The world's richest people, about 1 per cent of the population, have accumulated so much money that they now have about 48 per cent of the world's assets. The remaining 52 per cent is not distributed equally amongst the average-income earning citizens, according to Oxfam, almost all the remaining 52 per cent are in the pockets of the richest people in the world , which is just about 20 per cent of the population.
This means of course that 80 per cent of the population own only 5.5 per cent of the wealth. Their average wealth is only $3.8851 (Dh 14,000) per adult, which is 1/700 th. of the average wealth of the 1 per cent. These statistics leads to this conclusion. 'Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International , says the scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite calls for eradicating poverty, the gap between the rich and the poor just keeps getting wider each year.'
A recent Oxfam research paper revealed how the super rich invest their money. According to it a large number of the richest billionaires like Warren Buffett, George Soros or Michael Bloomberg have all invested in financial and insurance sectors. They have seen their wealth grow by 15 per cent in a single year, from $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion.
Other billionaires like Ludwig Merckle from Germany and Dillip Shanghvi from India invested in healthcare and pharmaceuticals and witnessed their fortunes grow by 47 per cent. Merckle saw his wealth grow in one year by 21 per cent, from $7.1 billion in 2013 to $8.6 billion last year.
Not only do these billionaires invest in lucrative deals they also have to protect their investment so they spend large fortunes influencing government officials to pass the necessary legislation to protect their investments. Last year the finance sector spent more than $400 million on lobbying in the US alone and according to Oxfam spent $150 million on EU institutions.
It is difficult to convey the immense wealth enjoyed by these billionaires but here are a few figures that might convey how crazy capitalism has become in modern times. Warren Buffett: Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway Wealth in 2014 :$58.2 billion increase in wealth between 2013 & 2014: 9%.
Michael Bloomberg: Source of Wealth Bloomberg LP Wealth in 2014, $33 million Increase in wealth between 2013 &2014: 22% George Soros: Source of Wealth : Hedge funds Wealth in 2014 : $23 billion Increase in wealth between 2013 & 2014: 20%. Amidst these dizzying figures one simple concept should not be lost however. It is simply that all wealth is produced by the working class. The owning class produce nothing. They live of the exploitation of the working class. It is the surplus value that the workers produce that allows these capitalist parasites to live in ease and luxury. RD
(Main source gulfnews. com, 20 January)
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