According to recent research by Oxfam, the world’s richest 1% own more than the other 99%.
These staggering findings were published ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Oxfam also warned the ‘explosion in inequality’ is having a detrimental effect on the fight against global poverty.
The research by Oxfam, with data from Credit Suisse, concurs that the richest 1% have actually seen their share of the world’s wealth grow from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014.
Now, if things continue at this rate, that figure will be more than 50% in 2016. As things currently however, the global elite has an average wealth of $2.7million (£1.78million) per adult.
Whereas the other the 52% of global wealth, is almost all (46%) owned by the second tier of the richest people in the world population.
While 80% of the remaining 5.5% had an average wealth of $3,851 (£2,543) per adult – which is 1/700th of the average wealth of the 1%.
Ms Byanyima said: ‘Do we really want to live in a world where the one per cent own more than the rest of us combined?
‘The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.
‘In the past 12 months we have seen world leaders from President Obama to Christine Lagarde talk more about tackling extreme inequality, but we are still waiting for many of them to walk the walk.
‘The poor are hurt twice by rising inequality – they get a smaller share of the economic pie and because extreme inequality hurts growth, there is less pie to be shared around.’
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive Officer of EL Rothschild and chairman of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, who is speaking at a joint Oxfam-University of Oxford event on inequality, called on business leaders ‘to play their part’ in tackling extreme inequality.
She said: ‘Oxfam’s report is just the latest evidence that inequality has reached shocking extremes, and continues to grow.
‘It is time for the global leaders of modern capitalism, in addition to our politicians, to work to change the system to make it more inclusive, more equitable and more sustainable.’
Do you think Oxfam’s findings paint an accurate picture of the world’s wealth?
What do you think could be done to change this level of inequality?
Let us know your thoughts.
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