According to a study by Oxfam titled Working for the Few:
- In a world of 7 billion people, 85 of richest people now have the combined wealth of 3.5 billion of the world's poorest people.
- The wealth of the richest 1% in the world is $110 trillion and is 65 times the total wealth of the bottom 50% of the world's population. (1,426 individuals have a combined net worth of $5.4 trillion.)
- As U.S. tech jobs were going to India over the last 10 years, the number of billionaires in that country increased from less than 6 to 61--- and this elite minority had its wealth skyrocket from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 26 percent in 2008.
This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a real threat to inclusive political and economic systems, and compounds other inequalities. Left unchecked, political institutions are undermined and governments overwhelmingly serve the interests of economic elites—to the detriment of ordinary people.
Oxfam calls on leaders at the 2014 World Economic Forum at Davos to make the commitments needed to counter the growing tide of inequality.
In the U.S. we have a minimum wage --- and this is why we now need a maximum wage as well. Read:
Cash Hoarding becomes an Addiction
"If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity." ~ Albert Einstein
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