The 62 richest people in the world possess wealth equal to that of half the global population, or about 3.5 billion people, as the super-rich have become even richer while the poor have become poorer, announced the international humanitarian organization Oxfam on Monday.
The wealth of the 62 richest has increased by 44 percent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion has decreased by 41 percent, Oxfam reported in a statement released ahead of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Nearly half of the super-rich individuals come from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
– World leaders are concerned that the escalation of the inequality crisis has not yet led to concrete actions – the world has become a place with much more inequality, and this trend is accelerating, said Oxfam International’s Executive Director Winnie Byanima in a statement.
– We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to starve while the resources that could be used to help them are in the hands of those at the top, added Byanima.
About $7.6 trillion of individual wealth lies in tax havens abroad, and if the income tax generated by that wealth were paid, governments would have an additional $190 billion available each year, said Gabriel Zucman, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. As much as 30 percent of the total financial wealth in Africa is located abroad, resulting in an annual loss of about $14 billion in tax revenue, Oxfam reported, referencing Zucman’s work. This is enough money to fund healthcare and save 4 million children each year, as well as to employ enough teachers to ensure every African child goes to school, Oxfam stated in its report.
