The richest 1% own more than 99% of world's population

The richest 1% own more than 99% of world's population
By Everton Gayle
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The super rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, according to a report by international aid charity Oxfam. The richest one percent

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The super rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, according to a pre-Davos report by international aid charity Oxfam.

The richest one percent own more than the other 99 percent put together.

The charity says that world leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action.

“The world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating,” Oxfam International’s executive director, Winnie Byanima, said.

“We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top,” Byanima added.

The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 percent since 2010, while that of the poorest fell by a corresponding figure, the international charity says.

94% of world’s 201 largest co's have presence in tax havens. Time to #EvenItUp#endtaxhavenshttps://t.co/0QcuB7kzXcpic.twitter.com/UJ44PqRNOd

— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) January 18, 2016

About $7.6 trillion of individuals’ wealth sits in offshore tax havens, and if tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year, Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, has estimated.

The report claims that as much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year.

This is enough to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million children’s lives a year,

Almost half the super-rich individuals are from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico

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