{"id":105521,"date":"2018-01-29T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=105521"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:59:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:59:21","slug":"richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-of-wealth-created-last-year-poorest-half-of-humanity-got-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/01\/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-of-wealth-created-last-year-poorest-half-of-humanity-got-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Richest 1 Percent Bagged 82 Percent of Wealth Created Last Year &#8211; Poorest Half of Humanity Got Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>22 Jan 2018 &#8211; <\/em>Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today.\u00a0 The report is being launched as political and business elites gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/paraisopolis2008-700-oxfam-inequality.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-105522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/paraisopolis2008-700-oxfam-inequality.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/paraisopolis2008-700-oxfam-inequality.jpg 548w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/paraisopolis2008-700-oxfam-inequality-300x96.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfam.org\/en\/research\/reward-work-not-wealth\" >Reward Work, Not Wealth<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 reveals how the global economy enables a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes while hundreds of millions of people are struggling to survive on poverty pay.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Billionaire wealth has risen<\/strong> by an annual average of 13 percent since 2010 \u2013 six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2 percent. The number of billionaires rose at an unprecedented rate of one every two days between March 2016 and March 2017.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It takes just four days <\/strong>for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime. In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It would cost $2.2 billion a year <\/strong>to increase the wages of all 2.5 million Vietnamese garment workers to a living wage. This is about a third of the amount paid out to wealthy shareholders by the top 5 companies in the garment sector in 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oxfam\u2019s report outlines the key factors driving up rewards for shareholders and corporate bosses at the expense of workers\u2019 pay and conditions. These include the erosion of workers\u2019 rights; the excessive influence of big business over government policy-making; and the relentless corporate drive to minimize costs in order to maximize returns to shareholders.<\/p>\n<p>Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International said: \u201cThe billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system. The people who make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food are being exploited to ensure a steady supply of cheap goods, and swell the profits of corporations and billionaire investors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Women workers often find themselves off at the bottom of the heap. Across the world, women consistently earn less than men and are usually in the lowest paid and least secure forms of work. By comparison, 9 out of 10 billionaires are men.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOxfam has spoken to women across the world whose lives are blighted by inequality. Women in Vietnamese garment factories who work far from home for poverty pay and don\u2019t get to see their children for months at a time. Women working in the US poultry industry who are forced to wear nappies because they are denied toilet breaks,\u201d said Byanyima.<\/p>\n<p>Oxfam is calling for governments to ensure our economies work for everyone and not just the fortunate few:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Limit returns to shareholders and top executives, and ensure all workers receive a minimum \u2018living\u2019 wage that would enable them to have a decent quality of life. For example, in Nigeria, the legal minimum wage would need to be tripled to ensure decent living standards.<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate the gender pay gap and protect the rights of women workers. At current rates of change, it will take 217 years to close the gap in pay and employment opportunities between women and men.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure the wealthy pay their fair share of tax through higher taxes and a crackdown on tax avoidance, and increase spending on public services such as healthcare and education. Oxfam estimates a global tax of 1.5 percent on billionaires\u2019 wealth could pay for every child to go to school.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Results of a new global survey commissioned by Oxfam demonstrates a groundswell of support for action on inequality. Of the 70,000 people surveyed in 10 countries, nearly two-thirds of all respondents think the gap between the rich and the poor needs to be urgently addressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a political or business leader who doesn\u2019t say they are worried about inequality. It\u2019s even harder to find one who is doing something about it.\u00a0 Many are actively making things worse by slashing taxes and scrapping labor rights,\u201d said Byanyima.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are ready for change. They want to see workers paid a living wage; they want corporations and the super-rich to pay more tax; they want women workers to enjoy the same rights as men; they want a limit on the power and the wealth which sits in the hands of so few. They want action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Notes to editors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Download <strong>\u2018<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfam.org\/en\/research\/reward-work-not-wealth\" >Reward Work, Not Wealth<\/a>\u2019<\/strong> and a methodology document that outlines how Oxfam arrived at the key statistics in the report.<\/p>\n<p>Broadcast quality footage and photographs are available <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/wordsandpictures.oxfam.org.uk\/?c=34775&amp;k=ae837a41d2\" >here<\/a> featuring Lan, who works in a garment factory in Vietnam, supplying many global fashion brands. Long hours and poverty pay mean Lan has not been able to get home to see her son for 9 months.<\/p>\n<p>New data from <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.credit-suisse.com\/corporate\/en\/research\/research-institute\/global-wealth-report.html\" >Credit Suisse<\/a><\/strong> reveals that 42 people now own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity. This figure cannot be compared to figures from previous years &#8211; including the 2016\/17 statistic that eight men owned the same wealth as half the world &#8211; because it is based on an updated and expanded data set published by Credit Suisse in November 2017.\u00a0 When Oxfam recalculated last year\u2019s figures using the latest data we found that 61 people owned the same wealth as half the world in 2016 \u2013 and not eight.<\/p>\n<p>Oxfam\u2019s calculations are based on global wealth distribution data provided by the <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.credit-suisse.com\/corporate\/en\/research\/research-institute\/global-wealth-report.html\" >Credit Suisse Global Wealth Data<\/a><\/strong> book published in November 2017.\u00a0 The wealth of billionaires was calculated using Forbes&#8217; billionaires list last published in March 2017.<\/p>\n<p>RIWI and YouGov conducted the online survey for Oxfam in ten countries: India, Nigeria, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Morocco, Netherlands and Denmark. For details on the methodology and the full results see <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfam.box.com\/s\/eosi27xj7nxuyywysr06d734ct1xyuev\" >here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfam.org\/en\/pressroom\/pressreleases\/2018-01-22\/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year\" >Go to Original \u2013 oxfam.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>22 Jan 2018 &#8211; Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today.  The report is being launched as political and business elites gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":105522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,224,55,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-human-rights","category-capitalism","category-exposures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}