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62 Billionaires Own As Much Wealth As Half of Humanity

"Widening Income Inequality Bad For Economic Growth: IMF Report "

By Eric Levitz January 18, 2016 11:52 a.m.


Photo: Bernat Armangue/AP/Corbis

If the wealthiest 62 billionaires on the planet decided to pool their resources, they could buy up every last thing owned by the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report .. https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp210-economy-one-percent-tax-havens-180116-en_0.pdf .. from Oxfam. The report, which was released just as some of those billionaires were arriving in Davos for the World Economic Forum, shows that the gap between rich and poor has grown wider in recent years: In 2010, the bottom half owned as much as the richest 338 individuals.

Analyzing data collected by Credit Suisse .. https://www.credit-suisse.com/uk/en/about-us/research/research-institute/publications.html , the anti-poverty organization further reports that the global one percent controlled as much wealth as the bottom 99 percent in 2015 — a milestone that was reached one year earlier than Oxfam had previously predicted.

Most concerning, this growing divide isn’t just the product of the rich getting richer: According to Oxfam, the wealth owned by the poorest 50 percent fell by a trillion dollars over the past five years, a 41 percent drop. The net worth of the richest 62 people grew by $542 billion, a 44 percent gain.

[ yeah, the media picks up on a few corrupt union people and all i hear in the pub up the road is guff as unions are no good, corrupt, outdated,
no help - bitch, complain, whinge, whine - blah blah blah blah .. and they are guys who should know! .. no wonder some cringe when they muh shadow ]

However, the loss of wealth in the bottom half came despite improving conditions for the poorest people on earth. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of humans living in extreme poverty was cut in half. The rate of progress toward eliminating extreme poverty has slowed in recent years, but the trend has not reversed direction.

Thus, the decline in the wealth of the bottom half appears to be driven in part by the growing indebtedness of individuals in advanced countries — a point emphasized by some of the report’s critics.

“The methodology of adding up assets and subtracting debts and then making a global 'net wealth' distribution implies that many of the poorest in the world are those in advanced countries with high debts,” said Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a British think-tank, to the BBC .. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35339475 .. “Whilst we might have sympathy for the Harvard law graduate's plight, it is unclear that worrying about her should be the focus of a development organization.”

Whether or not an indebted American millennial is poorer than a worker with a positive net worth in Bangladesh, both would stand to benefit from Oxfam’s recommendations for reducing inequality, which include cracking down on tax havens to fund greater investment in public services.

The report notes that the plutocratic class has an estimated $7.6 trillion in offshore accounts. If that income were taxed, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year. Such revenue could be used to subsidize the cost of public college in the U.S., or to aid in the eradication of preventable illnesses in the developing world.

As Oxfam notes, growing inequality hurts the world’s poorest even when the cohort's absolute living standards are improving. The charity finds that as much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing the continent $14 billion in tax revenues each year. Were that wealth invested in social welfare instead of in the Cayman Islands, 4 million children’s lives could be saved through better health care, and enough teachers could be hired to put every African child into a classroom.

“As an organization that exists to tackle poverty, Oxfam is unequivocal in welcoming the fantastic progress that has helped to halve the number of people living below the extreme poverty line between 1990 and 2010,” the charity writes. “Yet had inequality within countries not grown during that period, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/62-billionaires-own-as-much-as-half-of-humanity.html

See also:

INEQUALITY! .. Robert Shiller on winning the Nobel rang alarm bells
re INEQUALITY .. Credit Suisse have come out with a recent report ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93126873

Robert Reich: The whole market has been tilted to favor the rich
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=117385862

Joseph Stiglitz: how I would vote in the Greek referendum
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=115108920

Bernie Sanders Will End the IMF's Economic Violence in Greece and Africa
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=115169135

SilverSurfer, On Inequality Denial .. Paul Krugman
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108302803

Memo: From Nick Hanauer
To: My Fellow Zillionaires
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=103801720

The Hoax of Entitlement Reform with Robert Reich
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=84131857

Nick Hanauer .. Too Hot for TED: Income Inequality
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=77528746

Traitors to Their Class .. Timothy Egan .. bit ..
Much of the new evidence on the causes of inequality finds that moving
up from one class to the other in America has gotten far more difficult.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=112639766

For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billion
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=119596079

Rein in the Rich: How Higher Taxes Could Lift the Economy .. John B. Judis
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82739485

i hear you badmouth anything democratic for the most part, but not much on what you are FOR as an alternative. .. bits ..
...could you tell us how these positions and plans will make our lives better? [...] Strengthen the feudal system by
eliminating inheritance tax. The first 15 million dollars could be exempt, but protected dynasties are a clarion call
to the .1%. Equal opportunity and the merit system wouldn't even need to be pretended to be supported.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=117831022

The Fearful and the Frustrated
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=119227239

The GOP on the Eve of Destruction
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=119029379