Story highlights
Since the financial crisis hit in 2007 the gap between the rich and the poor has grown
CNN is hosting a tweet chat from 12-12:30pm BST Monday May 27, to debate inequality
CNN is being joined by OECD youth reps to discuss who's at fault, how it can be fixed
Join the tweet chat using the hashtag #inequalityCNN and tell us your views on inequality
Since the financial crisis hit in 2007 the gap between rich and the poor has grown, unemployment has soared to record levels and Europe’s young risk becoming a lost generation.
Ahead of the OECD Forum in Paris next week, CNN is hosting a tweet chat Monday May 27 between 12pm and 12:30pm BST to debate how the crisis has split the world and hear your views on who is at fault and how it can be fixed.
Using the hashtag #inequalityCNN, tell us how the crisis has impacted your life, and what generation X and Y – those hardest hit by unemployment – can do to change the global story.
Join the conversation with CNN’s special guests European Youth Forum president Peter Matjasic and secretary general Giuseppe Porcaro, entrepreneur Karl Petter Rygh and Intern Aware in UK’s Ben Lyons. They are attending the OECD Forum as youth representatives.
CNN will pull the best comments into a story to run ahead of the OECD Forum, on May 28 and 29, which will be discussing how the world can pull itself out of the financial mire and revealing its global economic outlook.
The forum follows the release of OECD figures this month showing income inequality increased as much in the first three years of the crisis as it had in the previous 12 years – if mitigating factors such as taxes and welfare were not taken into account.
The figures show that in countries where the financial crisis hit hard, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, poor households “either lost more income from the recession or benefited less from recovery.”
Greece and Spain are also the countries in which youth unemployment has reached the eurozone’s highest levels, sitting at 62.5% and 55.9% respectively. Italy youth unemployment sits at 38.4%, according to Eurostat.
Meanwhile the number of billionaires increased by 210 to 1,426, according to the 2013 Forbes Billionaires List, with the aggregate net wealth increasing to $5.4 trillion from $4.6 trillion.
Is this fair? Tell us what you think, Monday May 27 at 12pm to 12:30pm BST.
Key Twitter handles for the chat are:
And from CNN, join Irene Chapple and Lauren Moorhouse:
Follow the CNNi Twitter list, here.
