You probably didn’t see it. It was a small article in the January 16, 2017 issue of the Post-Dispatch. Half a column. About three inches deep. Back pages. But I suggest you sit down before reading further.
OXFAM released a report in January 2017 on income inequality. They report that eight individuals own half of the planet’s wealth. You read that correctly. Eight. You could put the people who have half of the word’s wealth on an airport parking shuttle and not begin to crowd it.
The Planetary Eight are:
1. Bill Gates
2. Amancio Ortega
3. Warren Buttet
4. Carlos Slim Helu
5. Jeff Bezos
6. Mark Zuckerberg
7. Larry Ellison
8. Michael Bloomberg
Rounding out the Planetary Twenty are:
9-10. Charles Koch, David Koch (tie)
11. Liliane Bettencort
12. Larry Page
13. Sergey Brin
14. Bernard Arnault
15. Jim Walton
16. Alice Walton
17. S. Robson Walton
18. Wang Jianlin
19. Jorge Paulo Lemann
20. Li Ka-shing
You could put the Top 20 on that airport parking shuttle and no one would have to stand up for the ride.
The report lists some other facts that put income inequality into perspective.
- Over the next 20 years, 500 people will hand over $2.1 trillion to their heirs. That is more than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people.
- In the United States research by economist Thomas Piketty indicates that the income of the bottom 50% of Americans has experienced zero growth over the last 30 years. In the same period the incomes of the top 1% have grown 300%.
- Together, the world’s 10 biggest corporations have more revenue than the government revenue of 180 countries combined.
- Of the 1,810 billionaires on the 2016 Forbes list 89% are men and they control $6.5 trillion – as much wealth as the bottom 70% of humanity.
- OXFAM’s analysis of the 2016 Forbes list found that one-third of the world’s wealth is derived from inherited wealth and 43% is linked to cronyism.
Even with ultra-wealthy individuals like Bill Gates and Warren Butfet who attempt to give their wealth away to benefit humanity, the tide of inequality is swelling. It may be impossible for someone like a Gates or Buffet to give away money faster than they are accruing it.
Inequality and all of the problems that attend it threaten both American and world security. Six of The Planetary Eight are American. Twelve of The Planetary Twenty are American. Alongside global climate change, if this issue is not addressed and resolved within the next decade the effects on the global economy, global politics, and global infrastructure will be cataclysmic.
I have no idea what the solution might be. Creating a system other than corporate capitalism to account for value and to distribute wealth might be a start, but I don’t know what that would look like or how it would or could be implemented. Taxing the ultra-wealthy at very high rates would be a start. Whatever must come, please think and talk about it soon.
You can read the OXFAM report at:
Just 8 people now have the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion
Submitted by Mike Pfeifer, WCD Member