Richest 1% Get
Wealthier
“Wealth: Having It All And Wanting More”
In new report released to coincide with the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
Oxfam reveals that inequality is rising to
staggering levels.
By Telesur
January 19, 2015 "ICH"
- "Telesur"
- The spotlight will be on the world's
richest and most powerful as they gather in
a billionaire's playground in Switzerland
this week, as a new report reveals that by
next year 1 percent of the world's
population will own more wealth than the
other 99 percent.
Anti-poverty charity Oxfam
released its latest report
“Wealth: Having it all and
wanting more” Monday just days ahead of the
World Economic Forum, whose annual meeting
in ski resort Davos aims to set the global
agenda for issues ranging from the global
economy to climate change.
Executive director of
Oxfam International, Winnie Byamyima, who
will be co-chairing the event, has assured
that she will use her position to draw
attention to rising inequality as she did
last year when her charity revealed that the
richest 85 people in the world hold the same
wealth as the poorest 50 percent.
"Do we really want to live
in a world where the 1 percent own more than
the rest of us combined? The scale of global
inequality is quite simply staggering and
despite the issues shooting up the global
agenda, the gap between the richest and the
rest is widening fast,” Byamyima said.
"In the past 12 months we
have seen world leaders from President Obama
to Christine Lagarde talk more about
tackling extreme inequality but we are still
waiting for many of them to walk the walk.
It is time our leaders took on the powerful
vested interests that stand in the way of a
fairer and more prosperous world,” she
added.
The report examines how
extreme wealth is passed down generations
and how policies stay favorable to the
interests of the wealthy. More than
one-third of the 1,645 billionaires listed
by Forbes inherited some or all of their
riches.
Furthermore, the report
details the massive sums billionaires spend
on lobbying Washington and Brussels policy
makers to protect their interests.
Twenty percent of the
richest have interests in the financial and
insurance sectors, a group which saw its
cash wealth increase by 11 percent March
2013 to March 2014. These billionaires spent
US$550 million lobbying policy makers in
2013.
During the 2012 U.S.
elections, the financial sector also gave
US$571 million in campaign contributions.
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See also
Meet The 80 People
Who Are As Rich As Half The World:
Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth
as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people,
according to an analysis just released from
Oxfam. The report from the global
anti-poverty organization finds that since
2009, the wealth of those 80 richest has
doubled in nominal terms — while the wealth
of the poorest 50 percent of the world’s
population has fallen.
