A new study published by Oxfam states that 1% of the world’s population controls about 50% of planet Earth’s wealth.  This study was published just before the upcoming World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, beginning January 22nd, 2014.

STUDY FINDINGS:

• Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.

• The wealth of the one percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion.
That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population.

• The bottom half of the world’s population owns the same as the richest 85 people in
the world.

• Seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in
the last 30 years.

• The richest one percent increased their share of income in 24 out of 26 countries for
which we have data between 1980 and 2012.

• In the US, the wealthiest one percent captured 95 percent of post-financial crisis
growth since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer.

In September, a University of California, Berkeley study found that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans saw their incomes grow by 31.4 percent over the period 2009 to 2012, while the other 99 percent experienced just 0.4 percent growth. Last month, the Pew Research Center published a study that found income inequality in the U.S. was at its highest since 1928, the year before the start of the Great Depression. – NPR

“Oxfam is concerned that, left unchecked, the effects are potentially immutable, and will lead to ‘opportunity capture’ — in which the lowest tax rates, the best education, and the best healthcare are claimed by the children of the rich.  This creates dynamic and mutually reinforcing cycles of advantage that are transmitted across generations.” – Oxfam