Study: 8 people have same wealth as world's poorest half

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: USA Today

Eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world. A top corporate CEO earns as much in a year as 10,000 garment factory workers in Bangladesh. And the world's 10 biggest corporations together have revenue greater than the 180 poorest countries combined, according to a study published Sunday by Oxfam.

The report, An economy for the 99%, was released as global leaders and the business elite traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, a conference partly aimed at eliminating extreme income inequality. The study found that the richest eight people on the planet have net wealth of $426 billion — equivalent to what's held by the bottom half of the world's population.

"From Nigeria to Bangladesh, from the U.K. to Brazil, people are fed up with feeling ignored by their political leaders, and millions are mobilizing to push for change," British-based Oxfam said in a statement. "Seven out of 10 people live in a country that has seen a rise in inequality in the last 30 years."

The study is the latest in recent years by Oxfam, an international poverty-fighting group, to campaign for ways to reduce the growing gap between the rich and poor. Oxfam called on President-elect Donald Trump, world leaders and the international business community to "take urgent action to reduce inequality and the extreme concentration of wealth by ensuring that workers are paid a decent (salary) and by increasing taxes on both wealth and high incomes."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/01/15/global-inequality-oxfam-report/96545438/

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During the Bush years, they were known as the haves and have-mores.

[dalton99a]

1. Truly obscene and getting worse by the day.

[cstanleytech]

10. This is not the first time its happened though and it won't be the last, look at what happened in

France a few hundred years ago? If history fully repeats itself in cycles then it might mean another French style revolution though I suspect alot of the wealthy wont like the personal outcome if its exactly like the French style one.

[milestogo]

2. Disgusting.

[UpInArms]

3. the travesty of unregulated capitalism

continues to destroy our planet

and humanity's future

[Skeeter Barnes]

18. It is our national religion and it will eventually kill most of us.

[bekkilyn]

4. It's not right

While I do believe that people should be rewarded for their work, no one's work is worth that much more than someone else's. If people are going to have obscene wealth like this (far far far far more than what any person needs or could use in one lifetime), then everyone in the world needs to have the basic life necessities at *minimum*. There should be no poverty or homelessness at *all*.

[madokie]

5. I agree 100percent

[mpcamb]

8. If you've got a pantload of money, you made it off someone else's back.

That's Economics 101.

[burrowowl]

6. And the U$ofA

has a slightly worst distribution of wealth than Mexico.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!

[kacekwl]

7. Just the trickle down

working as designed.

[Cryptoad]

9. WE are leading the Charge,,,,,,

Corporate Socialism, Oligarchy

Who Rules America
Wealth, Income, and Power
by G. William Domhoff

This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators. The most striking numbers on income inequality will come last, showing the dramatic change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.

[JackRiddler]

11. Who are the eight?

"That means the eight men who have as much wealth as the world's poorest half — 3.6 billion people — are Bill Gates ($75 billion, source of wealth Microsoft); Amancio Ortega ($67 billion, Zara); Warren Buffett ($60.8 billion, Berkshire Hathaway); Carlos Slim Helu ($50 billion, Telecom); Jeff Bezos ($45.2 billion, Amazon); Mark Zuckerberg ($44.6 billion, Facebook); Larry Ellison ($43.6 billion, Oracle); and Michael Bloomberg ($40 billion, Bloomberg LP)"

6 based in U.S., 2 in Latin America. Notice despite the wealth amassed in Europe, none of them are from there.

[Crepuscular]

19. Ortega

Amancio Ortega is from Spain, not from Latin America. He owns Zara and Inditex and is the wealthiest individual in Europe.

[JackRiddler]

26. Thanks for the correction.

He's also the one I hadn't heard of, so it was on me to look him up. Mea culpa.

[Midnight Writer]

12. The pie is not growing. Only the pieces are changing shape.

[AngryAmish]

13. NY Times, Washington Post and Bloomberg

We need a new media not owned and bent to the will of the richest men on earth.

Think Russia Today is bad?

[EarthFirst]

14. Eight.

Eight MEN.

[TomCADem]

15. Trump: Lets Fight This By Eliminating Estate Tax!

Also, cutting the ACA tax, and other progressive rate taxes.

[MosheFeingold]

16. None of these are but a flea bite to them

Some sort of wealth tax (e.g., a property tax) is the only kind of tax that actually hits the ultra wealthy.

Progressive income taxes are really not all that "progressive." They hit high income people, not actual rich people.

Rich people don't have "income" as defined by the IRS.

[TomCADem]

17. Estate Tax is a wealth tax

Nt

[MosheFeingold]

20. Sure

I should have been more clear. Yes, an estate tax is a wealth tax, but it is EASILY avoided with trusts and a little clever lawyering and planning.

Income tax could easily be flat if you couple it with sales tax and perhaps federal property taxes (including on intangible personal property).

[TomCADem]

21. Who wins if Trump repeals the estate tax

At that 18.8 percent effective rate, repealing the tax would be a large windfall to the leaders-in-waiting of the Trump administration. Trump’s estate would save $564 million, based on his estimated net worth of $3 billion.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/21/who-wins-if-trump-repeals-the-estate-tax.html

House Ways & Means chairman on Trump's tax plan House Ways & Means chairman on Trump's tax plan
Monday, 21 Nov 2016 | 4:18 PM ET | 05:05
Donald Trump rallied the working class during his campaign, but he also championed one benefit favoring mostly the super-rich: eliminating the federal estate tax.

It's one part of the president-elect's overall tax plan that he has been particularly specific about. In conjunction with a repeal of the estate tax, he has proposed taxing capital gains on assets upon the owner's death, with exemptions for small businesses and family farms on the first $10 million.

"It ends the death tax," Trump said in September. "It's a double taxation, a lot of families go through hell over the death tax."

"I look forward to working with President-elect Trump on legislation to permanently bury the death tax once and for all," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in an email to CNBC. Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee in the House and is where tax legislation generally originates.

[MosheFeingold]

22. Nah

It will be the "merely rich" -- low millionaires who don't financially plan like that.

All the super rich billionaires have it taken care of.

[TomCADem]

23. So, Trump and Company are Pushing This For Egalitarian Reasons?

How charitable of them.

[MosheFeingold]

25. Where do you get that?

They want it because their voters want it.

[Bradical79]

24. The Republican approach to solving this problem:

Second time I've used this gif today. Seemed appropriate though.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. Maybe we need to have a wealth tax

Some countries have it for high net worth individuals and we definitely need to have an estate tax. Our country has no business encouraging dynasties at the expense of the 99%.