower than global GDP.114 The bottom 50 percent now have less than 1 percent of total global wealth, while the top 1 percent hold 45 percent.115 65. Using historic growth rates and excluding any negative effects of climate change (an impossible scenario), it would take 100 years to eradicate poverty under the Bank’s line and 200 years under a $5 a day line (Agenda 2230!). This would also require a 15- or 173-fold increase in global GDP respectively.116 66. Significant redistribution is indispensable. A ‘pro-poor’ growth scenario necessitates a far smaller increase in global GDP and eradicates poverty much sooner.117 If every country reduced its Gini index by 1 percent per year, it would have a larger impact on global poverty than increasing each country’s annual growth one percentage point above current forecasts. 118 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 Robert Blanton and Durun Peksen, “Economic Liberalisation, Market Institutions and Labour Rights,” European Journal of Political Research, vol. 55 (2016), p. 482. In the Public Interest, How Privatization Increases Inequality (2016). Nathan Martin and David Brady, “Workers of the Less Developed World Unite? A Multilevel Analysis of Unionization in Less Developed Countries,” American Sociological Review, vol. 72 (2007), p. 562. Robert Blanton, et al., “The Impact of IMF and the World Bank Programs on Labor Rights,” Political Research Quarterly, vol. 68 (2015), p. 324. Bernhard Reinsberg, et al., “The World System and the Hollowing Out of State Capacity: How Structural Adjustment Programs Affect Bureaucratic Quality in Developing Countries,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 124 (2019), p. 1222. Timon Forster, et al., “Globalization and health equity: The impact of structural adjustment programs on developing countries,” Social Science and Medicine, in press (2019). Cf. International Trade Union Confederation, The IMF’s Renewed Supply-Side Push: Four Decades of Structural Adjustment and Austerity Conditionality (2020); IMF, “A Strategy for IMF Engagement on Social Spending,” 14 June 2019. Edward and Sumner, The End of Poverty, p. 3. Facundo Alvaredo, et al., World Inequality Report, World Inequality Lab (2018), p. 46. Oxfam, “Richest 1 percent bagged 82 percent of wealth created last year - poorest half of humanity got nothing,” 22 January 2018. David Woodward, “Incrementum ad Absurdum: Global Growth, Inequality and Poverty Eradication in a Carbon-Constrained World,” World Social and Economic Review of Contemporary Policy Issues, vol. 4 (2015), pp. 50, 58. Credit Suisse, Global Wealth Report 2019, p. 2 Woodward, “Incrementum ad Absurdum,” p. 58. Ibid, p. 60. Christoph Lakner, et al., “How Much Does Reducing Inequality Matter for Global Poverty,” World Bank Working Paper 8869 (2019), .p. 14. 15