Cecil the lion’s killer is a cretin, yes – but rampant capitalism is also to blame

Cecil the lion’s death at the hands of wealthy US trophy hunter Walter Palmer, who allegedly paid £35,000 for the sickening privilege, has rightly sparked outrage.

And few people have been more angered than my mum, who asked me: “Why do rich people do such cruel things – why can’t they all be more caring, like Bill Gates?”

Indeed, it would be nice if all of the world’s millionaires and billionaires, who together own half of the world’s wealth, could be as charitable as the Microsoft boss.

But why does the world have to be a place where we need philanthropists like Mr Gates, who since 1994 has given £21.5billion to causes he and his wife Melinda deem worthy?

And, instead of hoping for more Bill Gateses and fewer Walter Palmers, why can’t more of us make it a better place ourselves?

The reason is an endemic economic system that in four decades has shovelled unprecedented amounts of wealth from the rest of us to the rich, encourages greed and envy on an industrial scale and makes the dishonourable whims of a craven elite commonplace.

Walter Palmer is a cretin, yes – but rampant capitalism enables him to indulge his sick hobby and is also to blame for Cecil’s death in Zimbabwe.

Here I wish to point out that I’m not passionate about lions or animals particularly, but I am passionate about respect for common decency – and most people think murdering an endangered species for fun is disgusting.

There can be no doubt that fewer lions would be killed (and, indeed, fewer people would suffer from poverty and hardship) if wealth was shared more equally.

If we more readily helped the people of Zimbabwe – and if the proceeds of its vast reserves of diamonds and minerals were more equitably distributed amongst its citizens and not multinational corporations - they would not so readily turn to helping wealthy foreigners to hunt big game.

I don’t want to castigate individuals too much when it is the system at fault.

But Cecil’s highly paid-for murder does suggest that the wealthy elite has too much money and too much time to do distasteful, insensitive and possibly evil things.

If wealth was shared more fairly, there would certainly be fewer people who would have the means to go out and kill lions and other animals for fun.

Just like the system created Walter Palmer, it all too frequently fosters “I can do what I want” and “I’m worth it” attitudes among other members of the business elite.

The root of this problem is that we have allowed our economy and others, such as Mr Palmer’s homeland, to subsidise the rich at the expense of everyone else.

Chief among their handouts was the he £1.2trillion bank bailout in 2008, the biggest transfer of money to wealthy individuals since taxpayers paid compensation of £20million (£16billion in today’s money) to British slave owners after slavery was abolished in 1833.

On top of this, British taxpayers also spend £93billion a year on corporate welfare - hidden subsidies, direct grants and tax breaks to big business.

And the bottom 99% of earners also enable the richest 1% to make vast fortunes by providing them with labour, spending power, infrastructure, research and a market to sell their goods and services to.

Yet too many rich people believe that their success is all down to them and they feel little compulsion to give any of their wealth back to those who created it for them.

And, having deluded themselves about the source of their ever-growing wealth, they feel a similar lack of compulsion to be moral or care for fellow humans, or indeed animals.

So, while the million poorest Britons have been driven to food banks by hardship during the last five years, the 1,000 richest have seen their fortunes double.

And what do these same gated community dwelling, private healthcare using, privately educated and wealthy denizens tell us is the remedy? To tighten our belts!

The injustice of gross inequality and an irresponsible elite that it has encouraged finally needs to be tackled head on.

If we built a more sharing society here in Britain, everyone would benefit and we could spread the idea that economies should serve people and not just profits, and transform the world.

And maybe, just maybe, lions like Cecil might stand a better chance too.