A report published Monday by the humanitarian group Oxfam warns that decades of intensifying inequality have left the world in the grip of a “global oligarchy” under which the richest sliver of humanity owns more wealth than nearly everyone else combined—a state of affairs that undermines democratic institutions and international cooperation on climate, pandemics, and other crises.
Oxfam’s analysis of data from the investment banking giant UBS found that the fortune controlled by the top 1% is now larger than the collective wealth of the bottom 95%.
Such inequality pervades the global economy, Oxfam noted, with a small number of corporations dominating key sectors. Nearly half of the global seed market, for example, is controlled by just two corporations, Bayer and Corteva. At the same time, just three U.S.-based financial behemoths—Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard—oversee nearly 20% of the world’s investable assets, around $20 trillion.
What’s more, such massive corporations are increasingly run by billionaires: According to Oxfam, a billionaire either heads or is the top shareholder of more than a third of the world’s leading 50 corporations.
“While we often hear about […]
Living on Social Security does not leave those of us on it “SECURE” at all. I have to live at the bottom of the U.S. Poverty level, even though I worked VERY hard all of my life!