According to a report by anti-poverty charity organization Oxfam America, the wealthiest 1 percent of people will possess global assets in excess of assets possessed by the rest of earth’s 7.12 billion people by next year.
The percentage of global wealth owned by the richest 1 percent rose from 46 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014, and it will rise to over 50 percent by 2016, Oxfam reported.
“The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast,” said Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who is a co-chair of the upcoming World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which will be attended by a record 300 heads of state.
Oxfam also reported that 80 percent of the world’s population currently owns just 5.5 percent of global wealth. This equates to under $4,000 per person, while the average wealth of the top 1 percent is $2.7 million. Further down the line, 1 in 9 people cannot afford enough food for themselves, and over 1 billion people have less than $1.25 per day to live on.
The wealth of the richest people continues to rise, Oxfam reported. In 2014, the 80 richest people had the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people, representing a doubling of the wealth of the richest 80 since 2009.
“Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?” Byanyima asked.
“The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.”
Oxfam’s report comes just ahead of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
By Sid Douglas
Photo: Oxfam
Mario Maritano: I agree with you. Do you have any workable ideas on how to combat all these scourges?
Any comment on my previous opinion rom anyone ? If so: what is it the point to have an open opinion link? Ignoring and silence on the real truth is also a way of answering….
….We should at least think about it and take the necessary measures. Is however the human kind ready to accept these measures? A spiritual change inside each of us! Before it will be too late. We are all the same: with no difference! And all has the right to have a decent and peaceful life! But I believe that at the G20 everybody would laugh at it… So: let go on and let see where we are going to end.
….The other question is: why we continue with our hypocrisy from one Conference to the other? We know who are the people who are luting ALL the resources of our planet and who are the root causes of all past and recent tragedies and disasters. But we all will keep them doing it. And this will continue up the end (not far anyway). The sheep are hypnotized by the media who show 24/7 a beautiful world where everyone can get anything and all is so beautiful, The sheep agree with and smile to wolf who are digging their graveyard and they are preparing for the worst… When this hypocrisy will end? When we will plan efficiently and effectively to save all of us by making a decent world where everyone can decently live? Let say almost everyone!
The UNTOUCHABLES: Bankers, Financial market gurus, CEOs of the wealthiest multinationals, rampant corruption at all levels, trillions on tax evasion in the fiscal paradises! What do we wait to do something tangible to avoid to live in a world in which never ending wars, spread social clashes, hate and camouflaged religious terrorism, rampant natural disasters will change forever life on our raped planet leading all of us to live in beasty societies. WE have one Planet only to avoid to eat at each other like overpopulated colonies of rats. Remember: Mars as a plan B is just for far less than the 1%.