This statistic was doing the rounds everywhere yesterday:
Richest 62 own equal wealth to poorest half of world
The inequality gulf has widened to 62 of the wealthiest people owning all the wealth of the poorest 3.6 billion people combined.
Astonishing.
The latest inequality report by Oxfam shows the richest 1 per cent now have more wealth than the rest of the world combined.
Beyond astonishing.
Data from Credit Suisse showed the wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 per cent, more than half a trillion dollars, in the five years since 2010. Meanwhile the wealth owned by the bottom half of humanity has fallen by a trillion dollars in the past five years.
Predictable. The misnamed “trickle down” economy is actually a “suck up” economy in practice.
Oxfam said a global system of tax havens allows an estimated total of US$7.6 trillion of individuals’ wealth to sit offshore. If tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra US$190 billion would be available to governments every year, the report said.
Oxfam estimated that tax dodging by multinational corporations costs developing countries at least US$100 billion every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014, the report said.
Absolutely predictable. Absurdly rich people do not (in general) get absurdly rich by meeting their public obligations.
This economic system exists, and grows more insanely greedy and inequitable by the day, because collectively we let it. In fact, many of us (take a bow you right-wing drones!) cheer “the system” on, despite being as much victims of it as the rest of the 99%. The super-rich are laughing all the way to the bank.
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