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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWorld's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50% (sponsored by the Gates Foundation)
Ah, the irony! The Guardian's section on global development is sponsored by ...
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World's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%
The worlds eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globes population, according to a charity warning of an ever-increasing and dangerous concentration of wealth.
In a report published to coincide with the start of the week-long World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam said it was beyond grotesque that a handful of rich men headed by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates are worth $426bn (£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people.
The development charity called for a new economic model to reverse an inequality trend that it said helped to explain Brexit and Donald Trumps victory in the US presidential election.
Oxfam blamed rising inequality on aggressive wage restraint, tax dodging and the squeezing of producers by companies, adding that businesses were too focused on delivering ever-higher returns to wealthy owners and top executives.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jan/16/worlds-eight-richest-people-have-same-wealth-as-poorest-50
raccoon
(31,112 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)The are just figuring this out?
Not the brightest crayons in the box.....
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)Corporate Socialism, Oligarchy
Who Rules America
Wealth, Income, and Power
by G. William Domhoff
This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators. The most striking numbers on income inequality will come last, showing the dramatic change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.
read more at: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
procon
(15,805 posts)just call ourselves serfs.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)Imagine what the weathiest have planned.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,855 posts)Peter Turchin has been analyzing civilizations throughout history in a mathematical way, assigning values to all kinds of variables, in an attempt to explain past events objectively.
The best explanations for the downfall of civilizations?
1. Conquered by outside forces.
2. Collapsed from within due to INEQUALITY of resources.
Return of the oppressed
From the Roman Empire to our own Gilded Age, inequality moves in cycles. The future looks like a rough ride
https://aeon.co/essays/history-tells-us-where-the-wealth-gap-leads