New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Economic inequality has reached extreme levels according to a 140 page Oxfam report (pdf). According to the charity, the number of billionaires (US$) worldwide totaled 1,645 people by March 2014 – up from 793 billionaires in March 2009.
In the period of a year from March 2013 to March 2014 their wealth rose again by a further 14 percent, or $244bn.153 This equates to a $668m-a-day increase.
Oxfam calculated the length of time it would take the world’s richest people to spend their wealth. For Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, it would take 220 years for him to spend his $80bn fortune at a rate of $1m per day.
Highlights from the study include:
- Homicide rates are almost four times higher in countries with extreme economic inequality than in more equal nations.
- In South Africa, inequality is greater today than at the end of Apartheid.
- 85 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity.
- Women are worst affected by market fundamentalist policies. They lose out
most when labour regulations are watered down - Brazil’s minimum wage rose by nearly 50 percent in real terms
between 1995 and 2011, contributing to a parallel decline in poverty and
inequality. Countries such as Ecuador and China have also deliberately
increased wages.
Oxfam’s report, endorsed by Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England also analyses a tax of 1.5% on all the world’s billionaires. It found that if all the billionaires in the world were to be taxed at 1.5% (on wealth over $1bn, as of 2014) it could raise $74bn, or as the charity put it, “enough money to fill the annual gaps in funding needed to get every child into school and to deliver health services in the world’s poorest countries”.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in HedgeCo.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
