8 wealthiest own as much as bottom half

And 10 firms’ revenue outpolls 180 poor countries

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Eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world. A top corporate CEO earns as much in a year as 10,000 garment factory workers in Bangladesh. And the world’s 10 biggest corporations together have revenue greater than the 180 poorest countries combined, according to a study published Sunday by Oxfam.

The report, “An Economy for the 99%,” was released as global leaders and the business elite traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The study found that the richest eight people on the planet have net wealth of $ 426 billion — equivalent to what’s held by the bottom half of the world’s population.

“From Nigeria to Bangladesh, from the U. K. to Brazil, people are fed up with feeling ignored by their political leaders, and millions are mobilizing to push for change,” Oxfam said. “Seven out of 10 people live in a country that has seen a rise in inequality in the last 30 years.”

The study is the latest by Oxfam to campaign for ways to reduce the gap between the rich and poor. Oxfam called on President- elect Donald Trump, world leaders and the international business community to “take urgent action to reduce inequality and the extreme concentration of wealth by ensuring that workers are paid a decent ( salary) and by increasing taxes on both wealth and high incomes.”

“It is mind- boggling that just eight men own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population, but that’s the sober- ing reality of 2017,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and campaigns. “Such dramatic inequality is trapping millions in poverty, fracturing our societies and poisoning our politics.”

Oxfam based its calculations on data from Swiss bank Credit Suisse’s 2016 Global Wealth report and Forbes’ billionaires list of the world’s richest people.

That means the eight men who have as much wealth as the world’s poorest half — 3.6 billion people — are Bill Gates ($ 75 billion); Amancio Ortega ($ 67 billion); Warren Buffett ($ 60.8 billion); Carlos Slim ($ 50 billion); Jeff Bezos ($ 45.2 billion); Mark Zuckerberg ($ 44.6 billion); Larry Ellison ($ 43.6 billion); and Michael Bloomberg ($ 40 billion).

The Credit Suisse report shows that Russia is the world’s most unequal country, with the exception of Comoros and Zambia.

EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY Economic inequality: An Indonesian street vendor carries her belongings as others spend their time at a park in a slum area as high- rise buildings loom at the horizon in Jakarta, Indonesia.