World's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%

[Shadows]

The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population, according to a charity warning of an ever-increasing and dangerous concentration of wealth.

In a report published to coincide with the start of the week-long World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam said it was “beyond grotesque” that a handful of rich men headed by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates are worth $426bn (£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people.

Oxfam blamed rising inequality on aggressive wage restraint, tax dodging and the squeezing of producers by companies, adding that businesses were too focused on delivering ever-higher returns to wealthy owners and top executives.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) said last week that rising inequality and social polarisation posed two of the biggest risks to the global economy in 2017 and could result in the rolling back of globalisation.

Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: “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.”

Oxfam called for fundamental change to ensure that economies worked for everyone, not just “a privileged few”.

Source - Guardian/NY Times

[Intell]

Capitalism is right!
Capitalism is moral!
Capitalism is just!

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Capitalism is right!
Capitalism is moral!
Capitalism is just!

Indeed.

50% of the planet is just lazy, needs to pick themselves by the bootstraps, and stop looking for handouts.

/sarcasm

[Intell]

Capitalism is right!
Capitalism is moral!
Capitalism is just!

Indeed.

50% of the planet is just lazy, needs to pick themselves by the bootstraps, and stop looking for handouts.

/sarcasm

Well Of course, they'd rather die from being poor, than actually go out and get a job!.

[JA]

Capitalism is right!
Capitalism is moral!
Capitalism is just!

Indeed.

50% of the planet is just lazy, needs to pick themselves by the bootstraps, and stop looking for handouts.

/sarcasm

Well Of course, they'd rather die from being poor, than actually go out and get a job!.

Don't forget this is primarily because we don't have true free market capitalism. If the governments would get out of the way of business and stop promoting entitlement through welfare, then even Ethiopians would be rich!

[Antonio the Sixth]

[RINO Tom]

Nice, reasonable conclusion, guys.  The answer is that capitalism has gotta go!!

[Intell]

Nice, reasonable conclusion, guys.  The answer is that capitalism has gotta go!!

Capitalism as of how it's structured now, has to be gone, and the anti-social natures of capitalism needs to get rid it's self through socialist values in a society and social democracy.

[Bismarck]

Poverty is a huge problem and we should work to alleviate it as much as possible. In terms of wealth disparity however, who cares? Bill Gates being a billionaire doesn't affect the living standards of other people. If the government came and took Gate's fortune it would hurt that bottom 50%, a group that Gates invests billions in helping every year.

[Santander]

Inequality is good. The only problem is that the wealth is largely in the hands of the bourgeoisie and not in the rightful hands of monarchs and landed nobility.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Nice, reasonable conclusion, guys.  The answer is that capitalism has gotta go!!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Nice, reasonable conclusion, guys.  The answer is that capitalism has gotta go!!

It's clear that something about capitalism has gotta go. We can debate on what exactly.

[Bismarck]

Nice, reasonable conclusion, guys.  The answer is that capitalism has gotta go!!

It's clear that something about capitalism has gotta go. We can debate on what exactly.

I don't think anything about capitalism "Needs to go". We have a mixed economy and can debate the merits and limits of redistribution, taxation levels, and regulation, but he capitalist framework works.

[Hermit For Peace]

The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population, according to a charity warning of an ever-increasing and dangerous concentration of wealth.

In a report published to coincide with the start of the week-long World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam said it was “beyond grotesque” that a handful of rich men headed by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates are worth $426bn (£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people.

Oxfam blamed rising inequality on aggressive wage restraint, tax dodging and the squeezing of producers by companies, adding that businesses were too focused on delivering ever-higher returns to wealthy owners and top executives.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) said last week that rising inequality and social polarisation posed two of the biggest risks to the global economy in 2017 and could result in the rolling back of globalisation.

Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: “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.”

Oxfam called for fundamental change to ensure that economies worked for everyone, not just “a privileged few”.

Source - Guardian/NY Times

This is the important part. They aren't advocating for taking away from the rich and passing it around to the more needy. They are saying that we need to change the way our economy works so that everyone gets a chance to prosper.

Not all of us are created equal in terms of brain power, talents, strengths, desires, goals, dreams, opportunity.... It's not that people are lazy. Most people take pride in what they do. But most of us aren't geared toward being Bill Gates or Warren Buffet types. Everyone has something valuable to contribute and deserves a chance to operate on a more level playing field.
 

[Intell]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

No, they're living in third world countries, run by a rich (capitalist) elite. You can blame politicians, for allowing this to happen, yes.

[Goldwater]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

No, they're living in third world countries, run by a rich (capitalist) elite.

Don't you support protectionism and heave immigration restrictions? Because those things would make it even harder for people in poor countries to get out of poverty.

[Intell]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

No, they're living in third world conturies, run by a rich elite.

Let me ask you a question. Who should be blamed for the sorry state of those countries? Bill Gates? No, you could distribute all of the money of all of the richest people in the world to these 3.6 billion, and it would hardly make a dent. Also, they would end up spending it within a few months, since they have to spend all of their income on life needs.

The problem is their governments, their culture and their lack of technology.

Bill Gates, of course cannot be blamed. The anti-social natures, and the negative consequences of a capitalistic economy that allows the 8 richest people to have the same wealth as the poorest 50% as a problem. If the wealth of the richest people, were used to aid people, counturies, infrastructure, national development in Africa and Asia, it would help a great deal, it would more than just a dent.

