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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017

Morbid Inequality: Now Just Six Men Have as Much Wealth as Half the World’s Population

Author:     PAUL BUCHHEIT
Source:     Buzzflash/Truthout
Publication Date:     Tuesday, 21 February 2017 07:02
Link: Morbid Inequality: Now Just Six Men Have as Much Wealth as Half the World’s Population
Stephan:   Do you remember a few weeks ago when I did a report stating that 8 men had as much wealth as 3.6 billion people. Well there has been a revision. "As of 02/17/17, the world's 6 richest individuals (all men) had $412 billion." The Neo-feudalism trend is going faster than anyone, including me, predicted.  "In the US, the Forbes 400 Own as Much as 3/5 of the American People." The reality is the economic system that has dominated the world for the last century, that has only one social priority: profit, and whose principal proponent is the United States, has reached a pathological level. Think of it as terminal fourth stage social cancer. Here is the new data,

Credit: Michael Fleshman

Yes, inequality is getting worse every year. In early 2016 Oxfam reported that just 62 individuals had the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity. About a year later Oxfam reported that just 8 men had the same wealth as the world’s bottom half. Based on the same methodology and data sources used by Oxfam, that number is now down to 6.

How to account for the dramatic increase in the most flagrant and perverse of extreme inequalities? Two well-documented reasons: (1) The poorest half (and more) of the world has continued to lose wealth; and (2) The VERY richest individuals — especially the top thousand or so — continue to add billions of dollars to their massive fortunes.

Inequality deniers and apologists say the Oxfam methodology is flawed, but they’re missing the big picture. Whether it’s 6 individuals or 62 or 1,000 doesn’t really matter. The data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook (GWD) and the Forbes Billionaire List provide the best available tools to make it […]

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1 Comment

  1. shovland on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 7:30 am

    As the new mini ice age takes hold these people will become the hostages of the people who know how to grow food in cold climates.