Global wealth is increasingly being concentrated among a small elite, with the richest 1% in the world increasing their share of total global wealth. If this trend continues, the wealthiest 1 percent will soon own more than the rest of the world’s population, according to a new report released by Oxfam.
As absurd as it sounds, the wealth of the world’s 80 richest individuals is now the same as that owned by the poorest 50 percent of the global population. This means, 3.5 billion people share between them the same amount of wealth as that of these extremely wealthy 80 people.
The report notes that in 2014, the richest 1% in the world owned 48% of global wealth, leaving just 52% to be shared between the other 99% of adults on the planet. Almost all of that 52% is owned by those included in the richest 20%, leaving just 5.5% for the remaining 80% of people in the world, the report states. If this trend continues of an increasing wealth share to the richest, the top 1% will have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent in just two years.
See the full Oxfam report HERE.
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