62 People Own Majority of World’s Wealth & What We Can Do About It

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62 People Own Majority of World’s Wealth & What We Can Do About It

January 19th, 2016

Awake Goy

Susanne.Posel-Headline.News.Official- wealth.gap.credit.suisse.oxfam.62.people.02_occupycorporatism Susanne Posel, Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Co-Founder, Legacy Bio-Naturals

There are just 62 individuals that have in their hands, as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity combined. The shocker is that back in 2011, this wealth was shared among 388 people.

The wealth of the wealthiest 62 people has risen by 44%, or $1.76 trillion, while the rest of the world’s wealth has dropped by 41% in that same time period.

This widening of the inequality gap “is no longer seen as an unfortunate consequence of economic growth” and economists are pointing to the fact that this disproportionality “actually slows down growth”.

And in some cases, like in the Middle East, wealth inequality is fueling conflict and instability.

wealth.gap.oxfam.62.people.01_occupycorporatism But on the stock market, the gap become clear. Stocks have risen which equals bigger returns for investors; however the majority of workers do not get cash from stocks, but from paychecks.

Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Berkley (UCB), has offered suggestions on reigning in the economy and the wealthiest 1% of the world.

Zucman explained that “at the heart of these extreme wealth disparities are tax havens, which enable wealthy individuals and large corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, depriving governments the resources they need to provide public services and tackle rising inequality.”

A majority of the wealth hidden in tax havens are contributed by individuals “with at least $50 million who are illegally evading taxes.”

This causes 2 problems:

Available inequality statistics substantially understate the true degree of global wealth concentration since these stats don’t include money that is hidden into tax havens
The low effective tax rate on capital at the top-end of the wealth pyramid exacerbates the cycle of inequality the world is trying to end

Added to this mix are multi-national corporations that use tax havens.

When it comes to wealth inequality, there are skeptics such as journalist Tim Wrostall, who wrote an op-ed piece , explaining that it is “net concept” that has been blown out of proportion.

Wrostall wrote that this seemingly unequal financial gap is really “a side effect of the fact that we have efficient financial markets in the rich countries.”

By taking figures from Oxfam’s report, Wrostall shows that “30% of the world’s poorest people when measured by wealth are actually in the rich countries of Europe and North America … because these are the parts of the world where it is possible for people with no assets to borrow money.”