Oxfam’s research this year showed that the richest one percent of the world now had 48 percent of the world’s wealth, an increase from 44 percent in 2009. This is not surprising because the fact that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is a naked truth. Yet, it is phenomenally frustrating that the rich got richer during a global recession when the elected governments of the west were supposedly spending taxpayers’ money to alleviate the hardships of the poor during these rough times. Perhaps there never was a recession and it was orchestrated to redistribute more wealth to the rich by the politicians who were elected by the majority to look after their interests. The intent is not to foster a conspiracy theory but simply to call a spade a spade. If one were to take a poll, 99 percent would have no clue what the recession was all about, except that their wage increments were deferred and taxes increased. On the other hand, the one percent kept harping on about the adverse effects of the recession on the global economy and the need for governments to do more. Oxfam projects that by 2016, half of the world’s wealth will be controlled by the one percent.Oxfam also points out that 80 people in the world own as much as half the global population, whereas, in 2010, the wealth of 388 people equalled that of half of humanity. The research shows: “$ 600 billion increase in wealth for 80 top billionaires in four years – $ 750 billion drop in wealth for the poorest 50 percent of the world in four years.” Of these 80 people, 35 are US citizens and eight of the 10 richest people in the world are from the US. The current wealth of the world is estimated at approximately $ 245 trillion, of which 70,000 people own Rs 12,000,000,000,000,000 (count the zeros) and the rest of the 6.9 billion own the rest. The common man cannot even fathom where this obscene amount of wealth came from in the first place. The Neanderthals do not matter at all and they have nothing. The World Bank introduced a laughable poverty line of $ 1.25 (or Rs 130) per day some time back. At this rate, after a square meal, nothing is left for clothing, shelter or anything else.This particular fact is mindblowing; nearly half of the world’s population — three billion people — are living on less than $ 2.50 per day. Poverty is not being eradicated despite all the hype about aiding poor countries and changing the quality of life for the bottom half. Take Pakistan for example: with all the aid supposedly coming in, why does Pakistan have a deficit of billions of dollars each year? If trade and foreign direct investments are advantageous, why does Pakistan’s foreign debt keep rising every year? The government has a handful of assets left to sell to foreigners, which is a necessary policy to meet debt servicing on these loans, the very loans supposedly meant to stabilise the economy and boost growth; these will prove to be Pakistan’s undoing.Remember Dr. Mahbub ul Haq’s list of 22 families? Where are they all today? If there are rich people worth billions of dollars in Pakistan, why are they on not on Forbes’ list? Perhaps the rich have learnt their lesson in Pakistan and have redefined the term beneficial and indirect holdings, or perhaps they simply do not disclose their assets, especially those held abroad. Successive governments have done absolutely nothing to document all this wealth. If the government was serious about taxing the wealthy, the first step would be to document the absolute wealth of the country held in property, stocks, gold, dollars and cash and then document who actually owns them.How much of Pakistan’s wealth, however much it is, is owned by roughly two million of the richest Pakistanis or the one percent? None of this wealth is subject to tax, only the income derived from this wealth can be taxed by the legislator. The income from stocks, property development and currency holdings is either not taxed at all or taxed at a very low rate. One is aware of all the brilliant economic theories that support not taxing the stock markets, reducing corporate taxes and leaving such wealth completely alone, but if there was even an iota of truth to all these theories, the two decades of testing them should have shown some results. Rich Pakistanis still do not invest in Pakistan and, therefore, the government cajoles foreigners who do not pay taxes to the nation, bending over backwards to meet their every demand.So, the government gets its taxes from the remaining 99 percent, in the form of indirect and withholding taxes. The salaried sector continues to naively believe, contrary to empirical evidence, that democracies have always taxed them more and that a government that protects the interests of the rich will evolve into a just system. While they cling to this false premise, the government sees no harm in taxing these powerless idealists more and more each year.So, what will the next budget bring? A reduction in corporate tax by perhaps one more percent and no taxes on income from stocks, interest, property and wealth? The government is flush with revenue from petroleum taxes and might go easy on the abandoned common man. Even then the bureaucracy will most likely dream up some administrative provision that no one will understand, increasing taxes for the poor even further. The development budget will be increased but not spent, at least not on sectors like education, and will surely end up in the pockets of the rich through mega contracts.Can things change? Will the government ever tax the rich and spend on the poor? Not until the system, which somehow fools the poor into voting members of the one percent club into power every time, somehow changes. Why would the rich tax themselves? Why would they not spend shamelessly on the intelligentsia to defend the system that does so much to safeguard their interests? The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant