Richest 1% to own more than half world's wealth by 2016 - Oxfam
As
global movers and shakers head to the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, Oxfam is warning that an increasing wealth disparity is
“leaving ordinary people voiceless and their interests uncared for.”
The
collective wealth of the world’s richest 1 percent will exceed that of
the other 99 percent of the global population next year, unless steps
are taken to address the inequality, Oxfam warned ahead of the annual
Davos meeting.
Oxfam, an anti-poverty charity, released a report titled, “Wealth: Having It All and Wanting More,” which
reveals that the richest 1 percent, who had an average wealth of $2.7
million per adult in 2014, have seen their share of global wealth soar
yet further, increasing from 44 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014.
At
this rate, the richest 1 percent, who became the focal point of public
outrage during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, will own more than
50 percent of the world’s wealth by 2016.
Oxfam
executive director Winnie Byanyima, who will co-chair the Davos
symposium, said she will draw attention to the grim fact that “one in nine people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day,” she told The Guardian.
“Do
we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the
rest of us combined? 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.”
However, despite constant warnings that the upward curve in wealth concentration will only lead to disaster, the rich continue to gobble up a bigger and bigger share of the global wealth pie.
In 2010, the number of individuals owning the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population was 388.
According to Byanyima, one way of addressing the “rising tide of inequality” is to crackdown on tax-dodging by corporations, and to push for progress towards a global deal on climate change.
The
statistics provided by Oxfam paint a dark portrait of the challenges
facing the planet in the face of severe wealth concentration.
“Twenty
percent of billionaires have interests in the financial and insurance
sectors, a group which saw their cash wealth increase by 11 percent in
the 12 months to March 2014,” according to the group.
These corporate sectors spent $550 million “lobbying policy makers in Washington and Brussels during 2013,” severely altering the scope of government representation originally designed for the electorate.
Meanwhile, during the 2012 US election campaign, the financial sector provided $571 million in campaign contributions, Oxfam said.
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