Photograph by Julien Harneis
The 85 richest people on earth have a combined wealth equivalent to that of half the world’s population according to a report by the charity Oxfam.
In the report Working for the Few, published ahead of this week’s World Economic Forums (WEF) in Davos, Oxfam describes how across the globe:
“Wealthy elites have co-opted political power to rig the rules of the economic game, undermining democracy”
Polls carried out by Oxfam in the UK, Brazil, India, South Africa, Spain and US showed that the majority of people believed that laws were “skewed in favour of the rich”, and two thirds of Britons believed that “the rich had too much influence over the direction the country is headed”. The UK is one of the most unequal countries in the OECD club of “rich nations”.
Wealth inequality has recently become a major issue on the global agenda, as the 2008 financial collapse saw gaps in wealth between the rich and poor widening further, with the recovery in the US seeing the income of the top 1% of earners rising by 31.4%, with the other 99% of people seeing just a 0.4% rise – a rate well below inflation.
In a statement, Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima said:
“It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world’s population – that’s three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus.
In developed and developing countries alike we are increasingly living in a world where the lowest tax rates, the best health and education and the opportunity to influence are being given not just to the rich but also to their children.”