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posted by on Tuesday January 17 2017, @10:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the 16-tons-and-what-do-you-get? dept.

An Oxfam report claims that the world's eight richest billionaires control an amount of wealth equivalent to that of the world's 50% poorest people. That's a dramatic decline from the 62 billionaires estimated in the previous year's report:

In a report published to coincide with the start of the week-long World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam said it was "beyond grotesque" that a handful of rich men headed by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates are worth $426bn (£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people.

[...] Oxfam said the world's poorest 50% owned the same in assets as the $426bn owned by a group headed by Gates, Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Spanish fashion chain Zara, and Warren Buffett, the renowned investor and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway. The others are Carlos Slim Helú: the Mexican telecoms tycoon and owner of conglomerate Grupo Carso; Jeff Bezos: the founder of Amazon; Mark Zuckerberg: the founder of Facebook; Larry Ellison, chief executive of US tech firm Oracle; and Michael Bloomberg; a former mayor of New York and founder and owner of the Bloomberg news and financial information service.

NextBigFuture points out that Oxfam's numbers are skewed by indebtedness.

The Business and Sustainable Development Commission has released a report calling for... sustainable development ahead of the World Economic Forum (from Jan. 17th-20th in Davos, Switzerland):

"Those losing out either economically or environmentally, such as the citizens of smog-choked Asian cities, or socially, through the breakdown of traditional rural communities, are asking whether the costs of our global economy are greater than its benefits," the commission said.

The group's report is a call to action: Corporate leaders must quickly change the way they do business in order to rebuild trust between industry and wider society. Members of the group include Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Mars CEO Grant Reid and Paul Polman, the CEO of Unilever. "We believe radical action is needed," the group said. If businesses need convincing, there's even a monetary incentive: The commission estimates there's $12 trillion to be made in extra growth and savings from sustainable development by 2030. Sectors that could benefit include heath care, clean energy and urban infrastructure.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @05:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @05:34PM (#455538)

    Sterilize the bottom 50%. Check whether the wealthiest 8 people have the same wealth as the poorest 8 people. If not, repeat the process.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:01AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:01AM (#455892)

    Well obviously... You blame the people instead of the system. But sure, because they

    * chose their parents poorly
    * chose their geographical location poorly
    * chose their bad luck in life

    Instead of admitting that in a rigged system like ours you're bound to have a few super rich and billions of people living in absolutely horrid conditions.