That's the shocking and sad economic reality of our world. The global financial and political elite have so much control over the lives of everyone on the planet, and they gather at Davos, Switzerland this week. The banksters, Wall Street wolves and tech titans are the richest on the planet who have seen their wealth increase by $2.5 billion per day in 2018.
That's astounding when you think about it. Is this the world we want to have? These figures come from Oxfam's report titled "Private Good or Public Wealth". The analysis also mentions how the top 26 billionaires own as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.8 billion.
Since the 2008 global financial crash, things haven't been corrected. The rich have merely gotten richer, with the amount of billionaires doubling in 10 years. Meanwhile, average families struggle to stay afloat as costs rise and their jobs don't pay more. Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America said:
"The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman."
"Inequality is not inevitable, it's a political choice."
O'Brien points out the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich that came from the Republican Party and President Trump:
"The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens. The law rewards U.S. companies that have trillions stashed offshore, encourages U.S. companies to dodge foreign taxes on their foreign profits, and fuels a global race to the bottom that benefits big business and wealthy individuals."
"The only winners in the race to the bottom on corporate tax are the wealthiest among us. Now is the time to work towards a new set of tax rules that work for the many, not the few. We need economic, political, and tax reform to level the playing field if we want to restore prosperity and opportunity for all, including women, girls whose needs are so often overlooked."
Here's another stat on the ultra rich, there are 2,200 billionaires in the world, and their wealth has increased by 12% in 2018. Another is that that dozen richest Davos attendees in 2009 have increased their wealth by $175 billion in the past 10 years since (except George Soros who lost 61%).
Global billionaire wealth has also grown from $3.4 trillion in 2009, to $8.9 trillion in 2017. The past 10 years of a bull market economy has created even more wealth disparity:
While the poor get fleeced in taxes, the rich who have more get to scheme and scam their way into paying a lesser percentage of taxes. That's not proportional. Some are so devious as to pay $0 taxes. I'm not for taxes, but if everyone is being coerced into it, then at least make it proportional so the poor aren't left getting by on scraps while the rich buy up more of the planet.
Even a 0.5% tax increase to the richest one percent, which they can obviously handle, would provide $418 billion more. Oxfam says this "alone would ensure an education for the 262 million children currently not in school and provide healthcare that could save the lives of more than three million people." But the problem with taxes, is that it's in the hand of the government. I doubt that money would go towards the children.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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