85 People Have as Much Money as Half the World

85 People Have as Much Money as Half the World

By Li Anne Wong, CNBC | MSN Money Partner | 12 hours ago
Excerpts:

“The combined wealth of the world's richest 85 people is now equivalent to that owned by half of the world's population - or 3.5 billion of the poorest people - according to a new report from Oxfam.

In a report titled "Working for the Few" released Monday, the global aid and development organization detailed the extent of global economic inequality created by the rapidly increasing wealth of the richest, warning of the major risks it poses to "human progress."

According to the report, 210 people have become billionaires in the past year, joining a select group of 1,426 individuals with a combined net worth of $5.4 trillion.

It added that the wealth of the richest one percent of people in the world now amounts to $110 trillion, or 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world's population.

"This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems," the report said. "Instead of moving forward together, people are increasingly separated by economic and political power, inevitably heightening social tensions and increasing the risk of societal breakdown."

"What is striking is the share of the countries’ wealth held by this elite minority, which has skyrocketed from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 26 percent in 2008," the report said.

The report comes ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which kicks off later this week, and Oxfam is calling on the global political and business leaders attending the meeting to take steps to turn around the rapidly exacerbating inequality.

Some recommendations include refraining from the dodging of taxes and avoid using economic wealth to seek political favors.

Oxfam said that based on its polls conducted across the world, it is believed that there are many laws and regulations designed to benefit the rich.

"A survey in six countries (Spain, Brazil, India, South Africa, the UK and the U.S.) showed that a majority of people believe that laws are skewed in favor of the rich," the report said.

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IMO: The wealth of the world will always move upward until there are laws that are strict and will force the wealthy to do their duty toward the people that work ofr them and have helped them acquire the vast wealth that they are using to acquire even more wealth.

There must be a leverage where extra taxation becomes the norm for wealthy people rather than satisfaction of beating the IRS by paying off legislators to make laws that are helpful to you rather than something to help the poor.

We all are responsible for the least of us, and although that knowledge is a powerful deterrent for the greedy to digest and come to terms with, it remains true.

 

Thats fine, its those greedy workers that are the problem! Those 85 people deserve it, the workers should just be happy they are getting paid at all!

 

You can start with Soros, Gates and Buffett......

 

Care to address to topic? No of course not. You find nothing wrong with it. After all those 85 people "worked soooo hard" while those greedy mooching workers dare to ask for more money?

 

And Koch, Murdoch, and Trump...

 

Just smoke some newly legal pot, in your moms basement, and everything will be super, I promise.

 

Koch's yes but Murdoch and Trump are not even in the same class of billionaires....

 

what about oprah and her 2.5 billion dollar net worth?

 

Not even close to the Slims; Waltons, Soros,Buffet, Gates etc etc etc of the world.

 

If we use the numbers from the article and divide by the 7.06 billion people on earth, "redistributing" this wealth would give each person about $600. What would that accomplish?

GDP of the world is about 80 trillion, so the 5 trillion in total assets owned by the folks in the article wouldn't run the world for a complete work week.

Now that's really an apples to oranges comparison. Total assets to income. If we use the asset numbers in the article and compare it to the total assets owned by people on this earth it's less than 1%.

Large numbers get scary until you compare them to other large numbers.

Now what do we get from amassed wealth? Things we all use and couldn't otherwise utilize or produce without the ability. Think about it. I just flew half way across this country for $200. Thank god someone amassed the wealth necessary to produce, purchase and operate the $60 million asset that was a Boeing 757.

From the article and the OP you'd think all this wealth was sequestered away, piled high in some billionaire's backyard where she danced around it naked trance like chanting "all mine, all mine, all mine".

Cheers
Labour

 

Slim's entire empire would fall apart if Mexico would just have the balls to adopt anti-trust regulation.

 

Who are these 85 people? Maybe I should send out a round of congratulations cards.

