Fiddling while world burns: The unbearable pointlessness of G7

As leaders of countries that control 40 percent of the world’s GDP gather at a French resort to discuss economic inequality and other issues they consider pressing, the rest of the world wonders if the G7 still has a purpose.

Much has changed since the first meeting of six industrialized countries, back in 1975, convened to address the oil crisis and financial turmoil of the time. The Franco-German initiative brought on board the US, UK, Japan and Italy. Canada joined in 1976, and Russia in 1998 (only to be suspended in 2014).

 The seven countries involved account for ten percent of the world’s population, but 40 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Not only is the wealth gap between the G7 and the rest of humanity vast, but the chasm between the rich and the poor in those countries is the greatest it has been in over half a century. Yet “inequality” is one of the top issues on the agenda of this year’s summit in Biarritz, France.


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