Just eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a major new report by an international confederation of 19 organizations working in more than 90 countries.
Oxfam International’s report, ‘An economy for the 99 percent’, which was released on January16, shows that the gap between rich and poor is “far greater than had been feared.”
“The richest are accumulating wealth at such an astonishing rate that the world could see its first trillionaire in just 25 years. To put this figure in perspective — you would need to spend $1 million every day for 2,738 years to spend one trillion dollars.”
The report details how big business and the super-rich are fueling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics, IPS reported.
“New and better data on the distribution of global wealth — particularly in India and China — indicates that the poorest half of the world has less wealth than had been previously thought.”
Had this new data been available last year, the report adds, it would have shown that nine billionaires owned the same wealth as the poorest half of the planet, and not 62, as Oxfam calculated at the time.
Obscene!
On this, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, said: “It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when one in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day. Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.
“Across the world, people are being left behind. Their wages are stagnating yet corporate bosses take home million dollar bonuses; their health and education services are cut while corporations and the super-rich dodge their taxes; their voices are ignored as governments sing to the tune of big business and a wealthy elite.”
Oxfam’s report shows “how our broken economies are funneling wealth to a rich elite at the expense of the poorest in society, the majority of who are women.”
Tax dodging
Oxfam's report also tackles the critical issue of tax dodging.
Corporate tax dodging, it informs, costs poor countries at least $100 billion every year.
“This is enough money to provide an education for the 124 million children who aren’t in school and fund healthcare interventions that could prevent the deaths of at least six million children every year.”
The report outlines how the super-rich use a network of tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of tax and an army of wealth managers to secure returns on their investments that would not be available to ordinary savers.
Contrary to popular belief, many of the super-rich are not ‘self-made’. Oxfam analysis shows over half the world’s billionaires either inherited their wealth or accumulated it through industries, which are prone to corruption and cronyism.
.It also demonstrates how big business and the super-rich use their money and connections to ensure government policy works for them
