Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the return-of-feudalism dept.

Common Dreams reports

The world's richest 1 percent now own more wealth than [the remaining] 99 percent combined. This finding comes from Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report for 2015, [redirects to a PDF] released last week. Last year, Credit Suisse found the richest 1 percent of adults owned 48 percent of global wealth. According to the new report, the [richest] 1 percent now hold 50.4 percent of all the world's household wealth.

Credit Suisse's findings are in line with Oxfam's prediction that global wealth inequality is only becoming greater. Last January, we predicted that the richest 1 percent would capture more than half of all household wealth by 2016. It looks like our prediction was right, but that we were too conservative, since it has happened a year early. Alas, our forecast was confirmed, but it's nothing to celebrate.

When you look at the very top of the global wealth pyramid, the situation is much more alarming. When we first calculated in January 2014, the 85 richest individuals own more wealth than the poorest half of the planet. This trend has also worsened since that time. Last January, it was down to 80 people.

The implications of rising extreme wealth inequality are greatly worrying. The highly unbalanced concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer and fewer people impacts social stability within countries and threatens security on a global scale. It makes poverty reduction harder, threatens political inclusion, and compounds other inequalities.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @02:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @02:44PM (#254346)

    than be an a$$hole. I'm happy. Don't need to be rich, I've got everything I need.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:47PM (#254381)

    Excellent! *steeples fingers*

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @08:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @08:36PM (#254428)

    That's what poor people say.

    • (Score: 1) by Empyrean on Monday October 26 2015, @01:39AM

      by Empyrean (5241) on Monday October 26 2015, @01:39AM (#254480)

      That's what poor people say.

      No, that's what people say who don't measure happiness in terms of material possessions.