The gap between the super-rich and the poorest half of the global population is starker than previously thought, with just eight men, from Bill Gates to Michael Bloomberg, owning as much wealth as 3.6 billion people, an analysis by Oxfam released yesterday showed.
Presenting its findings on the dawn of the annual gathering of the global political and business elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Switzerland, anti-poverty organization Oxfam says the gap between the very rich and poor is far greater than just a year ago. It is urging leaders to do more than pay lip-service to the problem.
If not, public anger against this kind of inequality will continue to grow and lead to more seismic political changes akin to last year’s election of US president-elect Donald Trump and Britain’s vote to leave the EU, it 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 US$2 a day,” Oxfam International executive director Winnie Byanyima said. “Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.”
Last year’s equivalent report said the richest 62 people on the planet in 2015 owned as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. Oxfam has since revised that figure down to eight.
Oxfam used Forbes’ billionaires list that was last published in March last year to make its headline claim.
According to the Forbes list, Microsoft founder Gates is the richest individual with a net worth of US$75 billion. The others, in order of ranking, are Spanish founder of fashion house Inditex Amancio Ortega, financier Warren Buffett, Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.
Oxfam outlined measures that it hopes will be enacted to help reduce the inequality.
They include higher taxes on both wealth and income to ensure a more level playing field and to fund investments in public services and jobs, greater international cooperation by governments on ensuring workers are paid decently and the rich do not dodge their taxes. And business leaders should commit to paying their fair share of taxes and a living wage to employees.
Oxfam policy adviser Max Lawson urged billionaires to “do the right thing,” and to do “what Bill Gates has called on them to do, which is pay their taxes.”
The ability of the rich to avoid paying their fair share of taxes was vividly exposed last year in the so-called “Panama Papers,” a leaked trove of data that revealed details on offshore accounts that helped individuals shelter their wealth.
“We have a situation where billionaires are paying less tax often than their cleaner or their secretary,” Lawson said. “That’s crazy.”
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