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Only 1% of World's Population Grabbed 82% of all 2017 Wealth

posted by martyb on Saturday January 27 2018, @12:43PM   
from the I-got-mine!-And-Yours.-And-Yours.-Annnnnd-yours,-too. dept.

canopic jug writes:

The 1% grabbed 82% of all wealth created in 2017

More than $8 of every $10 of wealth created last year went to the richest 1%.

That's according to a new report from Oxfam International, which estimates that the bottom 50% of the world's population saw no increase in wealth.

Oxfam says the trend shows that the global economy is skewed in favor of the rich, rewarding wealth instead of work.

"The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International.

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Original Submission

• Re:the usual garbage Re:the usual garbage (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday January 27 2018, @11:52PM (1 child)

  by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Saturday January 27 2018, @11:52PM (#629221)

  First, why aren't they measuring income, a better measure of wealth creation? Just because you create wealth, doesn't mean that you keep it (such as paying for basic necessities).

  Wealth is the accumulation of assets beyond the costs required to sustain oneself. If you create 100k in income but it costs that much to sustain oneself over the same period, one is not accumulating wealth. The problem with excess wealth accumulation on the scale we have it today is manifested in two ways. One, by excess withholding of income from the laborers that worked to create the income in the first place. This essentially leaves the vast portion of productive society at, when compared to the wealth accumulators, a subsistence level in that continuing their standard of living requires continued labor producing wealth for the accumulators with only a portion of the fruits of their labors being returned to them as income. Two, by simply manipulating the wealth one has in a manner that creates no real product (and thus no real income for anyone) but still results in an increase in wealth. The second method is increasingly common and is destined to result in the sort of economic crash that hurts everyone. However, the truly productive members of society, the laborers, are usually hurt far worse.

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• Re:the usual garbage (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 28 2018, @03:16AM

  by khallow (3766) on Sunday January 28 2018, @03:16AM (#629306) Journal

  Two, by simply manipulating the wealth one has in a manner that creates no real product (and thus no real income for anyone) but still results in an increase in wealth.

  No real product and no real income for anyone? Then why are we counting it as wealth?

  Parent