Nonprofit organization Oxfam presented a state of the world’s wealth analysis before Davos, a gathering of the world’s richest and most powerful people. Among the conclusions of the study is that the world adds a new billionaire every other day.
Another major conclusion of the study is that 1% of the world’s population controls 82% of the world’s wealth:
Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today. The report is being released as political and business elites, including President Trump, are heading to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Oxfam’s report, ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth,’ reveals how the global economy enables the wealthy elite to capture vast wealth while hundreds of millions of people struggle to survive on poverty pay. This includes the stunning new finding that the economy created a new billionaire every other day over a period of one year.
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Oxfam researchers pointed out that much of the wealth is inherited or comes from successful investing in the stock market or large pay packages given to corporate executives.
Another conclusion is that women hold much less of the world’s wealth than men do:
Oxfam focused especially on women workers who often find themselves off at the bottom of the economic heap. Across the world, women consistently earn less than men and are concentrated in the lowest paid and least secure forms of work. By comparison, 9 out of 10 billionaires are men.
The data on income inequality are not new. The World Bank has estimated that over three-quarters of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day.
Oxfam describes itself as the advocate of the “power of people against poverty.” Its data certainly show that the issue has almost universal pervasiveness.
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