by digby
And people wonder why the world feels so unstable right now:
Billionaires and politicians gathering in Switzerland this week will come under pressure to tackle rising inequality after a study found that – on current trends – by next year, 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%.
Ahead of this week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the ski resort of Davos, the anti-poverty charity Oxfam said it would use its high-profile role at the gathering to demand urgent action to narrow the gap between rich and poor.
The charity’s research, published on Monday, shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1% has increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014, while the least well-off 80% currently own just 5.5%.
Oxfam added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016.
Unfortunately, far too many of the 99% in Western democracies would rather attribute their troubles to those who are below them on the social and economic ladder. It seems to be a common characteristic of human nature. And it plays right into the hands of those who are so greedy that they have to have every last penny they can lay their hands on.
Oxfam made headlines at Davos last year with a study showing that the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people). The charity said this year that the comparison was now even more stark, with just 80 people owning the same amount of wealth as more than 3.5 billion people, down from 388 in 2010.
That is sickening. And morally incomprehensible.
Check out this BBC documentary about the Super rich if you want to see just how deluded they are about their "contribution" to society. It's worth a couple of hours if you have the time:
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