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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019

World’s 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%, says Oxfam

Author:     Larry Elliott
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Sun 20 Jan 2019 19.01 EST
 Link: World’s 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%, says Oxfam
Stephan:   Twenty-six men and women have as much wealth as 3.8 billion of their fellow human beings, half of the human race. In that one sentence, we have the definition of Neo-feudalism. That is how deeply distorted our values have become. Here are the two other statements that stood out for me in this report from Oxfam: "The 12% increase in the wealth of the very richest contrasted with a fall of 11% in the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population." And, specific to the British (the Guardian is a British newspaper), "The poorest 10% of Britons are paying a higher effective tax rate than the richest 10% (49% compared with 34%) once taxes on consumption such as VAT are taken into account." Human civilization is in crisis and in the United States most of us are watching Netflix,  listening to prosperity preachers, or talking about football.

The Oxfam report says that between 2017 and 2018 a new billionaire was created every two days.
Credit: Bloomberg/Getty

The growing concentration of the world’s wealth has been highlighted by a report showing that the 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population.

In an annual wealth check released to mark the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the development charity Oxfam said 2018 had been a year in which the rich had grown richer and the poor poorer.

It said the widening gap was hindering the fight against poverty, adding that a 1% wealth tax would raise an estimated $418bn (£325bn) a year – enough to educate every child not in school and provide healthcare that would prevent 3 million deaths.

Oxfam said the wealth of more than 2,200 billionaires across the globe had increased by $900bn in 2018 – or $2.5bn a day. The 12% increase in the wealth of the […]

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