1% Likely to Control More Than 1/2 Globe's Wealth - While over a billion live on less than $1.25 day

[kpete]

OXFAM ISSUE BRIEFING JANUARY 2015
www.oxfam.org
WEALTH: HAVING IT ALL AND
WANTING MORE

Global wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of a small
wealthy elite. These wealthy individuals have generated and sustained their
vast riches through their interests and activities in a few important
economic sectors, including finance and pharmaceuticals/healthcare.
Companies from these sectors spend millions of dollars every year on
lobbying to create a policy environment that protects and enhances their
interests further. The most prolific lobbying activities in the US are on
budget and tax issues; public resources that should be directed to benefit
the whole population, rather than reflect the interests of powerful lobbyists.

Lots of graphs & info:
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/ib-wealth-having-all-wanting-more-190115-en.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/business/richest-1-percent-likely-to-control-half-of-global-wealth-by-2016-study-finds.html



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Richest 1% Likely to Control Half of Global Wealth by 2016, Study Finds


The richest 1 percent are likely to control more than half of the globe’s total wealth by next year, the charity Oxfam reported in a study released on Monday. The warning about deepening global inequality comes just as the world’s business elite prepare to meet this week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The 80 wealthiest people in the world altogether own $1.9 trillion, the report found, nearly the same amount shared by the 3.5 billion people who occupy the bottom half of the world’s income scale. (Last year, it took 85 billionaires to equal that figure.) And the richest 1 percent of the population, who number in the millions, control nearly half of the world’s total wealth, a share that is also increasing.

The type of inequality that currently characterizes the world’s economies is unlike anything seen in recent years, the report explained. “Between 2002 and 2010 the total wealth of the poorest half of the world in current U.S. dollars had been increasing more or less at the same rate as that of billionaires,” it said. “However since 2010, it has been decreasing over that time.”

Winnie Byanyima, the charity’s executive director, noted in a statement that more than a billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day.



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/business/19gap.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&_r=0

[daleanime]

1. The root of almost all our problems.....

[riversedge]

2. K and R

[newfie11]

3. How much longer before the masses have had enough

What does history say? It's been said history repeats itself!

[benz380]

5. People know history and still keep voting Corporatists into political office. n/t

[Dustlawyer]

4. We either fight their control over our government by demanding Publicly Funded Elections and an

end to campaign contributions and the Revoloving Door, or roll over and let them have it all!

[KingCharlemagne]

6. Yay, Capitalism! USA! USA! USA! :sarcasm: - nt

[riversedge]

7. I am snail mailing this to all my state and Fed lawyers -of all

stripes--telling them to focus on matters such as this. We should ALL do this.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!