Oxfam published an analysis of the world’s wealth. The data showed that the world’s billionaires have more than 4.6 billion people–about 60% of the world’s population. The billionaire count is just over two thousand.
Paul O’Brien, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Oxfam America, said, “Another year, another indication that the inequality crisis is spiralling out of control. And despite repeated warnings about inequality, governments have not reversed its course,” To make the point more exact, the organization reported that the 22 richest people in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa. Given the poverty of the continent, this is not surprising.
Among the Oxfam suggestions for policy change are much higher taxes on the wealthy. This money could be invested in the creation of tens of millions of jobs. This supposes governments are efficient enough to redistribute wealth, which may well not be the case.
Much of the blame Oxfam management says, is governments in sexist countries which keep women in jobs much less likely to pay as well as jobs for men–if they pay women all.
The report on the data, Time To Care, was published to coincide with the World Economic Forum.
The study’s highlights:
In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, have more wealth than 4.6 billion
people.
• The 22 richest men have more wealth than all the women in Africa.
• The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.
• If you saved $10,000 a day since the building of the pyramids in Egypt you would
have one-fifth the average fortune of the 5 richest billionaires.
• If everyone were to sit on their wealth piled up in $100 bills, most of humanity would
be sitting on the floor. A middle-class person in a rich country would be sitting at the
height of a chair. The world’s two richest men would be sitting in outer space.
• The monetary value of women’s unpaid care work globally for women aged 15 and over
is at least $10.8 trillion annually – three times the size of the world’s tech industry.
• Taxing an additional 0.5% of the wealth of the richest 1% over the next 10 years is
equal to investments needed to create 117 million jobs in education, health and
elderly care and other sectors, and to close care deficits.
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