I don't care about how rich these people are. There is no way we are getting anymore billionaires just by grabbing these people's money and throwing it at public school. Usually the people who go to school are the underclass. They'll be the workers that make all this wealth possible but they won't be at the top to collect the wealth, these workers will just get their paycheck. And rightly so. Go to school if it interests you. If you go for a skill, it means that you'll probably be in the middle class not the peak of the top.

People need dreams to get to the top, Or a rich mommy and daddy, or an oil field, or a tech giant... You get your due from where you aim for.

 

...and all of Hollywood.

Which are all extreme left-wing nuts.

 

I am not rich, nor am I poor.

I make a comfortable living for my family and I.

And I don't have any envy, hate or animosity towards people who have more money than I.

Why do so many people constantly hate people with more wealth?

I just don't get it.

 

Well said. It's not as if killing these guys and stealing their money would make the world any richer. In fact, should it matter how rich the richest are as long as the rest of the world is getting richer too? And the world is getting richer. More people throughout the world live much better than say, 50 years ago.

Although I do enjoy the squealing of childish envy.

 

Yeah capitalism!

Or you could, at the point of 85 guns, take their wealth and spread it amongst 7,000,000,000. The sales of Colt 45 will skyrocket for a few weeks. Hundreds of millions will lose their jobs.

 

Rich people making money is capitalism, workers making money is socialism...Right wing bubble logic.

 

This is the product of 30 years of Reagan-based economic policies that have convinced millions of people that giving, literally giving, money to rich people and corporations is far more beneficial then giving it to the poor -- that it will somehow magically "trickle down" into the pockets of the poor. This spurred countless tax exemptions and a tax code that now weighs a metric asston.

Rich people and corporations hire lobbyists to get them more tax benefits, subsidies, exemptions, etc. Corporations even got the right of personhood in the US (without the accountability of being a person, of course).

As with France and Russia, I can see a class revolution happening if this horrific inequality continues. Heads up, Congress, King Louis didn't fare too well.

 

I bet you got your job (if you actually work) from the guy holding the 40, eh?

 

Oh yes this tired old meme.

 

I'm really at a loss with the hatred of the successful and capitalism. It's really an unjust system. To become rich and successful takes a great deal of focus and stamina, it's all consuming to realize the dream that is accumulation of wealth, building a business, producing a useful product or providing a necessary service. In reality the lesser among us, and our elevated standard of living are dependent upon this oddity. The oddity that some souls risk it all, their health, their savings and their labors to create something that others need or desire. It isn't the norm.

There are many "games" in life to occupy our time, many pursuits of happiness. One is business, thank god some like this game. Some measure things in terms of money, they become millionaires.

Others pursue happiness in raising a family and spend their time focused upon it, they too become millionaires by their measure.

Others pursue happiness in attaining knowledge and spend their time focused upon it, thank God, they too become millionaires by their measure.

Others pursue happiness by tramping in the woods alone and spend their time focused upon it, they too become millionaires by their measure.

We tax disproportionately those that seek happiness by being a merchant, it provides all of us room and support to pursue our own happiness without guilt. Guilt in the knowledge that our form of pursuing happiness couldn't feed the poor or provide them health care.

Think about it.

Cheers
Labour

 

It may feed a poor family in the Congo for years. You know, those bums who need to get a job.

It doesn't matter if it's even just a penny more -- income inequality is the result of structural cronyism that is designed to keep the money in the hands of the wealthy by denying it to the poor. That's why only 85 people own so much of the world's wealth.

Airlines barely make a profit. It was probably leveraged. Nonetheless, if they did amass enough resources to buy a new plane without being bailed out of subsidized, good for them.

You just stated that amassing wealth allowed for an airline to buy an expensive asset. Now, you're stating that amassing wealth doesn't exist. Which is it?

That's my first question. My second question is: how far are you willing to turn a blind eye to this problem? If the end game is one person owning all of the wealth (I don't believe in the peacock effect), are you okay with that?

 

Tired and unrefuted.

 

Poor Oprah, she was so oppressed by white people her whole life that 2.5 billion should have been 10 billion.

 

Sounds like half the world needs to get better at making money.