The 60-page report, published in the run-up to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos in two-weeks, shows a breakaway from environmental concerns and addresses the challenges and risks of socio-economic inequality.
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Based on a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders, the problems of rising youth unemployment, the burden of pensions and heavily indebted government debts have already begun sowing the “seeds of dystopia”.
"It needs immediate political attention, otherwise the political rhetoric that responds to this social unease will involve nationalism, protectionism and rolling back the globalisation process," said Lee Howell, the WEF managing director responsible for the report, with reference to chronic imbalances present in key industralised economies.
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Calling the “severe income disparity” the biggest risk and “most prevalent over the next then years, the report said:
"For the first time in generations many people no longer believe their children will grow up to enjoy a higher standard of living than theirs," Howell said.
He continued: