Global inequality has reached unprecedented levels of disparity, with the richest eight billionaires holding the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent globally.
The recently released report from Oxfam condemned the dangerous levels of inequality across the globe, calling for a new economic model to be implemented to counteract these worrisome trends. The charity’s report shows the world’s richest own $426 billion (£350 billion) of global equity, which proved equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people collectively. The “dangerous” levels of inequality were labelled by the report as “beyond grotesque” and in need of immediate remedying.
In particular, the charity emphasised the harmful effect of wage restraints, tax evasion and the dominance of global corporations in the world economy. It noted that these tendencies and the prevalence of continual inequality had ultimately led to the rise in populist sentiment globally causing the rise of Trump and Brexit.
Indeed, President-elect Trump, known for his international businesses, was the subject of controversy during last years presidential campaign over his own alleged tax evasion during the course of his career.
The reported noted: “From Brexit to the success of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a worrying rise in racism and the widespread disillusionment with mainstream politics, there are increasing signs that more and more people in rich countries are no longer willing to tolerate the status quo.”.
Mark Goldring, chief executive of the British division of Oxfam, added: “This year’s snapshot of inequality is clearer, more accurate and more shocking than ever before. It is beyond grotesque that a group of men who could easily fit in a single golf buggy own more than the poorest half of humanity.
“While one in nine people on the planet will go to bed hungry tonight, a small handful of billionaires have so much wealth they would need several lifetimes to spend it. The fact that a super-rich elite are able to prosper at the expense of the rest of us at home and overseas shows how warped our economy has become.” He said.
The report follows a similar set of findings from the World Economic Forum (WEF), which last week highlighted inequality and increased parochialist sentiment within nations as two of the most significant threats to the health of the global economy in 2017.