Posted on 01/18/2016 3:12:44 AM PST by Enlightened1
Oxfam study also finds richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together
The world's richest 62 people are worth as much as the planet's poorest 3.6 billion put together, according to new research. Oxfam study also finds richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together
And the richest one per cent on the planet is now worth more than the rest of everyone else put together.
The report - highlighting "runaway inequality" - was published by Oxfam ahead of the annual gathering of the world's financial and political elite in Davos, Switzerland. The number has fallen from 80 last year and 388 in 2010.
The study also shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population, 3.6 billion people, has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010. The 41 per cent drop has occurred despite the global population increasing by around 400 million people during that period.
But the wealth of the richest 62 has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76 trillion. Only nine of the 62 are women.
Oxfam is calling for urgent action to tackle the "inequality crisis" and reverse the dramatic fall in wealth of the poorest half of the world.
It is urging world leaders to adopt a three-pronged approach - cracking down on tax dodging, increased investment in public services and action to boost the income of the lowest paid.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
And if you really want to spread the wealth around, stop putting up barriers making it more and more difficult to accumulate wealth when you don't already have it.
In other words, stop taxing and regulating the middle class into oblivion.
The whole reason behind this debate of “inequality” is POWER AND CONTROL. Those who espouse measures to equalize are just pandering to the pooor 3.6 billion people to give THEM the power and control to supposedly do something about it. All they are seeking is a transfer of the power and control that naturally comes with money to those opportunists who don’t have the smarts or will to amass their own wealth who’d rather fool a throng of ignorant people ready to give it to them.
another Hillary success story
And if you rent and have a $20 bill in your pocket, you have more than 500 million people who are upside down on their mortgages or are underemployed with massive student loans.
Lets say that each person in a poor country had $100. They would doubtless consume more food, buy more clothing and acquire temporary shelter. The flow of that money (sometimes called the speed of money) will not be concentrated enough to benefit the society very much.
Now, concentrate that wealth in one set of hands. That person will start businesses and employ people. He will invest and those investments will employ people. He may consume but mostly the money will be invested and will benefit those willing to work. The speed of money will be much greater.
Ultimately, which scenario is better for the economy?
Also, if the government comes along and takes the one person’s wealth for redistribution, the government loses more than either of the other scenarios through graft and inefficiency.
Who cares. We all end up with $0 in our wallets when we die, anyway.
Wealth is better spread amongst a larger number of people. The trouble is, when people become SUPER rich, they tend to hoard it in off-shore accounts or artificially inflate property prices in major cities (thereby pricing ordinary folk out of the market through property investment), whereas ordinary people spend a lot more of their disposable income consuming goods and contributing to the economy.
I know that overtaxing on wealth can remove incentives to grow and work hard if you are smart enough to do something that can make you a billionaire, but on a personal level, I think if you are worth more than a few million, why are you still chasing wealth when you could donate a lot of money to the less fortunate (who are not all lazy, undeserving bums) and still live a comfortable lifestyle? Not exactly within keeping of the teachings of Jesus to covet such a grossly exaggerated level of material wealth. IMHO if you are a billionaire, you are by definition a bit of a d-nozzle. Just my opinion.
“And if you really want to spread the wealth around, stop putting up barriers making it more and more difficult to accumulate wealth when you don’t already have it. In other words, stop taxing and regulating the middle class into oblivion.”
Absolutely agree. When you put policies in place that inhibit upward mobility, you wind up with more income inequality, not less. The USSR has this disparity in wealth as well, as have most, if not all socialist and communist countries.
My mother said, if you gave every poor person a million dollars most of them would be in the same position or worse within a few years. Studies of lottery winners bear out her view. She said poverty is a state of mind. Poor people buy beer and cigarettes. Poverty is more a state of mind and a view of the world than an economic state.
I’ve known some wealthy people. Some of them are, as you say, not nice people. But one woman who has thirty rentals will work with people down on their luck so long as they’re honest with her and willing to work. She just got paid back over $3,000 by a family who worked it off with her in labor until the husband got a real job. But if they’re lying or doing or dealing drugs, she throws them out.
Not all rich people are bad people just as not all poor people are good. Poor people, however, do not hire employees and rich people do.
Nice post, Comrade. We all be poor together!
Maybe because poor people don’t own anything?
IMHO the total amount of ‘wealth’ available is not finite, and as individuals accumulate more personal wealth it doesn't mean that wealth has been ‘taken’ from someone else. For some things that are clearly finite, like the total amount of land available, the accumulation by one person does affect the amount available to others. Obviously this has been a major reason wars have been fought over land.
For other aspects of wealth, it is clearly possible for all boats to float higher. In fact, one could argue that in a country in which the standard of living, health, and standard of education goes up for everyone, the availability of well-trained workers goes up and thus the ability of the nation to accumulate wealth goes up. Wages as compared to cheaper labor internationally is a fly in that ointment, but there are ways around that. Anyway, my point is just that IMHO it is not an either or situation.
0 + 0 + 0....... = 0
So What?
Unless those “62” rich people take all their wealth and bury it in a hole, that money is being used for investments, and for goods and service. In other words, it is circulating. Providing jobs for people.
I would think the government taking money from people who earn it to give to those that don’t is a bigger scandal and should be reported.
lol
pure BS
If you have a dollar in your pocket your probably richer than half the world!
Good for the 62 that earned. I only have problems with the ones that “earned” it through bailouts or political connections. If someone can create a website and become worth $50 billion in a few years, good for them.
Oxfam, slightly to the right of Heritage Foundation, right?
Only one thing to do.. Tax the hell out of them and give it to me!
It has also been said that if you took all the money in the country and divided it equally among all of the people, in 2 years that money would be back in the hands of the original owners.
The world is filled with people who can't manage money. They make emotional spending decisions, seek immediate gratification and have no personal economic discipline. The socialists can redistribute wealth, but that won't have any meaningful long term effect.
But then, results don't really matter to progressives as long as their voters get their bling.
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