Inequality now ‘beyond grotesque’
SWITZERLAND: Only eight billionaires have as much combined wealth as the poorer half of the world, according to Oxfam.
Six Americans, a Mexican telecoms entrepreneur and the Spanish founder of the Zara clothing chain are between them worth more than the 3.6 billion people who form the poorer half of the world’s population.
Oxfam released its latest report into the scale of global inequality to coincide with the start tomorrow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where about 3,000 of the global business and political elite will gather for the annual meeting.
The forum has put inclusive growth and inequality on the agenda, but Oxfam has latched on to the backlash against the status quo that was shown last year by voters in Britain and America to call for an overhaul in economic thinking.
Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: ‘‘This year’s snapshot of inequality is clearer, more accurate and more shocking than ever before.
‘‘It is beyond grotesque that a group of men who could easily fit in a single golf buggy own more than the poorer half of humanity.’’
Oxfam’s figures are far more shocking than last year, when it reported that 62 people owned the same as half the world.
The change was attributed to improved data from China and India, which showed that many more poorer people had high levels of debt that counted against their assets.
On the same basis, last year’s analysis would have shown nine peopled owning as much as half the world. In total, the richest eight individuals last year had a net worth of US$426 billion (NZ$599b) compared with the US$409 billion that the bottom half of the world owned.
Among the eight individuals are five US technology entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, 32, the founder of Facebook. Bill Gates, 61, the Microsoft founder, is the wealthiest on the list, followed by Amancio Ortega, 80, who owns Zara, and Warren Buffett, 86, who set up Berkshire Hathaway, the investment fund. Carlos Slim, 76, who runs a Mexican telecoms conglomerate, is fourth, followed by Jeff Bezos, 53, of Amazon, Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, 72, the founder of Oracle, and Michael Bloomberg, 74, founder of the financial services, information and media group.
Oxfam drew its data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and the Forbes list of billionaires.
The charity’s report, An Economy for the 99 Per cent, also showed that the world’s richest 1 per cent still owned more than the remaining 99 per cent. Since 1990 the number of people earning the equivalent of US$1.90 a day, the World Bank’s measure of extreme poverty, has fallen from 1.85 billion to 767 million, in spite of a 1.1 billion expansion in the global population.
One of the biggest problems was big businesses, which ‘‘are structured to dodge taxes, drive down workers’ wages and squeeze producers instead of fairly contributing to an economy that benefits everyone’’, Oxfam said in its report.
It urged the business leaders gathering in Davos to set an example as the key theme of this year’s forum is responsive and responsible leadership.