The world’s billionaires have more wealth than 4.6 billion people and the world’s richest 1% own more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people.
Those are the latest figures on global inequality from a report released on Monday ahead of an annual meeting of global elites in the mountain resort of Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, Euronews reports.
As at least some of the world’s 2,153 billionaires rub noses at the World Economic Forum this week, others will be working to communicate another message: the complicity of the global elite in wealth inequality.
The report by the international aid organisation Oxfam states that the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade.
“Our broken economies are lining the pockets of billionaires and big business at the expense of ordinary men and women. No wonder people are starting to question whether billionaires should even exist,” said Amitabh Behar, the CEO of Oxfam India who will be present at Davos.
“[Inequality is at the] heart of fractures and social conflicts all over the world, and no one is fooled,” said Pauline Leclère, Oxfam France’s senior campaigner for tax justice and inequalities.
“Inequality is not someone’s fate. It is the result of social and fiscal policy that reduces the participation of the wealthy [through taxes] and weakens funding for public services.”
Leclère said this is the message that Oxfam will be trying to deliver at Davos.
The non-profit organisation has released an annual report ahead of the famous economic meeting to address mounting inequality since 2014.