[Intell]

Let me make this perfectly clear: of the jobs available in those countries, the Western-owned sweatshops are the best that the vast majority of population is skilled enough to do. In fact, if the Western companies packed up and moved back here, it would devastate those third world economies, while only moderately hurting Wal Mart, Apple, etc.

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

No, they're living in third world conturies, run by a rich elite.

Let me ask you a question. Who should be blamed for the sorry state of those countries? Bill Gates? No, you could distribute all of the money of all of the richest people in the world to these 3.6 billion, and it would hardly make a dent. Also, they would end up spending it within a few months, since they have to spend all of their income on life needs.

The problem is their governments, their culture and their lack of technology.

Bill Gates, of course cannot be blamed. The anti-social natures, and the negative consequences of a capitalistic economy that allows the 8 richest people to have the same wealth as the poorest 50% as a problem.

But are the economies of Vietnam, China, and most African countries even truly capitalist? Aren't there huge restrictions, corruption, and regulations that make it impossible for people to make new businesses? Isn't it basically a monopoly?

If the wealth of the richest people, were used to aid people, counturies, infrastructure, national development in Africa and Asia, it would help a great deal, it would more than just a dent.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't add up:

$450 billion/3.6 billion= $125 per person.

Also, which is better, aid or investment? Aid gets eaten up by shoddy merchandise, pocketing by local officials, and other assorted graft. Investment creates new rounds of spending that makes everyone a bit richer.

$ 125 per person is a lot, if you don't know? Investment is better then ok? Invest the wealth of rich people, in poor countries.

Many third world countries operate under a free-market capitalist economy, with little regulation on business. Other conturies, are capitalist, not free-market, but capitalist, in the sense is that there's private property, and business, that are allowed to run free, while regulations are used to keep wealth in the power of the elite aristocracy/burgoise, this is also capitalism.

[Xing]

That's the world we live in. It's not that hard to get ahead, just be born into a wealthy family in a first world country! If you don't, well, you're just lazy and you want a free handout.

[Intell]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

No, they're living in third world countries, run by a rich (capitalist) elite.

Don't you support protectionism and heave immigration restrictions? Because those things would make it even harder for people in poor countries to get out of poverty.

I do not believe that free trade helps the poor people of the country, it rather keeps a group of poor people "down", while upper poor people move up.

I believe that free trade, does not fix the root of the problem and strengthens the elite in those countries, with trans-national corporations, from other countries, exploiting the countries resources in conjunction with the government elite of those countries, getting rich, while natural resources and workers get exploited, to benefit the rich and capitalist elite of trans-national corporations and the local aristocratic elite..

Immigration Restrictions, I believe also do not solve the root of the problem, making the poor of the first world even poorer.

[Intell]

Ok, so my point is, the best thing would be to knock down the corruption, elect better politicians, try and keep kids in school for as long as possible, and take away some of the red tape. If you do all of these things, and don't do idiotic stuff like let inflation go wild, it will get a lot of people out of derelict poverty.

Can you get rid of corruption, when the corruption is done by the rich capitalistic/aristocratic elite in those countries, without changing the system in itself?

[Intell]

Ok, so my point is, the best thing would be to knock down the corruption, elect better politicians, try and keep kids in school for as long as possible, and take away some of the red tape. If you do all of these things, and don't do idiotic stuff like let inflation go wild, it will get a lot of people out of derelict poverty.

Can you get rid of corruption, when the corruption is done by the rich capitalistic/aristocratic elite in those countries, without changing the system in itself?

Maybe they should institute programs like civil service exams, and try and establish an actual justice system? I don't think anyone believes that capitalists should be able to break the law. Competition is within certain guidelines. It took a long time to defeat corruption in the West, and yet now it's been reduced. I don't see why that can't be the same for the East.

Of Course, but the third-world has been the "third world" because of exploitation from foreign countries, and support for such exploitation by the aristocratic/capitalistic elite of such a country. To fix such a situation one needs to critique the nature of capitalism (not only reform it), get power away from the burgoise and the elite (get rid of the anti-social natures of capitalism), and reform the country, to have a socialist aspect with still some sense of capitalism and markets under strong social(ist) provisions, equality in terms of economic and social power between it's citizens, a strung public sector to help it's citizens, coming with with regulated private business, that still allows for the development of small business, but does not alow the capitalistic and economic elite to reign free.

[Bismarck]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

Also, you do realize that most of the people grouped in that top 50% have little education, because they drop out of school to work on a subsistence farm, and so have no opportunity to obtain a job they would be able to accumulate savings?

Excellent post. You are my new favorite forum dem.

[Santander]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

Also, you do realize that most of the people grouped in that top 50% have little education, because they drop out of school to work on a subsistence farm, and so have no opportunity to obtain a job they would be able to accumulate savings?

Excellent post. You are my new favorite forum dem.

That signature though...  "excess profits"

[RINO Tom]

Uh... am I missing something in this thread? Most of the poorest 50% of the planet are not living in first world capitalist countries, but in fake socialist economies where corruption and nepotism rule the roost. In which Western capitalist country does the average person have $118 worth of savings? Maybe we should blame the idiotic politicians in most of these countries, instead of rich people?

Also, you do realize that most of the people grouped in that top 50% have little education, because they drop out of school to work on a subsistence farm, and so have no opportunity to obtain a job they would be able to accumulate savings?

Excellent post. You are my new favorite forum dem.

That signature though...  "excess profits"

Not sure what an excess profit is, much less what genius gets to decide the cutoff.