Extreme inequality is not just a problem in the US.
The $240 billion net income in 2012 of the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to make extreme poverty history four times over, according Oxfam’s report ‘The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all.’ It is calling on world leaders to curb today’s income extremes and commit to reducing inequality to at least 1990 levels. The richest one per cent has increased its income by 60 per cent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process.
Oxfam warned that extreme wealth and income is not only unethical it is also economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.
Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over | Oxfam International
Why is it more common for policy makers to create laws that attempt to elevate the lower class as oppose to restrict the power of the upper class? When these billionaires die where does their money go? Does it make sense for people to make/own more money then they can even spend in a life time?
ReplyDeleteFirstly, his is a crazy statistic to think about. And the money from these billionaires goes to their families when they die, and along with that I think yes it does make sense for people to have more money than they can spend in a lifetime if they want to guarantee that their future relatives will be able to live comfortably off of their wealth. With that being said, these people have enough money for people to live off of for generations without working at all, and it is nice to see some of them donating huge sums of money in order to help out those less fortunate, but it would obviously be better if more people donated more money or paid more taxes.
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