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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.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:49PM
Personally, I would hate to see enraged rioters burn down a factory making washing machines... but if some rich guy is just slumlording, building himself a mansion in the hills from the misery of his minions, I would not lift a finger to stop the enraged minions
And I don't deny there are some of these. But even their mansions are built by others.
Its hard to be rich and not spend money.
Some people I suppose just buy and sell Stock, which, unless you are buying IPO issues, is not that productive for society as a whole. It does free up someone else's money, but there is a lot of money tied up in revolving investments that don't generate a lot of new production.
Much as we seem to bemoan the Venture Capitalist, they are the ones plowing money directly back into society.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2015, @09:39PM
In another recent thread, you were speaking as if Capitalism is the -only- economic system to have ever existed.
You're still at it.
For [a factory] to [exist], someone had to have an awful lot of money
...or a bunch of somebodies (workers) could have pooled their resources and created their own workplace.
ask [...] my Government [to] create tax law to encourage using one's wealth to do stuff like this
Gov't gutting the tax base in favor of a tiny number of rich guys is abandoning THE MAJORITY.
It's a race to the bottom.
Govt's job is to organize efforts to do the most good for the greatest number of people.
If you're not going to do your fucking jobs and you instead fob that off on some distant exploiter of local labor and local resources, why do we need YOU?
Someone has to have both the ability and the means to do stuff like this
...like The Workers who actually get those jobs done??
In a properly-operating system, the city|state gov't would function in the interest of The Working Class (y'know, THE MAJORITY) and would make sure that those jobs / that infrastructure exist for the empowerment of the region.
That gov't would accomplish that goal by working directly with The Workers (instead of with some absentee landlord who doesn't give a shit about what happens to the region 5 years from now when he takes another sweetheart deal from another gov't and moves the factory there).
enraged rioters burn down a factory
...or, instead of allowing the elites to do things that disempower The Working Class, the Government of The People actually works for The People.
When the elites say "We're moving to China", the city|state gov't says "Fine--but the factory stays here. We're buying it under Eminent Domain and keeping our citizens employed and our tax base healthy."
whether the haves use their resources to build palaces for themselves or factories
...except that they don't do either these days.
Housing? They buy each other's EXISTING stuff at ever-inflated prices--pumping up prices in the broader real estate market with each turnover.
Those dollars may as well be chalk marks on the wall (or rubber penis extensions for the insecure little boys who obviously need those).
Apphole has $200B in excess cash.
How are they investing it? They aren't.
"Job creators"? Pffff.
So, what are they doing with all that spare cash?
They're buying back stock to further pump up the price of their stock for benefit of their majority stockholders (1 Percenters).
It's all completely artificial.
Even if you're comfortable with Capitalism as a concept, the current paradigm is NOT a healthy way to do it.
-- gewg_