As the world’s political and business leaders gather at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, one glaring issue remains conspicuously absent from their agenda: the growing chasm of economic inequality.
The WEF’s 2026 Global Risks Report, which sets the stage for discussions at the high-profile event, ranks inequality as only the seventh-biggest risk facing the world over the next decade. Yet, as economist and philosopher Ingrid Robeyn argues, inequality is at the heart of many of humanity’s most pressing problems.
Robeyn contends that the specific form of neoliberal capitalism that has dominated since the 1970s has led to a alarming concentration of wealth at the top, “eroding (and in some places even destroying) our democracies.” However, the global elite convening in Davos seem unwilling to confront a system that has so clearly benefited them.
“As long as we dodge the question of whether neoliberal capitalism delivers what we want, and fail to take seriously the question of whether there are better systems, the world’s key problems cannot be properly understood, let alone solved,” Robeyn writes.
The report’s analysis presents inequality as simply a matter of citizens feeling “excluded” and unhappy with limited social mobility. But Robeyn argues this misses the deeper, systemic issues at play. Wealth is not solely the product of individual effort, she says, but rather the result of an interconnected economic ecosystem where various roles, including often poorly paid public sector jobs, enable profits for business owners.
Furthermore, Robeyn highlights how the concentration of extreme wealth among billionaires and centimillionaires is causing significant social, ecological and political damage. Yet the Davos elite, who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, seem unwilling to even debate the merits of alternative economic models.
“If meetings such as the one in Davos do not even talk about capitalism, how can our leaders start to even question it?” Robeyn asks. Until the world’s most influential decision-makers are willing to confront the fundamental flaws of the current system, the gravest threats facing humanity will remain unaddressed.