Everyone wants that Bill Gates wealth, but a new study by Oxfam has just found out that the wealth of Bill Gates and seven other men amounts to the same level as that of 3.6 billion people. 3 point six BILLION.
“It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International. “Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.”
The gap between the extremely rich and poor is much bigger than it was a year ago: last year’s report said that the richest 62 people on Earth held as much wealth as the lower half of the population, but Oxfam has reduced the figure down to just eight after new information found by Swiss bank Credit Suisse.
Gates is the richest individual with a net worth of $75 billion, and following behind him is Amancio Ortega, the Spanish founder of fashion house Inditex, financier Warren Buffett, Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.
The report urged politicians and leaders to do more to help address the gap but they add that with many of the world’s richest not even paying their taxes properly, the world still has a long way to go.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. With a few of the men including Gates and Zuckerberg pledging to give 99% of their wealth to charity once they die, there are small things being done to decrease the divide.